--- title: "Bad Girl" year: 1931 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/bad-girl" fi1m_score: 64 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-09-19T21:53:07.220207+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T21:53:15.935690+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Bad Girl (1931) Directed by Frank Borzage · 1h 30m · MPA NR · Romance, Drama **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Two people marry after one boat ride and then spend ninety minutes failing to have a single honest conversation > Frank Borzage’s small New York romance is bright while James Dunn is being rude to women on boats, and slow and sentimental once he has married one. Worth an evening for the courtship and one scene with a doctor. ## Synopsis New York. Eddie Collins (James Dunn) fixes radios, is saving for a shop of his own, and tells any girl who speaks to him to move along. On the boat home from Coney Island he meets Dorothy Haley (Sally Eilers), who has heard every lecture going from her brother Jim (William Pawley), a man who treats a late night as proof of ruin. Her friend Edna Driggs (Minna Gombell), older and drier, watches the two of them circle each other and predicts the worst. A late night and a brother’s temper push Eddie and Dorothy into marrying within days of meeting. Then comes the flat, the rent, and the question of what two people who barely know each other are supposed to say over breakfast. ## Review Frank Borzage’s *Bad Girl* runs 90 minutes and concerns two young people in New York who meet on a boat back from Coney Island, marry within days, and then spend the rest of the picture failing to tell each other the one thing that matters. Brian Marlow and Rudolf Sieber adapted it from Viña Delmar’s novel, and the title is a fraud of the pleasant kind: nobody in it is bad. It is a small film about small people, made early in the sound era, and it is half a good one. The half that works is the courtship. James Dunn plays Eddie Collins as a young man who has decided that women are a waste of an evening and says so to anyone who asks. He fixes radios and wants a shop of his own more than he wants company. Dunn talks fast and out of the side of his mouth, and the script gives him a run of put-downs that still land. We laughed, several times and without being coaxed, at a man being rude to a pretty girl on a boat because he could not think of anything else to do with his hands. That is a harder thing to play than it looks, and Dunn plays it. Sally Eilers has the less rewarding part. Dorothy Haley is a nice girl whose brother Jim (William Pawley) treats a late night as a hanging offence, and Eilers is asked mostly to be wounded by other people. She is better in the wisecracking scenes than in the tearful ones, and there are more of the latter as the film goes on. Minna Gombell, as her friend Edna Driggs, is the one to watch. Gombell has a dry, tired delivery, a woman who has heard all of it before, and every scene improves when she walks into it. Chester A. Lyons photographs it plainly, which suits the material. The rooms are small, the light comes from a window or a lamp, and the camera is mostly set down and left alone, as it usually was in 1931 when the microphone dictated where people could stand. Margaret Clancey’s cutting keeps the early scenes moving; a conversation ends when it has done its work. Dolly Tree dresses Dorothy in the sort of clothes she could afford and Edna in the sort she could not, and the difference does some of the storytelling. Then the marriage happens, and the film changes. The second half turns on something the couple do not tell each other, and we will not say what. The secret is fine. What hurts is that the film treats a misunderstanding as if it were a plot, so scene after scene consists of two people in a flat saying the opposite of what they mean and then walking out. It becomes talky, and the talk gets slower. There is one exception. Eddie has a long scene alone with a doctor, Dr. Burgess (Claude King), and Dunn drops the wisecracks and asks a stranger for help. We were more moved than we had any reason to expect, and it is because for once the film lets a character say the plain thing. Borzage had made [*7th Heaven*](https://film.one/film/7th-heaven) four years earlier, and the standard he set there for lovers in a garret is one this film does not reach. That picture moved; this one sits. The two reviews we have read are harder on it than we are. Variety in 1930 called it workmanlike and Slant, decades later, found it dated, and both have a point about the second half. But the first forty minutes are livelier than either allows, and Dunn’s Eddie is a real person rather than a type, which is more than most romances of the period manage. Watch it at home, where a film this small belongs, and do not expect anything the title promises. If Dunn on the boat makes you want to stay, stay; the doctor is worth waiting for, and the rest you can talk over. *Fi1m score 64, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (2) - **Slant Magazine**, Dan Callahan (55/100, inferred): The film is a surprise Oscar winner for Borzage that has not aged as well as his other romances. It has some charm in the leads' wisecracking and a classic Borzage moment of playful exposure, but after the marriage it becomes talky and dated, with weak acting from Eilers and a rough sketch of Dunn's later persona. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/bad-girl/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (30/100, inferred): The story follows two young people who impulsively marry after meeting on a Coney Island boat, leading to complications with family, finances, and an unexpected pregnancy kept secret. It is described as a workmanlike job with strong points like the husband's scene with the doctor. [Read](https://variety.com/1930/film/reviews/bad-girl-1200410487/) ## Details - **Director:** Frank Borzage - **Director:** Frank Borzage - **Writer:** Brian Marlow, Rudolf Sieber - **Novel:** Viña Delmar - **Cinematography:** Chester A. Lyons - **Editor:** Margaret Clancey - **Costume design:** Dolly Tree - **Producer:** Winfield Sheehan - **Cast:** James Dunn as Eddie Collins; Sally Eilers as Dorothy Haley; Minna Gombell as Edna Driggs; Frank Darien as Lathrop; William Pawley as Jim Haley; Claude King as Dr. Burgess; Louis Natheaux as Mr. Thompson; Sarah Padden as Mrs. Gardner - **Runtime:** 1h 30m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 13 August 1931 - **Genres:** Romance, Drama - **Budget:** $100,000 - **Box office:** $1 million ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $2.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: CA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1932: Best Director (won); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *7th Heaven* (1927), Fi1m 86: Borzage’s earlier lovers in a Paris attic, and the film this one is reaching for. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/7th-heaven.md) - *The Crowd* (1928): King Vidor’s young New York marriage, shot on the streets and much less forgiving. - *Tokyo Chorus* (1931): Ozu, same year, same worry about rent and a family, with better jokes. - *Marty* (1955): A Bronx butcher who has given up on women, and one night that changes it. - *Weekend* (2011), Fi1m 86: Two strangers in Nottingham, two days, and every hard conversation this film avoids. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/weekend.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/bad-girl