Just perfect...

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Although known mostly for his comedy and mystery-action roles, Cary Grant was in a number of drama films. Those were mostly in his early years, and he was quite good. In "Born to be Bad," Grant plays opposite Loretta Young who also is in a type of role she was much lesser known for in her career. Here, she plays a loose character, con artist and small-time crook who's willing to perjure herself and try any scam to make some money. She has no compunction about the proper upbringing of her young son, or concern for his future and well-being. She's quite happy to use him in any scam.Young was much more the established actor in 1934 and over time she became known for her roles as a decent woman, and caring and loving person. In this film, she commands top billing, along with a much meatier role. She plays Letty Strong. A young Jackie Kelk plays her son, Mickey, who's about 10 years old. He does very well in his role here, but as with most other childhood actors, he didn't have much of a career in films as an adult. Grant plays Malcolm Trevor, a wealthy dairy owner and caring and kind man. He's also no dupe to be hoodwinked by a scam, except possibly one of the heart. He and his wife, Alyce (played by Marion Burns) haven't been able to have children.The story takes off after Mickey is hit by a milk truck that Malcolm is driving; and Letty comes up with a scheme to bilk Trevor's company for serious damages. I won't divulge how the story plays out, except to say that a love triangle soon develops with the alluring Letty duping Malcolm into a romance that may lead to an end to his marriage.The film is a good look at Cary Grant in an early dramatic role, and Loretta Young in a diverse role. It's an interesting and entertaining film, but nothing special.

Fantastic film but so drastically unbelievable in parts. I really enjoyed the relationship between Letty and her son even if she wasn't that great a mother. The son, at the moment I've forgotten his name, was excellent. He really brought a lot to the role, but I just kept thinking he has to be older than 7. The relationship between Letty and Cary Grant's character I didn't get at all. How could they love each other as deep as all that in a less than 8 days? Really? There was no build up to it, perhaps because the movie is so short. Letty should be nothing more than a pretty misguided young woman to Mal or what have you. The relationship between Mal and his wife was a complete joke, but not a single moment of it was funny. How on earth could she know that her husband would have sex with another woman right down the hall from her own bed and just look sad and pitiful and say she loves him with all her heart and he has done no wrong to her? Obviously she cannot have children, so she believes that since Letty could give him a son and she can't that what he did was OK. First of all, that is STUPID! Second of all, Letty did not really give him a son. She had no custody of him but the judge said that if she would agree, he would release the boy to Mal as his legal father. Sure, she agreed, but the alternative was to leave him in a home, and anyway, she tried to kidnap him back. They shouldn't have written the wife as such a sap.

Loretta Young looks angelically beautiful as an immoral young woman, radiant in all of her many close-ups. Her eyes have such an innocent beauty despite the fact that her character is supposed to have the sort of hard edge usually assigned to Harlow or Crawford. The story asks us to believe she had an early pregnancy from a man who deserted her and left her with a bratty son whom she smothers with mother love while garbed in glamorous clothes.It also asks us to accept Cary Grant as a wealthy millionaire who takes pity on her situation and invites the boy to live with him in his posh home in the country. Grant seems a bit ill at ease here, and clearly had not yet fully developed his typical Cary Grant persona. Still, it's interesting to see both he and Loretta cast against type in this kind of story. I don't agree with harsh words about Jackie Kelp's performance as her son. I found him reasonably believable in the part although he did look more than the supposed seven years. Loretta's scheme is to ingratiate herself with Grant so that she can steal the boy back even though Grant can give him everything.The weak, abrupt ending is probably due to production code etiquette which was still having a hard time with all the sordid ingredients implied by the script. It's an unsatisfying ending for a story that could have been developed with more care for the downbeat ending.Minor characters are very underdeveloped, notably that of Henry Travers as Young's loyal friend.Summing up: More of a curiosity piece for Loretta Young's fans than anything else--and she was definitely a vision of beauty in her early 20s.

Born To Be Bad takes the unusual step of casting the normally wholesome Loretta Young as a bad girl. She's not only a woman of easy virtue, she's got an out of wedlock kid to prove it in the person of young Jackie Kelk. She supports herself and Kelk with a job at Henry Travers's bookstore.But Loretta thinks she might have hit the mother lode when Kelk gets hit by a dairy truck that belongs to rich farmer Cary Grant. She's going to follow the American dream of getting rich by suing somebody with deep pockets. And she's got an attorney in Harry Green from the whiplash Willie Gingrich school of shyster attorneys to help out. But Grant's attorney Paul Harvey gets the goods on them.For a film which strays into The Fortune Cookie territory it then takes the road to Stella Dallas as Grant and his sterile wife Marion Burns offer to adopt young Kelk to give him a decent home. Loretta's down, but her bag of tricks is far from empty.Young was already a star and Cary Grant was up and coming, but hadn't quite found his niche yet in comedy. He's a serviceable leading man her nothing more. As for Loretta she was certainly one sexy package when the picture called for it. Born To Be Bad will never be rated in the top films of either Cary Grant or Loretta Young, but it did no harm to either star.As for the ending, think Stella Dallas.