Bad Girl is a classic case of what happens in a marriage when communication skills aren’t cultivated and misunderstandings arise. So much of what happens over the course of the movie could have been completely avoided had the two leads simply sat down and discussed what was going on from their perspective. There are two ways this can be played: for laughs or for drama. Bad Girl doesn’t quite manage to capture either option well, and because of that, it ends up being more frustrating than entertaining. It was released in 1931, before the total implementation of the Hays Code, but even without that, there were things that were deemed too racy from the original novel, and the Broadway play that came from it, and it had to be heavily censored. This leaves the final result feeling lacking and a quite a bit unsatisfying.
The original novel, by Viña Delmar, was far more graphic in its references to pre-marital sex and childbirth. This resulted in a project that was considered unfilmable. One memo that came out of the Hays Office referred to any film on the subject as a possible “Sex hygiene picture called ‘Motherhood.’ …simply the story of a girl who is ‘bad’ for one night, marries the boy the next day, and then has the baby”. This synopsis holds up with the title of the film, Bad Girl, even though what she is considered ‘Bad’ for is a single night of indiscretion that is more hinted at than anything else on screen.
This branding dates the film to a degree, too, as it firmly places the picture in that puritanical era between the two World Wars where sensibilities were turning away from the sex-obsessed 1920s and towards more traditional values. By the 1960s, that would shift back heavily in the other direction again, and a woman having pre-marital sex would not be treated so harshly anymore. In fact, by the 1960s, such a free-loving attitude about sex would become the norm in popular entertainment, and in the real world, too, making such “outdated” thinking like what we see here be seen more as religious propaganda or a morality tale more than mainstream entertainment.
None of this can, nor should, be seen as negative if it is in service of a good story. Unfortunately, what we have here is not quite that. As mentioned above, this is a story about poor communication, and this film hinges so much on that premise that it strains credulity. The film opens with a bit of a bait-and-switch. Dorothy (Sally Eilers) and Edna (Minna Gobrell) are in bridal clothes, appearing at first to be prepping for their weddings. Instead, we find out that they are store models, showing off the latest in bridal wear. Afterwards, while returning from a trip to Coney Island, Edna bets Dorothy that she cannot entice a fellow passenger to talk to her. She stands next to him and attempts to annoy him by playing her ukulele and singing. It works, and he is initially grouchy towards her, but eventually, he softens and sees her home. This young man is Eddie (James Dunn), a hard-working radio shop attendant with dreams of owning a shop of his own.
One evening, the two stay out until nearly 4 a.m. and it is implied that they were intimate. Before parting, the two get engaged to be married for the following day. Upon her return home, Dorothy’s abusive brother, who is also her guardian, accuses her of impropriety and kicks her out of her home. When Eddie doesn’t show up on time to meet her for their marriage, she initially assumes he has abandoned her. Instead, he was late because he was moving to a bigger apartment and getting ready to be a couple with her. They are married, but soon afterwards, she discovers she is pregnant. But through a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings, she assumes he doesn’t want kids and may be stepping out on her. He, on the other hand, thinks she is dissatisfied with where they are living and, using all the money he has saved up to start his new business, spends it on upgrading their housing situation. This lack of communication leads to discontention in their marriage, and as the baby’s due date approaches, she fears it will be an end to their relationship for good.
This film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and with that honor comes the expectation of greatness. But that is not what I found when I watched this film. Instead, I was inundated with frustrating and unlikable characters. Everyone is afraid to speak up and make their intentions known. Dorothy is accusing Eddie of infidelity, and he doesn’t defend himself. Eddie sees that she is unhappy but never asks her what he can do to help. Both make a lot of assumptions about what is really going on and never make any real attempts to verify what they assume is the case. This is a maddening character trope that makes it difficult to like either party.
The film is better in the first half before all of this bullheadedness starts plaguing the story. When Eddie and Dorothy are first courting each other, their chemistry is a real asset to the film. This was obvious to the producers and audiences alike as the duo would be reteamed four more times over the next couple of years. They are a charming couple early on, and Eddie, to a degree, remains so even as he stays clueless as to why Dorothy is so upset with him. His best scene late into the film is when he, desperate to provide the best doctor for his wife, even though this doctor is way out of their price range, visits said doctor and begs for his services with a promise of payment, though it will require cashing in all their savings and financing the rest.
On top of that, he will have to enter a boxing ring, even though he is not physically prepared for it, just to earn a few extra bucks. Eddie collapses in tears, begging for the doctor to see his wife, and his pleas soften the doctor’s heart. Ultimately, this is undercut by his complete inability to properly talk with his wife, leading her to shut him out. His late nights working a second job he hasn’t told her about, only further fan the fire as she assumes he is having an affair instead. When she accuses him of this he refuses to defend himself and admit to taking on more work.
I wanted to like this film more than I ultimately did. The leads are well cast and charmed me at first. But as it played out, it grew more and more frustrating as the problems stacked up, and neither would commit to listening to the other. This ultimately left me so frustrated that I no longer cared for either of them, individually or as a couple, and when that happens, the rest of the film collapses on itself. There was a lot of potential here, but it can’t sustain itself based on what material ultimately made it to the screen.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Winfield Sheehan
Best Director: Frank Borzage (won)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Edwin Burke (won)
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Release Date: August 14, 1931
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Sally Eilers, James Dunn, and Minna Gombell
Directed By: Frank Borzage
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