Cast: Bette Davis, George Brent

Director: Edmund Goulding

Screenplay: Casey Robinson

Running time: 1 hr 46 mins

Genre: Dramas



CRITIQUE:


“Who wants to see a dame go blind?” Jack L. Warner skepticises when perpetual-nagger Bette Davis pitched this film. What seemed to be a star vehicle for unabashed melodrama and three-hankie mourning movie, Davis pulls a magnificent performance as Judith, the increasingly blinding, dying rich heiress, whose illness was unbeknown to her, kept secret by her doctor (eventually husband) and best friend. She’s a free-spirited, high-flying glamour girl of New York – throwing parties as one does with confetti – but when she learns of her doomed destiny becomes an impulsive, self-piteous monster. See the scene in the restaurant where Davis skilfully handles a terrific scene, snatching a menu from a surprised waiter and barks ferociously, “I think I’ll have a large order of PROGONOSIS NEGATIVE!” But then she transforms into a compliant character, accepting her death as an old friend. It’s a wonderfully measured and observed performance, anchored in a film that’s an exercise in melodrama. This is probably one for the mums and nans out there.


VERDICT:

Davis is superb here in Dark Victory, sentimental enough but thankfully never gets mawkish.



RATING: B+