What a waste of my time!!!

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I was intrigued by the title, expected to see an old black and white movie with drama.Instead, it started with 16 minutes of dull, gossip, characters that talk in clichés, know and don't know each other - no point in the dialogues.I suspect the "bad" person is the soft talking "angle", who looks rather old in my opinion but hardly can be bad compared to what you experience nowaday 67 years later.It is boring, take too long before you (only me) can get head and tail on what this film is about. The title is misleading.

Who does 33 year old Joan Fontaine think she's fooling, playing a business college student? Other than that incredulity, and the fact that others are so easily manipulated by her seemingly inconsequential acts and words, she plays a conniving bitch to rival Anne Baxter's title character in that year's All About Eve (1950), though Fontaine's cute little smiles and feigned (yet knowing) look- asides will wear on most viewers as the movie progresses. There is lots of great dialogue, mostly one-liners by Robert Ryan's character like "I love you so much I wish I liked you", but there is absolutely no subtlety.Directed by Nicholas Ray, with an adaptation by Charles Schnee and a screenplay by Edith Sommer from an Anne Parrish novel with additional dialogue provided by George Oppenheimer and Robert Soderberg, this less than credible though highly watchable drama features Fontaine as Christabel, the niece of publisher John Caine (Harold Vermilyea), who comes to live with Caine's employee Donna Foster (Joan Leslie) while going to business college in San Francisco. She proceeds to ruin Donna's engagement to the family wealthy Curtis Carey (Zachary Scott) by planting seeds of doubt that his fiancée is a gold-digger.Meanwhile, Christabel is irresistibly drawn to writer come author Nick Bradley (Ryan!) - the two have an illicit affair while she disposes of Donna (who leaves for London) and simultaneously hooks Curtis for herself. Mel Ferrer plays Gobby, a non-judgmental third party witness to the goings-on, a painter who manages to hobnob with these wealthy persons as their friend despite his lack of financial means; he oozes just enough charm to have them pay his way into their group. Christabel had grown up living modestly with her Aunt Clara (Virginia Farmer), Caine's sister. Bess Flowers plays an untypical, credited role, Mrs. Worthington; Kathleen Howard plays a philanthropist, Mrs. Bolton. Irving Bacon plays a jewelry salesman.Of course, after Christabel has Curtis, or at least his money, she avoids him until Nick comes back in town ... but he's a stand-up guy who refuses to fool around with a married woman! Obviously she's found out in time for a contrived happy ending.

Nicholas Ray directed some interesting features back in the day, but few as interesting and engrossing as Born To Be Bad. I'm surprised with the beginning of the McCarthy Era and the omnipotent Code in place this one got out.For one thing the bad girl doesn't come out so bad in the end. Joan Fontaine plays the scheming bad girl although like Eve Harrington she doesn't appear so bad at first. A guest to the wedding of friend Joan Leslie and the rich Zachary Scott she winds up stealing Scott away. Fontaine is quite clever how she does it. Scott has a rich man's paranoia of being loved and wanted only for his money. She plays him like a piccolo where Leslie is concerned.Still she's a girl who wants it all and bad boy Robert Ryan is her cup of tea. He sees her exactly for what she is but she does get his hormones racing.Born To Be Bad is a most adult drama in a G rated era. In fact during that era when the government was on a search and destroy mission against gays in the military and government service Mel Ferrer as portrait painter confidante to all except Ryan in the film was about as daringly gay as you could get without an outright label. Ferrer has some priceless scenes and some great lines, especially the finale which he shares with Fontaine.This one is a keeper. Do not miss Born To Be Bad if broadcast.

I had to see Joan Fontaine play a villainess … What would that be like? I thought her portrayal was pretty realistic in that she showed deliberation in her machinations, but also a caught-off-guard response when her stratagems blew up. It's where this character is. This appears to be this girl's first time out. She appears to be a little too carefully brought up, as the expression goes. It looked more like she was under a tight leash. The uncle was always dour toward her and somewhat suspicious. The aunt is hovering and condescending. She almost reminds her to drink a nice glass of warm milk before bed. This is a grown girl. Perhaps she had a history of manipulative behavior and they were exercising precautions for that reason. But, perhaps they were over protective and over controlling. She really seemed to be someone let out of a cage. Perhaps she had been so hemmed in, she felt she had to grab what was around her and quick if she were to have anything for herself. Maybe it was not so much a case of being born to be bad, but more of being bred to be, through suffocation. Whatever it was, she was very ill adapted for life. This is a strong cast. Maybe it was the character, but I liked Mel Ferrer in this very much, while not liking him anywhere else. Maybe he does laid back better than aggressive, and didn't get a lot of chances to do that. Joan Leslie was very pretty and natural, convincing, especially in the earlier part. Her make-up with Scott seemed a little pat, but maybe that's the fault of the script. Zachary Scott seems also to do mellow well and is convincing early on. His assertive scenes seem a little overdone. Robert Ryan (Nick) is a bit quixotic in that he's just hard to get along with at first, gets himself reeled in, but really does a whiplash in the final scene with Christabel. I guess that was righteous indignation, but it was quite a turnabout. You wonder how little Miss Chris would have fared had they gotten together. Somehow, you can't picture her getting away with the stuff she pulled on Scott (Curtis). Nick was a lot quicker on the intake.Joan Fontaine does well depicting this young girl at the beginning stage of a downward spiral. It's a girl attempting to play the game of what is expected from a milk and water miss and grasping for what she can get at the same time. There's continual tension in that double booking, and Ms. Fontaine shows that throughout. Christabel moves too fast at times, gets off balance, slips up, shows her hand. I can't help picturing her about to drive away at the end. You get the idea that, with the restraints of relatives and reputation gone, she's set to cut her losses and go on from there, playing a new and much tighter game. It will no longer be necessary to play the young girl who arrived on the "wrong night."