This was a rare gem among the mediocre crime melodramas and tearful soap operas that Warners forced upon its young rising star Bette Davis before she fled to England and fought a bitter courtroom battle over her contract. Dangerous was still a tearjerker, but Davis's performance elevated it to another plane. The Oscar voters loved it - or felt guilty that she missed out the previous year for Of Human Bondage - and awarded her the first of her two Best Actress statuettes (she was nominated for a record 10 awards in her career). Davis is an alcoholic fallen star of stage and screen who becomes a scheming bitch when she crosses paths while in an alcoholic stupor one night with architect Franchot Tone and conspires to get her hands on him. It doesn't matter to her that he is already engaged or that she's still married - these are mere details that a murder attempt by mowing down her husband with her car will hopefully help clear up. Like the title says, a dangerous woman, and just the sort of character she would make her own over the following decades. The story was revamped in 1941 as Singapore Woman, starring Brenda Marshall.


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