The film's title typifies Joan Fontaine's character Christabel who does not have a sincere bone in her body and does whatever it takes to get what she wants and then once she has it, turns cold and conniving as she continues to be driven by what she wants without regard for what she has. Set in San Francisco, Christabel shows up at her cousin Donna's (Joan Leslie) apartment and in a series of great scenes where she meets Donna's wealthy fiancée Curtis (Zachary Scott) and practically immediately sets out to win him and his money (which is what she really wants) for herself. She seeks to be accepted into this well off and sophisticated crowd which includes Robert Ryan as an intellectual and writer as well as Mel Ferrer as a painter. Normally a jilted woman would be distraught but Joan Leslie as Donna takes it for what it is and flies off to work in London, leaving Scott with Fontaine and Fontaine with Ryan. The marriage is classic and director Nicholas Ray hits some great moments between Scott and Fontaine as she keeps him at arm's length giving him just enough affection to appease him but saving the best for Ryan. When it unravels for Fontaine she, like Joan Leslie's Donna, never loses her cool.
Review of Born to Be Bad
