Bad Girl

"VINA DELMAR'S novel of New York Life"

1931 1h 30m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 42

RomanceDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.

“VINA DELMAR'S novel of New York Life”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

James Dunn
Eddie Collins
Sally Eilers
Dorothy Haley
Minna Gombell
Edna Driggs
Frank Darien
Lathrop
William Pawley
Jim Haley
Claude King
Dr. Burgess
Louis Natheaux
Mr. Thompson
Sarah Padden
Mrs. Gardner

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Frank Borzage
Writers: Brian Marlow, Rudolf Sieber
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

90 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $1M — a 11.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

95 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Frank Borzage, shot by Chester A. Lyons. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Margaret Clancey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

James Dunn and Sally Eilers and Minna Gombell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "VINA DELMAR'S novel of New York Life".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Frank Borzage directs. Chester A. Lyons behind the camera. Margaret Clancey cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

190 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $1M — a 11.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
495 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Directed by Frank Borzage, shot by Chester A. Lyons. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Editor Margaret Clancey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7James Dunn and Sally Eilers and Minna Gombell carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "VINA DELMAR'S novel of New York Life".
9IMDB entry: tt0021635 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 42 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Chester A. Lyons
Editing: Margaret Clancey
Costume design: Dolly Tree
Runtime: 90 min · 1h 30m
Status: Released
Budget: $100,000
Box office: $1,100,000
Return: 1100% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Bad Girl (1931)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Frank Borzage

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-05-04
★ 7/10
I don't know that honesty is always the best policy, but I think that this melodrama might have gone much more smoothly for the married "Dorothy" (Sally Eilers) and "Eddie" (James Dunn) if they, especially the latter, had just been a little more upfront with the other. She basically thinks all men are predatory wastrels; he that women just want to shop their way trough life. Despite these obvious misgivings, and because he treats her with almost as much disinterest as she does him, the pair start to quite like each other. She's got a brother who is a controlling pain in the neck, so they come up with a plan to get her married so she's out of his ambit. Swiftly, with a baby looming, he loses his job and desperate times call for desperate measures - all against a tapestry of mistrust and scepticism! There are times when I just wanted to bang their heads together and I took that as a sign that they were all doing their jobs properly. Dunn delivers quite engagingly, especially as the film progresses and his character's inability to simply be honest and less priggish just worsens his problems. It takes a while to get going, but once the dynamic is laid out for us, then this is quite an amiably presented look at the stupidity of human nature and of the breadwinning custom and is well worth ninety minutes - though maybe not if you're headed to a maternity ward anytime soon.

Production companies