Dark Victory (1939)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

George Emerson Brewer Jr. (play) and
Bertram Bloch (play) ...

Release Date:

22 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

"I've Crammed EVERY MINUTE SO FULL of waste. And now there's so little time. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid!"

Plot:

A young socialite is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, and must decide whether she'll meet her final days with dignity.

Plot Keywords:

Friendship Between Women | Male Female Relationship | Tragic Love | Husband Wife Relationship | Poignant

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Judith Traherne
George Brent	...	Dr. Frederick Steele
Humphrey Bogart	...	Michael O'Leary
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Ann King
Ronald Reagan	...	Alec Hamm
Henry Travers	...	Dr. Parsons
Cora Witherspoon	...	Carrie
Dorothy Peterson	...	Miss Wainwright
Virginia Brissac	...	Martha, housekeeper
Charles Richman	...	Col. Mantle
Herbert Rawlinson	...	Dr. Carter
Leonard Mudie	...	Dr. Driscoll
Fay Helm	...	Miss Dodd
Lottie Williams	...	Lucy

Runtime:

104 min | Argentina:105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #4835) | Germany:6

Filming Locations:

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

In an interview with Dick Cavett in 1971, Bette Davis said that the movie took four weeks to shoot.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Judith invades her doctor husband's garage lab, she runs out with a breakfast tray containing a metal dish cover and a porcelain teapot. As she crosses the yard, the tray now contains a different arrangement of ceramic dishes. Upon entering the kitchen, the tray reverts back, but is rotated 180 degrees, with the metal lid near her tummy.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Michael O'Leary: [on the phone] Hello, there. Is this the house? I've been trying to get you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Soundtrack:

OH, GIVE ME TIME FOR TENDERNESS

98% of me

While I was watching my VHS copy of Dark Victory this afternoon, there was a quote from Bette Davis that her role of Judith Traherne was her most personal and that it was 98% of me.

It certainly is one of her most moving performances on celluloid. The movie is her show as so many of her Warner Brothers films were becoming at this point in her career. The rest of the cast almost stands back in awe of her.

We would call Judith Traherne a trust fund baby these days. Poppa made a fortune and drank himself to death, Mom is over in Europe as an expatriate. And she's got a big house on Long Island where she raises steeple chasers and gives a lot of parties.

But she's not an airhead. Bette Davis never was in any of her films. She's been having headaches and now blurred vision has been thrown in as a complication. When she crashes one of her horses into a side rail we the audience know right away that there are some serious health issues.

Dr. George Brent is called in on the case, he's a brain specialist. He operates and it's a success, but only in terms of relieving the symptoms. She's got a death sentence hanging over her.

The rest of the film is how she deals with it. Only an actress of incredible skill could have brought off the many mood changes that Judith Traherne has. If it wasn't for the fact that 1939 was the Gone With the Wind year, Davis might have gotten a third Oscar. She was nominated and lost to Vivien Leigh.

Humphrey Bogart was in this as her stable groom with an Irish accent that he was clearly uncomfortable with. My guess was that the brogue was there to emphasize the class distinction between Davis and Bogart. I'm not sure it was all that necessary for him, but at least it wasn't as laughable as the Mexican accent in Virginia City.

Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ronald Reagan are on hand as her two close friends. I understand that in the novel this is based on, Reagan's character is gay. This was the days of the Code, so gay was out. Probably in the long run helped Reagan's later career, given his politics playing a gay character wouldn't have gotten him entrée into his crowd. Still both he and Fitzgerald do very well as a couple of her friends who have a lot more character than most of them.

George Brent was Davis's perennial leading man. She was involved with him romantically at some point during her Warner Brothers period, I'm not sure if it was during the making of Dark Victory. He was a competent player who Davis could be sure would never upstage her.

I did however hear a clip from a radio performance of Dark Victory and George Brent's part was played by Spencer Tracy. Though Brent played in fact in the underplaying style that Tracy was known for, I'm sure if Tracy had ever done the film he'd have brought touches to the character that Brent could never have done. What a classic that would have been.

Dark Victory is a moving story that never descends into soap opera. This is Bette Davis at her finest.