Joyce Heath's name in lights once meant long lines at the box office. Then the talented Broadway star's luck changed. Her shows folded. Her romances ended. And Joyce spent her days in a self-destructive stupor. But a new romance puts her on the road to recovery and holds the promise of marriage...if she can get her current husband out of the way. As Joyce, Bette Davis is in love and murderously dangerous in this atmospheric melodrama co-starring Franchot Tone. "The script had just enough material in it to build into something," the actress recalled. "I worked like 10 men on that film." As a result, she earned one of those highly coveted little gold men: the 1935 Academy Award statuette for Best Actress, her first in a trailblazing career so linked to the studio's success that Davis would be called "the fourth Warner Brother."

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Then came Dangerous, originally titled Hard Luck Woman. The role of Joyce Heath, an actress whose career has been derailed by alcoholism and her own belief that she was a jinx for any man with whom she got involved, was tailor-made for Davis, allowing her to play a wide range of emotions, from angry drunken scenes to the re-awakening of love. The character had been inspired by one of Davis's idols, stage legend Jeanne Eagels, a tragic drug addict who had died at the age of 35.

At first, Davis turned the script down, but studio production chief Hal Wallis convinced her that she could make something special out of the character. Moreover, she would be working with two of Warner Bros.' strongest behind-the-scenes artists, cameraman Ernest Haller and costume designer Orry-Kelly. At the start of the film, a young architect and theatre fan discovers Joyce in a seedy bar. Davis had seen similar women during her early days in the theatre and insisted that nothing be done to glamorize Joyce for these scenes.

Excerpt from TCM located HERE