Born to Be Bad

Description

Cary grant stars as a dairy farmer whose kindness towards and unmarried woman (loretta Young), and her son results in betrayal. Malcolm Trevor (Grant) and his wife (Marion Burns) are unable to conceive a child of their own. So when Malcolm's truck accidentally hits Letty's (Young) son (Henry Travers) and Letty is declared an unfit mother, the couple gladly take the boy into their own home to raise as their own. Determined to take advantage of Malcolm's riches, however, Letty tries to blackmail him. In the end, selfless love and charity are celebrated in this heartwarming well-made classic.

Customer Reviews:

Too Boring to Be Bad.......2004-12-04

Movie: ** DVD Quality: ** DVD Extras: ****

I've seen enough of Loretta Young's and Cary Grant's early work to know that this movie surely represents some kind of nadir for both stars. Despite their considerable skills, no one could possibly turn this sow's ear of a script into anything resembling a decent film. Loretta plays a 22-year-old never- married mother of a 7-year-old son; the kid is being raised to be just as morally compromised as Mom. Enter Cary as a victim of one of their scams; before you can say, "What the hey?!!!?", Cary and his wife are raising Loretta's son ... Loretta's moving in on Cary to get her boy back ... Cary's wife is all-forgiving of her husband's dalliance ... Loretta does the "noble" thing by walking away and abandoning her son to Cary and wife's care. This all takes a scant 61 minutes that drags on f-o-r-e-v-e-r because no one does anything but talk, talk, and talk ... oh! they also slam doors - lots of doors - in Cary's lavish mansion. It couldn't have been fun for the actors to make this rubbage, but at least they must have known enough to stay away from the finished film!

Certainly whoever wrote the insert notes for this Fox Home Video release never watched the movie! They identify Cary's character as a "dairy farmer" (he's actually the very wealthy head of a dairy corporation); they name aged 50-something character player Henry Travers (Clarence the Angel in "It's a Wonderful Life") as the actor playing Loretta's 7-year-old son; and they describe the film as a "heartwarming, well-made classic" as well as a "gripping classic" (maybe they had this confused with Cary and Loretta's later film, "The Bishop's Wife", which really is a classic).

I doubt that whoever was in charged of transferring the film to video paid much attention to the movie, either. The picture is grainy throughout with some noticeable jumps (indicating bad splices); and the sound is frequently muddy as well. At least Fox doesn't claim it was restored. There is a nice selection of trailers from other movies Grant starred in at Fox, including "I Was a Male War Bride" (1949), "People Will Talk" (1951), "Monkey Business" (1952), "Kiss Them For Me" (1957), and "An Affair to Remember" (1957) ... but the trailer to this film isn't among them. There's also a small photo gallery.

Overall, I can't in good conscience recommend this DVD to anyone except the most diehard Young and Grant fans. But if for some reason you insist on watching it, check out the jurors in the trial scene ... doesn't the man on the front row to the right of your screen bear a resemblance to the producer of the film, Darryl F. Zanuck?

Nice Pre-Code.......2004-09-15

I don't want to be too extensive. I only want to tell you this short (61 minutes of running time) Pre-Code, is a goody-goody, with Cary Grant, and especially Loretta Young, who is great in it...she looks ravishing, great gowns, slim-fitted, beautiful face-eyes, fresh beauty, great spunk.

I cannot understand why (I've read it) Loretta was "stereotyped" and "dismissed", mainly in the 1930's as being a so-so or bad actress, and being only a "clotheshorse"...untrue...she's radiantly good (Well BAD) (chuckles) here.

It's difficult to think of this LORETTA...when one thinks of the 1940's Loretta in "The Farmer's Daughter"....or her other teaming with Cary Grant, the excellent & cute & sentimental "The Bishop's Wife"...a completely different stuff.

I wanna watch more early '30s Loretta, not only her virginal-good characters (like "Zoo in Budapest" (I'd "kill" to see this one) or "The Crusades" (here she's mostly "decorative" IMHO)....but stuff like "Midnight Mary" (I've read it's TOP) "Employee's Entrance", "Taxi". "The Hatchet Man".....

The quality of the DVD is pretty good.

Pre-Code lovers watch it!

Interesting pre-code film.......2004-07-17

I quite enjoyed this film - it's an interesting pre-code that was released about 6 weeks before enforcement of the production code. Loretta Young's acting is pretty good but Cary Grant is kind of dull - definitely not his best role. Some of the pre-code plot elements in this film include Loretta Young's unspecified "profession" and lifestyle that involves men and clothes and some of the rather risque shots of Loretta in her underwear. I think the release of this pre-code movie, which was previously unavailable, is to be applauded.

They should have kept this one on the vault shelf............2004-04-17

Someone should educate 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment about classic movies. Just because a movie is old, doesn't make it a classic, and certainly doesn't justify a DVD release.

Fox is sitting on hundreds of great unreleased films, while they end up releasing junk like BORN TO BE BAD. A more accurate title would be FILMED TO BE BAD. Dull and boring (in a poor transfer), this is a waste of time and money.

