Of Human Bondage (B&W)

Of Human Bondage (B&W)
The interior life of a natural-born introvert is a tricky thing to convey in any story medium, but perhaps nowhere more than in feature films. Fortunately for this 1934 version of Of Human Bondage (the first of three), the introverted young doctor at the center of the story is played by Leslie Howard, who makes a slack spirit and puppet-of-destiny ennui look like a GQ ad from the age of Romanticism. Howard's character, well liked by peers and facing a promising future, becomes a slave to self-destructive impulse when he grows obsessed with a mercurial, promiscuous waitress (Bette Davis). She stands him up, she lets him down, she sleeps around--basically doing anything she can think of to humiliate the plaintive, puppyish Howard. The good doctor's prospects soon sink... and then sink again and again every time she reappears, usually in dire circumstances, after prolonged absences. Much of Howard's performance borders on monotony, but how many ways can an actor show what it's like to lean against desks and ponder the enigma of himself? At least he looks classy while doing so. Meanwhile, Davis's electric performance, one of her best, gives director John Cromwell's slow pacing a shot in the arm. The supporting cast is very good: Alan Hale, Frances Dee, and Cromwell's then-wife, Kay Johnson, do a fine job helping to fill in the silences. Adapted from the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. --Tom Keogh
Customer Review: Bette's Tour de Force
This version of "Of Human Bondage" is hampered by the early 1930's puritanical production code. Nevertheless, Bette Davis turns in a fantastic performance as the sluttish Mildred. Leslie Howard is also effective as the masochistic Philip. All in all this is a 5 "star" film. So why did I only give it 4 "stars"? The quality of the video is mediocre, the digital transfer is not good, the print used was scratched and the sound at times muddy.
Customer Review: Willing to Play a Terrible Woman Before It Was Cool: Bette Davis
That was her trademark: portraying women who were down right rotten to the core, grotesque, ill-mannered, bad-tempered, far to powerful for their era, over-powering of men, smarter than men, and highly seductive without being overtly sexual. Only Bette Davis was willing to become these kinds of characters at the very beginning when motion pictures first became talkies. Bette Davis was in "Of Human Bondage" for the script. Warner Brothers owned her as a contract actor and wasn't giving her good enough roles to play. When RKO offered her this one, she lept upon it, seized her moment in film history, and became the despisable and pitiful Mildred Rogers. With venteran actor Leslie Howard co-starring, the very young Bette Davis was put to the test and passed with such flying colors that when the American Film Academy didn't even nominate her for an Oscar as Best Actress in a Leading Role, a great many people sent write-in votes for her to receive the Oscar for her performance. Historical accounts of the AFI's blundering oversight of Davis' stellar performance call the Oscar they awarded her the role she played in "Dangerous," as some sort of consolation prize. With a cockneyed accent, bedraggled, impoverished appearance ta boot, Bette Davis began setting a precedent in "Of Human Bondage," that would prove, over a 60 year acting career and 12 Oscar nominations, among too numerous to count other acting awards she received, she was not a star, not an actress, as in second rate compared to her men counterparts--she was thee actor of her generation. Many call Bette Davis the greatest American actor of the 20th century. History seems to be bearing that legacy out and it all really started with this motion picture. After her performance in this movie, Bette Davis' performances would never go by unnoticed again. That's home important this movie is. That's how good it is. Mind you, the technical quality of the material film itself is still not remastered, so it's very old fashioned. The quality of the picture is poor. It's very easy to overlook the fact that this movie was made right at the beginning when actors could be heard speaking. The craft of motion picture making with speech was hardly ready to be produced. Nevertheless, production companies like RKO were eager to put their new kind of motion pictures out there in the public. Bette Davis knew how to act and deliver a script because she had already been a stage actor. As it turned out, she was perfect for the part of Mildred Rogers. As such, she deserved her first Oscar to be awarded for this stunning performance. Thank goodness that Bette Davis set the precedent to portray women who were true to life instead of mere Cinderella's a men's fantasies. Happy 100th birthday, wherever you are, to the woman who "did it the hard way," and forever responded to her followings' outcry for more, more, more.