In a method, the function of Val in “Unhealthy Sister” was setting a precedent for the sorts of slick gangster roles Humphrey Bogart would tackle all through a lot of the ’30s. However his voice is thinner, he is uncomfortably fresh-faced, and he lacks the presence so acquainted to followers of “Casablanca.” If something, he is of a chunk with a lot of the film’s relative blandness, bringing a little bit of life however not fairly promoting the unhealthy boy routine.

His relative lack of presence is only one cause the film did not do properly. However Bette Davis, per Whitney Stine’s “Mom Goddam,” thought she was unhealthy too and cried over her profession ending on her method house from the premiere.

Like Bette Davis, Bogart got here up by Broadway and New York theater earlier than going to Hollywood in 1930, the place he discovered largely small roles ready for him. Per A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax’s “Bogart,” the early days of sound cinema required in depth diction classes for the actors who had come up in sound movie. Bogart’s theater expertise meant his early administrators would ask him to help the lead actors, a lot to their chagrin. However that did not imply he acquired prime billing.

In her memoir “This ‘n’ That,” Davis recalled Bogart being fired from Common like she was after the failure of “Unhealthy Sister” (in addition to two different Common films she did later in 1931). However Bogart was truly beneath contract to Fox, having been loaned out for the manufacturing of “Unhealthy Sister.” For him, the film was simply one other small function in a flop. Shortly after, he returned to Broadway.