Cheap Born to Be Bad (DVD) (Lowell Sherman) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Born to Be Bad

Interesting pre-code film
I quite enjoyed this film - it's an interesting pre-code that was released about 6 weeks before enforcement of the production code. Loretta Young's acting is pretty good but Cary Grant is kind of dull - definitely not his best role. Some of the pre-code plot elements in this film include Loretta Young's unspecified "profession" and lifestyle that involves men and clothes and some of the rather risque shots of Loretta in her underwear. I think the release of this pre-code movie, which was previously unavailable, is to be applauded.

---

Suprisingly Very Entertaining.
"Born To Be Bad", released in 1934, tends to get mixed opinions by Cary Grant fans. It's one of those films which you are even going to really like, or really hate. It's short, running barely over one hour in length. Cary Grant - and Loretta Young, for that matter - appeared in better movies, for sure, but this one is not to be missed. You may come away from it very suprised, you may not.

Loretta Young plays Letty. A Young, single mother, who has been through some hard times, growing up for part of her life on the streets. Her son, Mickey - who has been raised up, in some peoples views, badly - is going along the streets on his rollerskates, when Mal (Cary Grant) accidentally collides into him with his truck. Mickey is not really injured too badly, but Letty finds out that Mal is a rich man, and she tries to take benefits of getting some good money out of this incident. Her plan doesn't work, and she is found out, also making people realize she is a bad mother, her son is taken away from. Mal and his wife, Alice, who cannot have children of their own, are the couple who take Mickey, to look after. Mickey begins growing attached to the two, and Letty becomes jealous, and tries all the mean schemes she can think of, to get her son back, and ruin the couples marriage.

The acting, especially from Cary Grant, is very good. Loretta Young has been a lot better in other movies, but she does not let this movie down in any part of her performance. She was never anything less than an enjoyable actress to watch, for the most part, and she appears young, and entertaining here. The supporting cast is fairly impressive, and for a small, fairly unknown movie like this, it holds up well, and is a good film to watch more than once. Not for everyone though.

This DVD from 20th Century Fox is reasonably good in terms of picture quality. Its completely watchable throughout, but it does indeed contain a good deal of scratching, and the other occassional artifacts, but, this is a very old movie. The extras are useless, like most DVDs from this company, but its a welcome release to my collection, atleast.

---

They should have kept this one on the vault shelf.....
Someone should educate 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment about classic movies. Just because a movie is old, doesn't make it a classic, and certainly doesn't justify a DVD release.

Fox is sitting on hundreds of great unreleased films, while they end up releasing junk like BORN TO BE BAD. A more accurate title would be FILMED TO BE BAD. Dull and boring (in a poor transfer), this is a waste of time and money.