This was the film that followed Of Human Bondage, and despite cheers from the critics, Bette Davis was feeling ignored by the industry. She saw her appearance in this film about the Jeanne Eagels legend, as a shot at another breakthrough role. Again, this was the kind of part that was considered risky at the time.





No other Hollywood star would have played a Broadway legend so unflatteringly. She acts the hell out of what was considered even then to be an inferior vehicle. Bette's willingness to do it was an excellent move on her part. Her Oscar win for her performance ended up providing high powered ammunition in her ongoing battle with Warners.





Davis plays Joyce Heath, an alcoholic former star of the stage, who crosses paths with an architect played by Franchot Tone. Tone's character was a great admirer of the actresses work, and is saddened by her obvious decline. After one too many, she passes out and ends up at his home in Connecticut.





He offers to finance her return to the stage, and she does what she can to break up his engagement to Margaret Lindsay. Eventually, Tone tells Lindsay he wants to marry Davis, but it turns out she's married to Eldredge. The latter refuses to divorce her; she then intentionally crashes her car, hoping to kill Eldredge. He survives but he's now paralyzed for life.





Her return to the stage is a big success, and Tone still wants her, but now she's troubled by guilt over what she has done to Eldredge. The actress' failure to make good on everyone's dreams of a great comeback is chalked-up to her reputation as a jinx, who brings ill-fate to everyone and everything she is involved with.





An interesting sideline here, is that Davis' leading man, Franchot Tone, happened to be married to Joan Crawford at the time. Davis was quite smitten bt Tone, and it was Bette's reported romantic advances to Tone that supposedly ignited the now legendary rivalry between the two screen Divas.