Bad Sister, (The Bad Sister according to the title card but nowhere else on any of the advertising) is one of those films from the early era of the talkie that clearly struggles with the new format. Many scenes are staged as a silent film, filmed with static cameras, sped up reels, and even falls back on title cards to convey things that should have been handled through dialogue or action. Three writers are credited for the screenplay, Edwin H. Knopf, Tom Reed and veteran writer Raymond Schrock whose credits go back to the mid 1910’s. Of the three Reed and Schrock were prolific throughout the silent era and their relative inexperience in talking films at the time shows. Characters are over the top in their personalities and mannerisms. It worked on the stage, where actors had to play to the back row, and it worked in silent films where gestures and facial movement had to convey what dialogue could not, but it stands out in this era of filmmaking as a sign of the transition movies were making.
The story opens with Marianne pressuring her father into giving her $50 (nearly a thousand dollars adjusted for inflation) he doesn’t have to buy fancy clothes. He is reluctant but she lays it on thick until he relents. She then spends all the money and charges even more to his account. She has been proposed to by Dick Lindley (Conrad Nagel) a doctor whom she is using for material reasons but holds no true affection for. Meanwhile shy Laura pines for Dr Lindley in private, unable to verbalize her feelings except to a diary where she professes her love for him. There is also Wade Trumbull (Bert Roach), a hefty man with some money of his own who also is attracted to Marianne, though she doesn’t see him as anything more than another man to spend money on her.
Into this soap opera setup enters Valentine Corliss (Humphrey Bogart), a fast talking con-man who quickly manages to win over Marianne and, in turn, her family. He speaks of building a factory nearby and offers Marianne’s father, Mr. Madison (Charles Winninger), a business proposition that would require him to vouch for Valentine to some wealthy friends to get them to buy in to this opportunity. When Mr. Madison’s better judgement won’t allow him to vouch for Valentine’s integrity, Marianne forges his signature on a letter of recommendation to get the money.
With Valentine coming between Marianne and Dr. Lindley, that opens up the possibilities for Laura to step up and make a move but she is too timid to act. It will take some intervention from a surprising and, not particularly altruistic, source to make things happen there. It is this aspect that perhaps upset Bette Davis about her performance. She is so shy and unable to act that it takes those around her to make anything happen for her. We feel for her but can hardly root for such an ineffectual character. A stark comparison can be made to Talia Shire in the 1976 drama Rocky. Talia’s character Adrian is painfully shy, too, but when Rocky talks to her through her bedroom door, she dresses up and comes out to go on a date with him. Laura, in the exact same scene, would stay locked up in her room, afraid to come out unless Dick kicked in the door and took her out by force.
There are many things that can be lauded about Bad Sister. For one, Bette Davis got her start in this film as the timid and shy Laura Madison and, even though she felt upon seeing it that her short career was already over, she was actually pretty good in it. Likewise Sidney Fox as her older sister Marianne is a solid, if completely unlikeable, character. What fails Sidney in this film is a poorly written script and a truly miscast Humphrey Bogart as the “likable” con-man Valentine Corliss. Marianne is written as so unlikable in fact that we are never on her side, a problem considering we are asked to follow her throughout the bulk of this film. She is written to be so spoiled that there is really no amount of redemption that would sway audiences back on her side. Late in the movie when she fails to convince her father to sign a paper saying he endorses Valentine’s proposal, she lays into him so heavily that any last sympathy we may have had for her is gone.
Humphrey Bogart as Valentine Corliss is just badly cast. Bogart is game, playing the part with plenty of energy but at no point do we believe anyone would not see through his facade. He is suave and likable enough but when he is on the phone pretending to have a business conversation about how great things are going and how he doesn’t need any more money it all rings false and obvious. His character is so shallow that anyone should be able to see through it and when others are strung along so easily it cheats the film of believability. The right actor could hide this better, making the obvious leaps in logic a little easier to buy, but Bogart is not that man this early in his career.
Worst than all of this though is the completely unforgivable Marianne. From the first moments we feel she is in need of some humbling. However, by the time we make it to the final moments of the film she is beyond our ability to forgive her. Her ultimate fate is unsatisfying and so shewed in and abrupt that it brings no catharsis or satisfaction. We didn’t care about her at the start and that feeling only worsened as the film goes on. There needed to be something for us to hold on to with her character; something to like about her, but there just isn’t. So when things come crashing down for her and she comes home repentant and humbled we just don’t care.
Bad Sister is far from unwatchable. It is fun at times watching the brassy, in real life, Bette Davis playing a character so timid and innocent. She was so innocent, in fact, that one scene involving changing a babies diaper came as a shock to her when she opened the diaper and discovered the baby was male. Having never seen a nude male before, baby or otherwise, her reaction caught on screen (she blushed so fiercely that it can be seen through the black and white photography) is hilarious. This moment is well documented but not in the final cut of the film, however, knowing this and seeing the scene it was intended for, adds another level of humor to the moment involved. Davis would perfect this type of character over a decade later in the classic Now, Voyager, playing timid and shy yet again but with a degree of finesse she built from a few more years of experience. Whether or not Miss Davis liked the performance here, it is a treat to watch and a decent look into the actress she would become even if her later characters were much more assertive.
The film had much going for it. It was based on a book by Booth Tarkington called The Flirt. The film took from that novel and made an early pre-code film that is a little fun at times but really isn’t much more than that beyond an interesting look at the early careers of Bogart and Davis. Fans of the duo would be better serviced a few years later with The Petrified Forrest. Bad Sister is over exaggerated with too many unlikeable characters to overcome what is basically a threadbare plot. It doesn’t overstay its welcome but it needed to rely less on stereotypes and tried to provide more well rounded characters we could get behind.
Running Time: 68 minutes
Starring: Conrad Nagel, Sidney Fox, Bette Davis, ZaSu Pitts, Humphrey Bogart
Directed By: Hobart Henley
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