BORN TO BE DISMAL ON DVD.......2004-01-29

"Born to Be Bad" is a very uncharacteristic Cary Grant movie. Uncharacteristic because it's at the beginning of his career, features him in an almost non-comedic role and has him cast as a man double-crossed by a woman of easy virtue in an almost maudelin plot. The story concerns Grant hitting the son of a woman of easy virtue (Loretta Young) with his car. He then having to make the mends. The rest is pure melodrama but pulled off with such panache that you'd scarcely mind any of the hockum. Truly, this is a very, very good movie.
TRANSFER: Unfortunately the same can't be said for FOX's transfer. We get a very dirty, very gritty, very grainy transfer that - although free of digital anomalies - is so heavily damanged by age that seeing the film is hardly worth the effort. Black and contrast levels are extremely weak, fine detail is lost in practically every scene and the ravages of time are glaring and obvious throughout. The audio hasn't been cleaned up either for a slight hiss and some unexpected pops along the way.
EXTRAS: Trailers from the other Grant films. Boring, unworthy and disappointing.
BOTTOM LINE: Someone should point out to studio executives that films pre-Star Wars are worth the time, effort and, oh yes, the MONEY that is required to make them sparkle like they did when they were premiered. Really, history is getting shafted here!!!

NBA Detroit Pistons 1989 Champions - Born to Be Bad

Average customer rating:

Bad Boys era revisited!
another error
At least one game is NOT in its entirety
Not Exactly A Fan of The Bad Boys but...
Good Buy

NBA Detroit Pistons 1989 Champions - Born to Be Bad
Starring: Isiah Thomas , Joe Dumars , Dennis Rodman , Bill Laimbeer , and Chuck Daly
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video

( N ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Sports | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

ASIN: B000I2JDFS
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Description

Relive every moment of the Detroit Pistons' first-ever NBA championship in this exciting 11-disc collector's set. Step courtside with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman and the entire '89 Pistons squad as they carve out a place as one of basketball's all-time greatest teams. From their incredible Conference Finals clash with the Chicago Bulls to their spectacular 4-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, relive every thrilling game in its entirety. Experience motor city madness like never before and find out why it's good to be bad.

Customer Reviews:

Bad Boys era revisited!.......2007-06-27

Finally, the NBA and Warner Brothers video did it right. This wonderful video commerative delivers the basketball goods additionally; we get the Eastern Conference Championship Series against The Chicago Bulls: seven heart pounding games. As a fan, I am content with this release. In my opinion, basketball fans will be more than satisfied.

another error.......2006-12-14

One noticeable error is that the location for Games Three, Four, and Six of the Eastern Conference Finals is listed as the United Center, which did not open until 1994; the correct location for these three games is Chicago Stadium.

At least one game is NOT in its entirety.......2006-12-10

OK, I just received the set. Whenever I buy DVDs, I make sure to put them into my DVD player to make sure they will play. Occasionally I've gotten some DVDs that won't play.

All of the discs in this set play fine in my player, however, I did notice another problem. The box says that all 10 games are shown in their entirety. Well, when I put in Disc 4 (containing Game 4 of the ECF), I went to the start of the 4th quarter, and it started with 9:32 remaining in the 4th! I thought maybe that they had put the chapter break in the wrong place, so I rewinded it a little bit. I saw the last few seconds of the 3rd quarter, and all of a sudden it went to 9:32 of the 4th quarter. So the first 2 minutes and 28 seconds of the 4th quarter are definitely missing.

I don't have time right now to watch all of the discs in their entirety to find out if that's the only instance of missing footage, or if there are more instances of missing footage. But it's a little disappointing when they say that all the games are in their entirety, only to find out that that's not the case.

Not Exactly A Fan of The Bad Boys but..........2006-12-03

I had to buy this set strictly because it includes all six games of the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals between the Pistons and Chicago Bulls. This was the "Doug Collins-coached/pre-Triangle offense" Bulls, before their championship dynasty. You could see exactly how this Bulls/Pistons rivalry was starting to grow. Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were still too young and inexperienced, so the Bulls offense heavily relied on Michael Jordan. Nevertheless, the games were intense. The upstart Bulls gave the Bad Boys their biggest challenge in the '89 playoffs. This set also includes the Pistons four-game sweep of the Lakers in the NBA Finals that spring. Detroit had one of the best backcourts at the time with Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. Up front they had resident Bad Boys Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, plus the steady veteran Mark Aguirre. And finally, the deepest bench in the league with Vinnie Johnson, John Salley, Dennis Rodman and James Edwards. Whether you're a Bad Boy for life or MJ fan, you'll want this set just to relive the classic confrontations.

Good Buy.......2006-11-28

I am big Celtics fan, but I felt compelled to buy this set to keep my library of great basketball going. I have all of the NBA Dynasty Series, and this set is just as good. Great action by Jordan, Magic and all of the Pistons.

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