Free Great Movies Review
Bette Davis delivers a lively performance as the femme fatale Mildred Rogers in this brisk adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel. Leslie Howard plays club-footed Philip Carey who becomes obsessed with tearoom waitress Mildred so much so that he visually hallucinates her everywhere. Mildred rejects him but then drifts back into his life numerous times only to become more nasty and villainous with each return. Bette Davis's cockney English accent might not be stellar, but it's no wonder that audiences loved her wide-eyed meanness as she yells at the taciturn Leslie Howard. Davis looks like hell at the end and she designed her own make-up to convince us she was dying of tuberculosis. There are some nice directorial flourishes and the rest of the performances are fine throughout but it's really Davis who shines. It's a classic pre-Code drama that is credited with making Bette Davis a star.
Movie Description
Of Human Bondage is a 1934 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and is widely regarded by critics as the film that made Bette Davis a star. The screenplay by Lester Cohen is based on the 1915 novel of the same title by W. Somerset Maugham. The film was remade in 1946 and again in 1964.
(Summary from Wikipedia)
Copyright Info: This movie is in the public domain and is legally available for free on YouTube.