When the Hays Code forbade glorification of gangsters in 1935, Warner Brothers moved its glorification (somewhat ambiguously) to the other side. In Marked Woman, David Graham's (Humphrey Bogart) investigation of Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Ciannelli) is drawn from then-headline stories of
Thomas Dewey's (NYC's special prosecutor against racketeering) investigation of the notorious Lucky Luciano. In deference to the Code, Luciano's prostitution ring became the Club Intime, where Bette Davis as Mary hostesses at a “clip joint,” persuading customers to drink and play the tables. After a murder is committed, it's Graham's turn to try persuading: he wants Mary to testify against her boss Vanning. However, she doesn't see her interests as corresponding with Graham's (or society's), and in response to his urging, retorts, “What kind of break have you ever given us? Outside of kicking us around every chance you get.”
Although it was the men who got the headlines (and the Governorship of New York), under Lloyd Bacon's sensitive direction, Marked Woman becomes “one of the best films about women (and therefore for women) ever to come out of Hollywood” (Karyn Kay in Movies and Method). One of only a handful of films of the period to focus on the condition of women's lives during the Depression, it is also unique in its portrayal of a strong woman character balancing personal ambition against a sense of social responsibility.