THE BAD SISTER

US, 1931, 68 minutes, Black-and-white.
Conrad Nagel, Sidney Fox, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Winninger, Emma Dunn, Zasu Pitts, David Durand, Slim Summerville.
Directed by Hobart Henley.

This is a brief drama of the early 1930s. Interesting to see in retrospect that Conrad Nagel and Sidney Fox have top billing whereas Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart were under the main titles.

This film was based on a play by prominent novelist, Booth Tarkington. The title of the play was Hush Money.

The focus is on a family in a small town, Charles Winninger playing the genial father, Emma Dunn the devoted mother. Zasu Pitts steals all the scenes she is in with a hard-talking, not-to-be-imposed-on maid.

The centre of the film is one of the daughters, Marianne, played by Sidney Fox. She is completely narcissistic, looked down on by the maid, putting her younger sister, Laura, Bette Davis, in the shadows. And there is a very cheeky boy , mischievous but engagingly played by David Durand.

Marianne likes to play the field, intended as a wife of a burly, sincere, businessman, but leading on the local doctor with whom her sister is in love. By chance, Marianne meets a suave stranger, Val, played by Humphrey Bogart. She becomes infatuated, manipulating the family, manipulating the doctor, completely oblivious to anyone’s feelings. However, course, Bogart is playing a smooth-talking con man who gets the money from the father and from the businessman of the town with a false promise of industrial building and disappears.

The doctor discovers his love for Laura. Marianne returns home ashamed and has to make do with the burly businessman. The screenplay has her doing the making do – but, the audience may wonder how long this will last.

Small town America at the beginning of the 1930s, with emphasis on business conmen and on relationships.