BBB.5

(out of 5)

“I’ll get you! Even if I have to come back from the grave to do it!” Bette Davis screams at the man responsible for her innocent sister’s death. She plays the hostess of a gangster-owned club who is being pressured by a stalwart prosecutor (a lively Humphrey Bogart) to testify against her crooked boss and avenge her sister’s demise, not to mention the punishment she suffered on her face (which is what the title refers to) for talking to the cops. It’s nothing far and above the average soap-opera that Davis was making at Warners at the time, but it’s got a gritty story and her performance is the great stuff that her career was made of.

USA, 1937

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Screenplay by Robert Rossen, Abem Finkel

Cinematography by George Barnes

Produced by Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner

Music by Bernhard Kaun, Heinz Roemheld

Production Design by Max Parker

Costume Design by Orry-Kelly

Film Editing by Jack Killifer

Cast Tags:  Allen Jenkins, Archie Robbins, Arthur Aylesworth, Ben Welden, Bette Davis, Carlos San Martín,Damian O’Flynn, Eduardo Ciannelli, Edwin Stanley, Henry O’Neill, Humphrey Bogart, Isabel Jewell, Jane Bryan, John Litel,John Sheehan, Kenneth Harlan, Lola Lane, Mayo Methot, Raymond Hatton, Robert Strange,Rosalind Marquis, Sam Wren, William B. Davidson