BORN TO BE BAD is a flawed movie about orphaned young woman Christabel Caine (Joan Fontaine) who comes to stay with rich cousin Curtis Carey (Zachary Scott) and manages to break up his engagement through feigned sweetness while engaging in an affair with promising writer Nick Bradley (Robert Ryan). Eventually, Christabel drops Nick and opportunistically marries the newly-available Curtis. It all seems too easy. Apparently, she really loves Nick, but loves money more. Or something like that. As much as I love Joan Fontaine, I had a hard time with this soap opera of a movie for many reasons.
For one thing, Nick is so intolerably smug and arrogant that the part almost seems to be played for laughs by Ryan with lines like, "Have I told you lately how much you love me?" What could anybody possibly see in this guy? Christabel Caine herself is played too sweetly, and it is hard to imagine her as the scheming gold-digger, even though we know she is. Mel Ferrer plays a painter who smirks a lot, but doesn't really add any value to the picture. At least the movie seems to have gotten enough notice to be believably spoofed by Carol Burnett as "Raised to be Rotten," but I think that it parodies itself effectively enough without Burnett's help. The fact that Howard Hughes meddled significantly in the production of this movie goes a long way toward explaining what went wrong with the picture. Director Nicholas Ray (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) can justifiably claim a mulligan with this picture. The rest of his career is noteworthy.
To her credit, Fontaine later claimed that "the only acceptable part of the film was my wardrobe." It is not her worst film (MAID'S NIGHT OUT has that honor in my book), but neither is it a very worthwhile movie to see unless you are a die-hard Fontaine fan.
For one thing, Nick is so intolerably smug and arrogant that the part almost seems to be played for laughs by Ryan with lines like, "Have I told you lately how much you love me?" What could anybody possibly see in this guy? Christabel Caine herself is played too sweetly, and it is hard to imagine her as the scheming gold-digger, even though we know she is. Mel Ferrer plays a painter who smirks a lot, but doesn't really add any value to the picture. At least the movie seems to have gotten enough notice to be believably spoofed by Carol Burnett as "Raised to be Rotten," but I think that it parodies itself effectively enough without Burnett's help. The fact that Howard Hughes meddled significantly in the production of this movie goes a long way toward explaining what went wrong with the picture. Director Nicholas Ray (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) can justifiably claim a mulligan with this picture. The rest of his career is noteworthy.
To her credit, Fontaine later claimed that "the only acceptable part of the film was my wardrobe." It is not her worst film (MAID'S NIGHT OUT has that honor in my book), but neither is it a very worthwhile movie to see unless you are a die-hard Fontaine fan.