(*Most annoyingly over-used movie-quote of all*) - "Gee! You're swell.".... (uttered about umpteen times throughout the course of the story)

Now, I wouldn't exactly say that this 1937 Bette Davis/Humphrey Bogart vehicle was terrible - But, believe me, it came pretty damn close.

Yes. With "Marked Woman" now being 80 years old - I really did try to keep that point in mind and cut it some slack - But, let me tell ya - It was (without a doubt) actress, Bette Davis (and her irksome, bug-eyed histrionics) that just about ruined this vintage crime/thriller for me.

And, I ask you - (With her totally unconvincing and truly nauseating performance as Mary Wright, the clip joint hostess "snitch") - Was Davis really considered to be one of the Hollywood "greats" of her generation?... Was she!?.... 'Cause in this picture - She was downright awful. She really was.

And, even though Davis was playing a character who the audience was expected to care about and root for - I absolutely loathed her like I haven't loathed an actress in many a moon..... Sorry. But that's the way i feel.

Back to Hollywood and this is Warners 30s black & white highly dramatic fare starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Not much of Bogart's work from around this time is all that strong but here he almost already seems the big star he would become, most comfortable in the forthright and caring lawyer. He takes nothing away from Davis, of course, though who still shines through a film that is clearly centred around her. It is a very good performance throughout from the not quite dizzy blonde to the pioneering and ruthless dame. The film begins with great scenes inside the clip-joint where the girls work and money and drinks flow as the girls flirt and the gangsters prowl. The film doesn't exactly lose its way in the middle but it just seemed to me that it might be going to lapse into some moralising crusade. Not at all, this really gets into another gear and the violence surprises. Good low key ending too. Impressive with good script, stirring music and fine performances all round.

Marked Woman is directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Robert Rossen and Abem Finkel. It stars Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Mayo Methot and Eduardo Ciannelli. Music is collectively arranged by Bernhard Kaun, Heinz Roemheld and David Raksin, and cinematography by George Barnes.

In spite of the film's disclaimer put out at the pic's beginning, Marked Woman is an adaptation of the real life case of Lucky Luciano, who the previous year was found guilty of compulsory prostitution after sterling work by U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Ciannelli plays Luciano as Johnny Vanning, Bogart plays Dewey as David Graham and Davis is "madame" Cokey Flo Brown as Mary Dwight Strauber.

Unsurprisingly for the time it was made, Marked Woman is a distinctly sanitised version of events, full of euphemisms and hinted at unlawfulness, with the beatings et al off camera. However, it still packs a punch, both in narrative thrust as the underworld shenanigans are brought to life, and as an acting curio to see the young Davis and Bogart bouncing off each other before their respective stars were about to be ignited with petroleum.

Interesting aspect of the picture is that it is in essence a gangster movie, with a good guy/bad guy scenario at the core, yet it's the women who rightly dominate the story. The girls are held up as bastions of hardship and heroism, and it gives the production a riveting edge, as well as some much needed glamour in amongst the sordid machinations.

Well acted, well told and well interesting. 7.5/10