Bad Girl (1931)
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Bad Girl Movie Review
Bad Girl is a 1931 Pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Sally Eilers and James Dunn. It’s such a good, very romantic film.
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“But as Edna says,
nobody knows whether a person’s good or bad
but the person themselves.
And they won’t tell“
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This is a very interesting experiment for the usually more glamorous thirties as it’s basically a slice-of-life take on romance and marriage. Now, the second half did get too serious for my liking and I certainly preferred the first half of the film, but I still respected the filmmakers for going there as they explored distrust in marriage and all the troubles that a baby would bring. It’s rather brave in how it handled the two not really wanting a baby.
But it did lead to a jarring shift in tone as the first half is screwball-like in style whereas the second half is a highly serious drama. The transition is never smooth unfortunately. But I absolutely loved the romance here as it’s so incredibly sweet and endearing. The two are such a charming couple, the actors have great chemistry and their playful interactions and jokes made this movie a true charmer.
James Dunn and Sally Eilers are both excellent here and they should have both been nominated for their strong performances. She is very likable and she pulled off all of her dramatic scenes whereas he’s very endearing and charismatic. Both are so easy to root for. The movie focused mostly on just these two people so the rest of the characters are rather unimportant.
Bad Girl is well shot and of course well directed by Frank Borzage who was always an excellent director. The dialogue is also particularly strong and one of the standouts in this picture. The same goes for the unexpected realism and that very original everyday lives approach which they pulled off quite well. I just wish that the sound was better as it’s another early 30s flick which is ridiculously edited as some people are loud and some are rather quiet.
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The movie was nominated for three Oscars, winning two. The Best Picture nod is somewhat deserved as it’s one of the best nominees of the year, but Frank Borzage shouldn’t have won this time around, although I do not mind that choice too much. But the adaptation win over ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is simply ludicrous.
Bad Girl is a pretty good romantic drama which features a jarring shift in tone half-way into the story and I did personally prefer that highly romantic, wonderful first half, but still the dramatic second half is thematically brave for its time and also interesting in its slice-of-life approach. Frank Borzage directed the film so well whereas Sally Eilers and James Dunn are both terrific.
