Now, Voyager ***** (1942, Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains) – Classic Movie Review 636

Double Oscar-winner Bette Davis stars in one of her most famous roles as plain, over-weight Boston spinster Charlotte Vale, repressed and dominated by her wealthy mother Mrs Henry Vale (Gladys Cooper). Paying the proverbial ugly duckling who transforms into the lovely swan, Davis landed her fifth Oscar nomination in succession for director Irving Rapper’s magnetic 1942 soap opera. It was the biggest box office hit of her career.

Her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to renowned psychiatrist Dr Jaquith (Claude Rains), who invites her his sanatorium, where Charlotte is transformed into a sophisticated, confident beauty. On a cruise to South America, she meets and falls for married architect Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) and they enjoy an affair in Rio de Janeiro. With her won mother dead of a heart attack during an argument, Charlotte ends up befriending and playing pretend mother to Tina, Jerry’s 12-year-old daughter, rejected by her own mother.

Fighting off Irene Dunne, Norma Shearer and Ginger Rogers for the role, Davis fulfilled her promise to producer Hal B Wallis that she is the perfect Charlotte Vale. She is on top form, luxuriating in the transformation of her character and the mechanics of the plot. She gets brilliant support from the famous Warner Bros team of Henreid, Rains and Cooper, who just couldn’t be better. Even with Rains’s role beefed up to suit his star status, they still perhaps don’t have a huge amount to, but it’s crucial.

Casey Robinson’s screenplay makes sweet work of Olive Higgins Prouty’s novel. It’s the third book in a four-part saga about the Vale family, written by Prouty between 1936 and 1947. The title comes from a Walt Whitman poem, The Untold Want from Songs of Parting: ‘The untold want, by life and land ne’er  granted,/ Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.’ The climactic exchange has gone down into movie history. Jerry: ‘And will you be happy, Charlotte?’ Charlotte: ‘Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.’

Max Steiner’s famous romantic score won an Oscar. His main love theme was published as the hit song ‘It Can’t Be Wrong’ with lyrics by Kim Gannon. Davis thought that it was too intrusive on her performance.

The film is fondly remembered for the scene in which Henreid places two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them and then passes one to Davis. Director Rapper called Henreid a liar for claiming he thought of it, and said it had been done in a D W Griffith film in 1917. Still, this is the magic movie moment where it’s recalled for ever. Henreid couldn’t go anywhere without being accosted by women begging him to light cigarettes for them.

Rains and Henreid also starred in Casablanca together. Rains finished work on Now, Voyager on June 3 1942 and filmed his first scene on Casablanca at 10:30 the next morning. Eternal fighter Davis wouldn’t work with Casablanca’s director Michael Curtiz and got him replaced by Rapper on Now, Voyager.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 636

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