1950 feature film
Joan Fontaine is cast against type as Christabel Cain, a scheming
vixen who sets out to destroy her cousin's engagement to a wealthy man in order to win him for herself
in this entertaining melodrama set in San Francisco. It was an era when all the
major stars wanted to try "bad", and this is Fontaine's attempt, which
worked well enough to be frequently compared to the similarly ruthless villain in "All
About Eve," the Oscar winning movie released in the same year.
Although the plot has dark overtimes and is often called "film noir," director Nicholas Ray kept the action
too light and the setting too upscale to fall within the genre's normal parameters, and its
working title - "Bed of Roses" - also indicates the movie took itself less seriously than that. It was filmed entirely at RKO
under the umbrella of Howard Hughes, who viewed the production as a vehicle
for Fontaine, whose career he hoped to influence. Interestingly, the censors
of the day forced Ray to change the ending so that Christabel might get her appropriate
comeuppance. A number of RKO regulars round
out the excellent cast, which includes Zachary Taylor as the hapless
millionaire, Joan Leslie as his unjustly jilted fianceé and Robert Ryan as
the "poor" but gritty writer Christabel really loves.
Mel Ferrer plays Gabriel "Gobby" Broome, an effete (and probably gay) painter who sees
through Fontaine's Christabel immediately. Free of judgment or deep morality,
Gobby's playful and all knowing overview of the action provides much of the
plot's focus and supplies almost all of the movie's wry humor. With ongoing
amusement he watches his portrait of Christabel increase in worth as her
riches and reputation rise and subside.
Mel Ferrer actually made this movie after filming "The Brave Bulls"
at Columbia, but for various reasons that movie had a delayed release and
his career became more centered at RKO when Hughes brought him in to direct
"Vendetta" starring his latest discovery - Faith Domerque. From interviews
Ferrer seemed to think "Born to be Bad" a bit silly, but it remains an
interesting and offbeat role for him, and one he obviously relished at the
time.
Although it has never been released as a DVD, "Born to be Bad" is readily
available in VHS format.
