Dark Victory ***** (1939, Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers) – Classic Movie Review 2,699

Get your box of hankies at the ready for director Edmund Goulding’s irresistible 1939 tearjerker film Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis as Judith Traherne, a wealthy young socialite who learns that she has an inoperable brain tumour. The question is what to do with her dying days and can she handle them with dignity.

A brilliant Davis grabs her opportunity by the throat in one of her key roles and there is more than able support from George Brent as her doctor and then husband Frederick Steele, Geraldine Fitzgerald as her sympathetic friend Ann King, Ronald Reagan as Alec, and Henry Travers as old Dr Parsons.

After Dr Steele diagnoses a brain tumour, she undergoes surgery and falls in love with him, but he tells her secretary the tumour will come back and kill her.

Sadly, though, Humphrey Bogart, having trouble with his teeth and his accent, is embarrassing as Traherne’s Irish groom, Michael O’Leary, in arguably his worst performance. Michael is her horse trainer, who loves her, advising to get as much out of life as possible. To be fair, it’s not much of as part. But at least we don’t get to see the scene with him crying.

[Spoiler alert] The film’s original ending with Michael crying when Judith’s horse wins a race after her death was cut after negative response by sneak preview audiences.

Davis and Bogart had appeared together in her first film The Bad Sister, right back in 1931.

There were three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but alas no wins. Davis and Max Steiner were both Oscar nominated, she for her Best Actress nominated performance and he for his lush nominated Best Original Score.

The film lost to Gone with the Wind and Davis lost to Vivien Leigh, star of Gone with the Wind. Max Steiner, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for both this and Gone with the Wind, lost to Herbert Stothart for The Wizard of Oz.

Casey Robinson’s screenplay is based on a 1934 stage play by George Emerson Brewer Jnr and Bertram Bloch, which starred Tallulah Bankhead in the Broadway production. Its hit run at the Plymouth Theatre ended when Bankhead had a bacterial infection. Davis admitted she had emulated Bankhead playing the role.

It was remade in 1963 as The Stolen Hours with Susan Hayward and Michael Craig, and as a 1976 TV movie with Elizabeth Montgomery and Anthony Hopkins.

Also in the cast are Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Peterson, Virginia Brissac, Charles Richman, Herbert Rawlinson, Leonard Mudie, Fay Helm, Lottie Williams, Frank Darien, Stuart Holmes, Frank Mayo, Sidney Bracey, John Ridgely, Jack Mower, John Harron, Nat Carr, Mary Currier, Leyland Hodgson, Ila Rhodes, Maris Wrixon and Cliff Saum.

Unusually, Goulding shot the film in sequence.

The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall and was released on April 22, 1939.

It runs 104 minutes.

It is Irish-born actress Geraldine Fitzgerald’s first US film after movies in England and appearing on the Broadway stage. It is the eighth screen teaming of Bette Davis and George Brent of their 11 together. They embarked on an affair that continued throughout filming and for a year – and three films – after. Davis recalled: ‘Of the men I didn’t marry, the dearest was George Brent.’

‘Oh, Give Me Time for Tenderness’ is written by Edmund Goulding and Elsie Janis. Vera Van dubs Davis’s vocals as Judith.

The cast are Bette Davis as Judith Traherne, George Brent as Dr Frederick Steele, Humphrey Bogart as Michael O’Leary, Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King, Ronald Reagan as Alec Hamm, Henry Travers as Dr Parsons, Cora Witherspoon as Carrie Spottswood, Dorothy Peterson as Miss Wainwright, Virginia Brissac as Martha, Charles Richman as Colonel Mantle, Herbert Rawlinson as Dr Carter, Leonard Mudie as Dr Driscoll, Fay Helm as Miss Dodd, Lottie Williams as Lucy, Frank Darien, Stuart Holmes, Frank Mayo, Sidney Bracey, John Ridgely, Jack Mower, John Harron, Nat Carr, Mary Currier, Leyland Hodgson, Ila Rhodes, Maris Wrixon and Cliff Saum.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,699

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Movie Queen (Bette) by Graeme Jukes 2015.