How many people can relate to Charlotte Vale? Many, for I'd assume it'd be hard-pressed for anyone not to at one point in their life gone through a period of dejection, rejection, and evolve until finally the inner self comes out shining.
And what a character evolution this is. Charlotte Vale, played expertly and with fantastic repression hiding an enormous passion and will to live by the great Bette Davis as a woman who's life has been all but destroyed by her domineering, selfish mother (Gladys Cooper) until she meets kind Dr. Jasquith, a psychiatrist (Claude Rains) who makes her take the first steps to recovery. A physical transformation ensues from dowdy to chic, and on a cruise -- temporarily posing as Ms. Beauchamp -- she meets Jerry Durrance (elegant, smoldering Paul Henreid with sad eyes that virtually talk) with whom she begins a tentative acquaintance with that turns to love. Once home and deciding on an independent life away from her mother she takes on a younger version of herself, Tina, played poignantly by Janis Wilson, whom Charlotte learns is none other than Jerry's daughter. Nevertheless, Charlotte tutors Tina back to mental health, and even while she rejects the marriage of a certain convenience to Elliot Livingston (John Loder) since she cannot forget Jerry, she decides to remain independent despite of the hinted possibility of not fulfilling her affair with him at the end. The last scene, with Henreid and Davis gazing into each other's eyes as he lights up a cigarette for the both of them, and Davis' last line, "Don't let's ask for the moon -- we have the stars," is cinematic romance at its finest.
Irving Rapper, one of Hollywood's gay directors, could not have made a gayer film than this and my view is not controversial: Hollywood did not allow overt films about homosexuality back then, unless the man was a fop and a much secondary character meant to be the butt of fag jokes. Writers and directors alike decided to somehow incorporate a gay element without making it clear off the bat and devised stories that were strongly symbolic in nature. And while Olivia Higgins Prouty's novel was not intended to be interpreted as such, her quoting of Walt Whitman's "Now voyager, sail forth to seek and find" is interesting when Whitman himself was homosexual. Plus, the added element of Charlotte Vale's damaged persona by her mother who forced her into total repression -- something very close to many gay men and women -- and her ultimate transformation into a complete person due to her inner strength has also been a recurring gay theme.
But despite this view, the fact remains that NOW VOYAGER is a consummate woman's picture, a superior weepie that hasn't aged due to its themes of mental cruelty within family members and one person's quiet courage to take on the world and resume her own sense of identity despite years of baggage. Another version of parental abuse would re-surface as the Mexican drama LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE but aside from the mother-daughter relationship, the stories are completely different even in tone and cultural values.
Bette Davis received another Oscar nod for her role here as did Gladys Cooper, but the entire cast lends good support, from Ilka Chase and Bonita Granville as Charlotte's cousins down to Mary Wickes in a small yet funny role as a nurse tending to a bed-ridden Cooper and being a small agent in allowing Davis' Vale to go on with her life.
And what a character evolution this is. Charlotte Vale, played expertly and with fantastic repression hiding an enormous passion and will to live by the great Bette Davis as a woman who's life has been all but destroyed by her domineering, selfish mother (Gladys Cooper) until she meets kind Dr. Jasquith, a psychiatrist (Claude Rains) who makes her take the first steps to recovery. A physical transformation ensues from dowdy to chic, and on a cruise -- temporarily posing as Ms. Beauchamp -- she meets Jerry Durrance (elegant, smoldering Paul Henreid with sad eyes that virtually talk) with whom she begins a tentative acquaintance with that turns to love. Once home and deciding on an independent life away from her mother she takes on a younger version of herself, Tina, played poignantly by Janis Wilson, whom Charlotte learns is none other than Jerry's daughter. Nevertheless, Charlotte tutors Tina back to mental health, and even while she rejects the marriage of a certain convenience to Elliot Livingston (John Loder) since she cannot forget Jerry, she decides to remain independent despite of the hinted possibility of not fulfilling her affair with him at the end. The last scene, with Henreid and Davis gazing into each other's eyes as he lights up a cigarette for the both of them, and Davis' last line, "Don't let's ask for the moon -- we have the stars," is cinematic romance at its finest.
Irving Rapper, one of Hollywood's gay directors, could not have made a gayer film than this and my view is not controversial: Hollywood did not allow overt films about homosexuality back then, unless the man was a fop and a much secondary character meant to be the butt of fag jokes. Writers and directors alike decided to somehow incorporate a gay element without making it clear off the bat and devised stories that were strongly symbolic in nature. And while Olivia Higgins Prouty's novel was not intended to be interpreted as such, her quoting of Walt Whitman's "Now voyager, sail forth to seek and find" is interesting when Whitman himself was homosexual. Plus, the added element of Charlotte Vale's damaged persona by her mother who forced her into total repression -- something very close to many gay men and women -- and her ultimate transformation into a complete person due to her inner strength has also been a recurring gay theme.
But despite this view, the fact remains that NOW VOYAGER is a consummate woman's picture, a superior weepie that hasn't aged due to its themes of mental cruelty within family members and one person's quiet courage to take on the world and resume her own sense of identity despite years of baggage. Another version of parental abuse would re-surface as the Mexican drama LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE but aside from the mother-daughter relationship, the stories are completely different even in tone and cultural values.
Bette Davis received another Oscar nod for her role here as did Gladys Cooper, but the entire cast lends good support, from Ilka Chase and Bonita Granville as Charlotte's cousins down to Mary Wickes in a small yet funny role as a nurse tending to a bed-ridden Cooper and being a small agent in allowing Davis' Vale to go on with her life.