BORN TO BE BAD (1950) - January 30th

It's a society party---the big annual ball for the well-off and well-fed. There's much talk of a portrait of Joan Fontaine's character. "Do you think my husband would like to see a picture of me hanging over the fireplace?" a woman asks the artist, played with charm--self serving charm, but charm nonetheless--by Mel Ferrer. He waits a beat, smiles and tells her, "I think your husband would like to see you hanging anywhere." How can I not love this film?

Certainly, it's not flawless, an imperfect blend of film noir (let's say 13%) and soapy melodrama (87%), but it's ultimately a mischievous winner, thanks to a exceptionally well-constructed cast and a sensational director, Nicholas Ray, working outside his wheelhouse.

Granted, this isn't In a Lonely Place (1950) or Rebel Without a Cause (1955) or Johnny Guitar (1954) or Bigger Than Life (1956)or...(man, Ray made some great films), but Born to be Bad (1950) stands out because it's so atypical of Ray's work.

Though Joan Fontaine plays a conniving, duplicitous woman--a recurring character in many of Ray's films-- this movie has a completely different feel; it's a much lighter, breezier film. Fontaine may be an award-winning, manipulative, man-thieving liar, but she's evil in a secondhelping- of-pie kind of way, rather than a frame-you-for-murder way.

Fontaine has electric chemistry with Robert Ryan, even as Fontaine endeavors to steal Zachary Scott from Joan Leslie, who seems powerless to stop her. You kind of want Leslie to go all Joan Crawford on her--to show Fontaine who the grown-up is. But she doesn't. And that would be wrong, right?

Ryan has many of the film's best lines, and he nails them all. Famously, he tells Fontaine, "I love you so much I wish I liked you." You won't like her either But you'll like spending 94 minutes waiting to see if she gets her comeuppance.

by Ben Mankiewicz