In the pressbook for Born to Be Bad that was sent to exhibitors and theater owners to help them publicize the film, the headline on the first page read “Heartless, Glamorous Huntress of Men, Their Hearts, Their Wealth: Trapped in Her Own Pitfalls, Victim of Greed and Rashness.”

The taglines for the film’s posters were equally bodice-ripping – “Baby-faced Savage in a jungle of intrigue!” and “Man-Bait! Trouble never came in a more desirable package!” featuring a photo of Joan Fontaine posing provocatively in a slinky red strapless gown.

While the movie is a fun, campy black and white film directed by Nicholas Ray, the behind-the-scenes drama in the making of it, as reported by Margarita Landazuri on the TCM website, is almost more intriguing. Landazuri writes that Joan Fontaine bought the rights to the bestseller “All Kneeling” by Anne Parish published in 1928, sold it to RKO and after seven screenwriters worked on it, the much-delayed film was finally made in 1949, by which time Howard Hughes had bought the studio.

Hughes was enamored of Fontaine, although he was dating her sister, Olivia de Havilland, and Fontaine was married to producer William Dozier. In an interview with People magazine in 1978, Fontaine said, “He asked me to marry him three times, but it was Olivia who loved Howard Hughes. One day she invited me to a surprise party at the Trocadero where Hughes was the host. On the dance floor, he leaned down and proposed … But when I tried to warn Olivia, sparks flew. I showed her his telephone number in his own handwriting that he had given me, but she was furious at me. No, I was never in love with Howard. He had no humor, no sense of joy, no vivacity. Everything had to be a ‘deal.’”

But Fontaine made a deal with Dozier that she implies in her memoir “No Bed of Roses.” The plan was to divorce Dozier and marry Hughes if Hughes hired Dozier to run RKO. The stratagem never went anywhere, possibly because Fontaine didn’t want to lose custody of her daughter, though she did eventually divorce Dozier and Dozier did get a job at RKO.

Working titles for the film over the years of delays were Christabel Caine, All Kneeling, and Bed of Roses. In the five years it took to release the film – production was started and stopped twice by the volatile Hughes – there were a number of cast and crew changes announced in the trades. First Paul Stewart was to direct it, then John Berry, Edmund Goulding, John Hambleton, and Shepard Traube, but finally Nicholas Ray was given the job in 1949. Henry Fonda was announced as Fontaine’s co-star; so was Alan Marshal. Ronald Reagan, David Niven, Vincent Price and Franchot Tone were all under consideration as well. And it was also reported that Barbara Bel Geddes was considered for the lead until Hughes demanded Fontaine. The final cast was Fontaine, Robert Ryan (brought onboard at Ray’s insistence), Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie and Mel Ferrer.

Christabel (Fontaine), an orphan with a rich publisher uncle, moves in with her uncle’s assistant, Donna (Leslie) ostensibly to attend business school in San Francisco. What she really intends is to move in on Donna’s rich fiancé, Curtis (Scott), hinting to him that Donna is marrying him for his money and that a prenuptial arrangement would test her loyalty. Christabel also makes a play for Nick (Robert Ryan), a friend of Donna’s and a novelist whose book her uncle is publishing. Nick is wise to her games but nevertheless falls for her, asking her to marry him, but she’s aiming higher and puts him off. A painter friend of Donna’s, Gobby (Ferrer), is also caught up in her toils but he is gay and content to just paint her portrait in the hope that it will attract rich clients. When Curtis asks Donna to sign the prenup, she angrily refuses and breaks the engagement, then accuses Christabel of poisoning Curtis against her. The besotted Curtis proposes to Christabel and the two get married, but Christabel still plans to keep Nick on the side as her lover. Finally, her machinations all unravel and the men get to see Christabel for who she really is, a conniving and selfish fortune hunter who only loves herself.

The script ran into trouble with the Hays Code because of the “implication of illicit sex which is treated without the proper compensating moral values,” referring to the married Christabel’s affair with Nick. Somehow, Hughes got the script approved, but when the movie was ready for release, objections were made again and an alternate ending was presented to the Production Code office. It’s unclear when this ending was shot, but it was reserved for overseas audiences. However, the National League of Decency objected to the foreign version which Hughes then withdrew. The film was finally released in 1950.

In the original ending, Christabel drives away from Curtis’ home after he throws her out with only a few furs to show for her marriage. The portrait of her painted by Gobby is shown going up in price because of the scandal she made. In the alternate ending, she gets into a car crash driving away and is taken to the hospital where she seduces the married surgeon who operates on her. Another scandal is created, and the price of the portrait goes up once more. Christabel seeks the advice of a lawyer. He agrees to meet her for cocktails and tells his secretary on the way out, “Call my wife and tell her I may not make it for dinner.” The price of the portrait hits $1,000.

Ray had the reputation of letting his cast walk all over him, though he did elicit fine performances from them. Apparently, Billy Wilder told Humphrey Bogart that if he ever wanted to push his director around, he should only work with Ray. (And Bogart did, in 1950, on Ray’s In a Lonely Place with Gloria Grahame, soon to be Ray’s wife.) Born to Be Bad was only Ray’s fourth film, but the opening scenes of the film show he had a mastery of camera angles and visual flourishes as he introduces his cast arriving at Donna’s apartment in preparation for a party in a choreographed sequence that shows their movements and interactions through many rooms, setting up the relationships that the viewer will come to see. (The film’s cinematographer was Nicholas Musuraca.)

Hughes, however, gave Ray no respect, meddling throughout production, changing the ending, and ordering reshoots.

Ray would go on to a prolific career including Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean in 1955. He mastered the use of film composition in CinemaScope, was considered one of the first auteurs, and had a great influence on the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard saying of him in a review of 1957’s Bitter Victory, “There is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray.”

The film was a modest success at the box office, critics, for the most part, dismissing it as an entertaining melodrama. They were divided about Fontaine’s performance, some appreciating that she took a chance in playing against type as a villainess, others saying she was too old for the role at 32. Fontaine wrote in her memoir that “the only acceptable part of the film was my wardrobe designed by Tina Leser.”

However, Carol Burnett parodied the film on her The Carol Burnett Show in 1973 in an episode called “Born to Be Rotten,” playing ‘Christinabel,’ an ultimate accolade.

Born to Be Bad was restored with funding by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in partnership with The Film Foundation.