I just watched "Bad Sister" as a document, today.
Nobody would leave its editing with such a slow pace nowadays.
Most of the actors seem to play their parts as though they were not quite in the room yet, not talking together for real anyway.
Where was the director ? And first of all, who "the hell" was he ?
So, wrong title, here : it should announce "Bad Weed", not "Bad Sister".
But ...
Miss Davis, directly coming from stage to a movie set, was already at ease in just about any type of role, and she intended to stick to that for the rest of her career, playing good persons in a few other films (watch her in a second role as late as in "Phone Call From A Stranger", for instance).
Why she was regarded as being impossible remains a mystery to me.
She was said to be very nice ... if your deserved it ! Only, she was demanding, and very right to be that way, in my opinion.
Here, she does something out of poor clothing, already well aware of the importance of her costume to create a character. It makes you remember why "Now Voyager" will be such a hit, years later.
She sort of became the heroin, here, the minute she appeared in that scene with her little brother, and no longer a second role (I didn't care much for Fox, quite inconsistent). That's when she kneeled to burn her diary in the fireplace, being joined by wonderful child actor David Durand. Her future as a star made no doubt, then. I bet Jack Warner saw that scene too !
The film says a lot, socially, about those days, and how people would think twice before they spoke then. You can watch more and more of restless people as time goes by, especially in the post war productions.
(By the way : Davis may well have had to change a diaper, in her scene with a new born baby, but she is not seen doing so ... like said in the Trivia above. That take does not exist, apparently ...).
Why on hearth David Durand did not become a star (although he remained in show business for quite a few years after that, also appearing in westerns, until WW2) is another mystery to me. Here, it looks like nobody told him he didn't have to sugar-coat it, though, but the boy has a unique presence. I remember this film just because of him.
Review of Bad Sister
