Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The fascinating film that made Bette Davis a star, 21 Aug 2003
Of Human Bondage, based on the novel by Somerset Maugham, is a powerful but melancholy film that I find strangely mesmerizing. Leslie Howard stars as Philip Carey, an introverted, artistic man who comes to London to study medicine after abandoning his dreams of becoming an artist in Paris. Carey was born with a club foot, and we watch rather mortified as one of his instructors makes him show his foot to the class, revealing the embarrassment that he normally keeps contained on the outside. One day in a nearby café, Carey sees waitress Mildred Rogers (played fabulously by Bette Davis), a rather ill-natured, brazenly taciturn waitress. Her attitude is rather rude and certainly strange and cold, but Carey is immediately fascinated by her. After inexplicably falling in love with Mildred, he succeeds in winning a few dates with her, putting up with her mind games, deception, and seeming lack of humanity. She is frustratingly noncommittal in everything he asks her, replying "I don't mind" to virtually all of his questions and allowing him almost no emotional contact with her at all. He finally resolves to ask her to marry him, but she shocks him by declaring her impending nuptials to another man. Carey's depression grows, and his grades in medical school suffer horribly. In time, he finds a young woman who is a bit matronly but genuinely cares for him. Then Mildred shows up again, pregnant and alone. He takes care of her with money he doesn't really have only to see her leave again with another man. This trend continues throughout the story. Whenever Carey finds happiness within his grasp, Mildred shows up unannounced, and he finds himself powerless to save himself from her debilitating influence on him. Carey and Mildred are complicated creatures. While Mildred basically comes off as an unfeeling tramp, one can't help but believe that there is something human inside her that is genuinely attracted to Carey and the kind of gentlemanly life he can offer her, but her affections continually prove themselves fickle at best. As for Carey, his fatalistic love for Mildred makes no sense whatsoever, as she never fails to treat him harshly. Other women do come to love him deeply and truly, and Sally, the daughter of one of his patients, seems perfect for him, yet one strongly senses the fact that he can only truly love Mildred. It is really that part of the story and not the tragic life of Mildred herself which makes this movie so poignant and sad. Of Human Bondage is the movie that made Bette Davis a verifiable star way back in 1934. Her performance is certainly fantastic, but she really provides only a hint of the actress she would become. The fact that her character is so impossibly self-serving and unfeeling makes it hard to identify with or like her (especially when she gets angry), yet Bette Davis makes her an unforgettable character of almost hypnotic fascination. I should say that Leslie Howard is also wonderful in this movie. The kind of aloof passive resistance he showed five years later in Gone With the Wind is a perfect match for the character of Philip Carey. He is almost incapable of standing up to fate, allowing his life to be brought to the point of ruin, both financial and emotional, by a woman who seemingly lives to torment him. I'm always left with a strange feeling after watching this movie, one of strange disquiet and sentimentality. Released in 1934, Of Human Bondage remains a powerful and compelling story of human passion, and Bette Davis' performance is eternally magical.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Howard and Davis in a great adaptation of Maugham's novel, 11 April 2005
By A Customer
W. Somerset Maugham's novel "Of Human Bondage" receives an excellent adaptation to the screen in this 1934 film directed by John Cromwell. Leslie Howard plays sensitive, club-footed Philip Carey, the second-rate artist who turns to the study of medicine, even though he is older than his classmates. Philip becomes tragically obsessed with Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis), an illiterate waitress in a tearoom near the medical school. Although Mildred insults him for being a cripple, Philip spurns an offer of romance from Nora (Kay Johnson), an attractive woman who writes romance novels under a male pseudonym. When Philips agrees to marry Mildred when she shows up pregnant and jilted by her salesman boyfriend (Alan Hale), she runs off with another med student (Reginald Denny) at their engagement party. A friendly patient (Reginald Owen) invites Philip home to meet his sensitive daughter Sally (Frances Dee). But Mildred returns again, this time with a baby, and Philip is too weak to refuse her. The result are disastrous consequences for them both.Maugham's semi-autobiographical novel was published in 1915 and is considered his masterwork. By Hollywood standards, this film adaptation is remarkably faithful, not to mention literate and intelligent, so a lot of the credit has to go to Lester Cohen for the screenplay. Howard handles the role of the sensitive Philip well, but it is Davis who turned a lot of heads for the first time with her performance as the tawdry little waitress (Life magazine called it "Probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress"). Certainly this is the role that made Warner Brothers take a serious look at the young actress. What is remarkable is how much of this emotionally shattering tale is packed into 83 minutes of running time.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Movie, Be careful of the DVD, 16 Jul 2006
The WHE edition of this film uses a very old print and the quality isn't the best, however it is still watchable. If you are a film fanatic you may want to put your pennies towards the more expensive version, but if you like me are just curious to see this 1934 Bette Davis' movie that made her a star, then I would recommend a purchase. Leslie Howard as the weak Phillip is excellent as always, but Bette shows just how much of an actress she was in playing the tormenting and doomed Mildred. I would have given this more stars if it hadn't been for the print.
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