Director: Edmund Goulding
Top Billed Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 3 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.-First National
Best Actress - Bette Davis
Best Original Score - Max Steiner
Plot: A carefree socialite becomes critically ill with a brain tumor and must decide how she wants to YOLO.
Top Billed Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 3 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.-First National
Best Actress - Bette Davis
Best Original Score - Max Steiner
Plot: A carefree socialite becomes critically ill with a brain tumor and must decide how she wants to YOLO.
Although the poster for Dark Victory (1939) incorrectly asserts that it is an Academy Award winning film, it does do one thing right - it highlights the importance of Bette Davis. Just take a look at that poster, only featuring her as well as the font of her name being just as large as the title of the film. This is first and foremost a Bette Davis vehicle and we should be grateful for it. At the time, she was going through a divorce and was having and ending some publicized affairs. She felt some real world chemistry with her co-lead here, George Brent, as they went on to have an affair as well as star in numerous more films together. Perhaps her real world romantic struggles aided her in this performance, her second of five Oscar nominations in a row after winning the previous year, but in any case, this is a role you must see if you're a Davis fan.
I could keep extol the virtues of Davis' performance but it just simply must be seen. Her supporting cast in Brent and new-to-Hollywood Gerladine Fitzgerald give fine showings, but they are there to simply push the first domino in a series of elaborate domino structures. Davis takes it from there as she has to convince us that she is dying while also playing the exuberant socialite who has to mask her negative prognosis from her acquaintances and reckon with it from her loved ones. There are numerous unbroken takes that Davis is in full control of and her acting hits you right in the gut and in the heart. This was also a big year for Max Steiner, who was nominated for both this and his historic score for Gone with the Wind (1939). A funny anecdote that connects Davis with Steiner: when scaling the staircase in the waning moments of the film, Davis asked if Steiner would be composing the score. When asked why it mattered, she replied "Well, either I'm going to climb those stairs or Max Steiner is going to climb those stairs but I'll be God-DAMNED if Max Steiner and I are going to climb those stairs together!" This is in reference to Steiner's knack for bombastic and big scores, but the score here is unusually subtle and never interferes with Davis' performance. The music is pleasant when it needs to be and dark when the story takes its turns for the worse but it never blasts out of the sound mix like it might in a big epic like Gone with the Wind. Steiner showcases his versatility in these two pictures to an astonishing degree.
Now, we've seen the "you have x amount of time to live" play out in many movies. It felt off that this piece of information was withheld from Davis' Judith for so long, especially from a doctor. I will chalk it up to a different code of ethics from a different era, but it just seems illegal for a doctor to hide such a critical finding from a surgery. It makes for some unnecessary and predictable melodrama when Judith's young and pretty friend gets involved. The story kicks into another gear when she finally does find out and it presents a compelling scenario - when you have a short time to live, does everything matter or does nothing matter? Judith has to navigate this dilemma and it's fulfilling to see it play out both ways, the cynical approach as well as the positive one. Oh, and I know this has nothing to do with anything else I've written, it is neat to see future president Ronald Reagan here. He plays an aloof and bland drunk that adds nothing to the picture whatsoever, but it's still neat to see him pop up on the Project.
Overall, some flimsy melodrama gives way to a powerhouse performance by Bette Davis. This is her picture through and through but she is supported nicely by a subtle Max Steiner score as well as a compelling scenario that puts her character in dire circumstances.
My Score: 7/10
I could keep extol the virtues of Davis' performance but it just simply must be seen. Her supporting cast in Brent and new-to-Hollywood Gerladine Fitzgerald give fine showings, but they are there to simply push the first domino in a series of elaborate domino structures. Davis takes it from there as she has to convince us that she is dying while also playing the exuberant socialite who has to mask her negative prognosis from her acquaintances and reckon with it from her loved ones. There are numerous unbroken takes that Davis is in full control of and her acting hits you right in the gut and in the heart. This was also a big year for Max Steiner, who was nominated for both this and his historic score for Gone with the Wind (1939). A funny anecdote that connects Davis with Steiner: when scaling the staircase in the waning moments of the film, Davis asked if Steiner would be composing the score. When asked why it mattered, she replied "Well, either I'm going to climb those stairs or Max Steiner is going to climb those stairs but I'll be God-DAMNED if Max Steiner and I are going to climb those stairs together!" This is in reference to Steiner's knack for bombastic and big scores, but the score here is unusually subtle and never interferes with Davis' performance. The music is pleasant when it needs to be and dark when the story takes its turns for the worse but it never blasts out of the sound mix like it might in a big epic like Gone with the Wind. Steiner showcases his versatility in these two pictures to an astonishing degree.
Now, we've seen the "you have x amount of time to live" play out in many movies. It felt off that this piece of information was withheld from Davis' Judith for so long, especially from a doctor. I will chalk it up to a different code of ethics from a different era, but it just seems illegal for a doctor to hide such a critical finding from a surgery. It makes for some unnecessary and predictable melodrama when Judith's young and pretty friend gets involved. The story kicks into another gear when she finally does find out and it presents a compelling scenario - when you have a short time to live, does everything matter or does nothing matter? Judith has to navigate this dilemma and it's fulfilling to see it play out both ways, the cynical approach as well as the positive one. Oh, and I know this has nothing to do with anything else I've written, it is neat to see future president Ronald Reagan here. He plays an aloof and bland drunk that adds nothing to the picture whatsoever, but it's still neat to see him pop up on the Project.
Overall, some flimsy melodrama gives way to a powerhouse performance by Bette Davis. This is her picture through and through but she is supported nicely by a subtle Max Steiner score as well as a compelling scenario that puts her character in dire circumstances.
My Score: 7/10