Of Human Bondage (1934)
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Reginald Denny, Reginald Owen
Synopsis:
A listless young man turns from art to medicine but cannot rid himself of the shame of his club foot. Perceiving a curt, working class waitress to be somehow his equal, he becomes enamoured, in bondage to a relationship that will prove his undoing.
Review:
Somerset Maugham's much filmed, yet not especially cinematic, adult drama of wasted dreams posits the notion that we are bound to love a certain individual however they may treat us, and that sometimes accepting another's unquestioning devotion is the surest route to happiness. Cromwell does his best with tested devices such as a calendar montage, or follow-shots of feet walking, and even provides sound equivalents, but everything rests on the interest of the performances, which are creaky but memorable. The camera positively drools over Davis's draped figure and heavy bosom, and she makes for an egregiously despicable tart (a pity about her appalling cockney accent); Howard does the 'decent old chap' performance that got him the part of Ashley Wilkes. The film was remade twice, most dreadfully with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak; this RKO production is the only version suitably of its time, but even then audiences had little patience for the lead character's rectitude.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Reginald Denny, Reginald Owen
Synopsis:
A listless young man turns from art to medicine but cannot rid himself of the shame of his club foot. Perceiving a curt, working class waitress to be somehow his equal, he becomes enamoured, in bondage to a relationship that will prove his undoing.
Review:
Somerset Maugham's much filmed, yet not especially cinematic, adult drama of wasted dreams posits the notion that we are bound to love a certain individual however they may treat us, and that sometimes accepting another's unquestioning devotion is the surest route to happiness. Cromwell does his best with tested devices such as a calendar montage, or follow-shots of feet walking, and even provides sound equivalents, but everything rests on the interest of the performances, which are creaky but memorable. The camera positively drools over Davis's draped figure and heavy bosom, and she makes for an egregiously despicable tart (a pity about her appalling cockney accent); Howard does the 'decent old chap' performance that got him the part of Ashley Wilkes. The film was remade twice, most dreadfully with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak; this RKO production is the only version suitably of its time, but even then audiences had little patience for the lead character's rectitude.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: John Cromwell
Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee, Reginald Denny, Reginald Owen
Synopsis:
A listless young man turns from art to medicine but cannot rid himself of the shame of his club foot. Perceiving a curt, working class waitress to be somehow his equal, he becomes enamoured, in bondage to a relationship that will prove his undoing.
Review:
Somerset Maugham's much filmed, yet not especially cinematic, adult drama of wasted dreams posits the notion that we are bound to love a certain individual however they may treat us, and that sometimes accepting another's unquestioning devotion is the surest route to happiness. Cromwell does his best with tested devices such as a calendar montage, or follow-shots of feet walking, and even provides sound equivalents, but everything rests on the interest of the performances, which are creaky but memorable. The camera positively drools over Davis's draped figure and heavy bosom, and she makes for an egregiously despicable tart (a pity about her appalling cockney accent); Howard does the 'decent old chap' performance that got him the part of Ashley Wilkes. The film was remade twice, most dreadfully with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak; this RKO production is the only version suitably of its time, but even then audiences had little patience for the lead character's rectitude.