For many viewers and scholars, “Dark Victory” is the most representative and the most enjoyable of Warner’s women’s melodramas, a genre (or type of films) known as weepers or weepies.
It’s truly one of the studio’s most skillfully executed and emotionally effective melodrama, made in a banner era, considered by some to be Hollywood’s best year.
Grade: B+ (**** out of *****)
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theatrical release poster
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In one of her best-known roles and personal favorites, Bette Davis plays Judith (Judy) Traherne, a strong but doomed young heiress, who is dying of Glioma, a form of brain cancer.
Both defiant and fearful in her early scenes, Judy says: “I’m well and strong and nothing can touch me. However, gradually, she’s forced to realize that death is imminent, and decided to face it with calm and courage. In the end, blind and alone, she lies down on her bed, staring blankly into spaces, though not before asking her good husband-doctor (played by the pro George Brent), “Darling, have I been a good wife to you.”
As was the norm in 1930s melodrama, the “Big City” is depicted in a negative way, not a place for the terminally ill. Morally uplifted and prepared for a “beautiful and fine’ death by leaving behind the City and her frivolous lifestyle there, Judy and her husband move to a rustic home in the country.
Spectators who saw the picture in 1939 were all weeping, when Davis climbs up the stairs for the last time, accompanied by Max Steiner’s sweeping score.
Some of Davis’ most interesting screen roles were first played on stage by Tallulah Bankhead, who never became a legit movie star; though she played some impressive leads, as in Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat.” Bankhead had originated the role of Judith Traherne on Broadway, as well as that of Regina in “The Little Foxes.”
Please read our review of Bette Davis’ best film and best screen role, All About Eve.
https://emanuellevy.com/review/oscar-history-best-picture-all-about-eve-1950-2/
In the supporting cast, you can spot Bogart before he became a lead man and a star, Ronald Reagan, and perhaps best of all the young Geraldine Fitzgerald, who plays Davis’ best friend, Ann King.
Dark Victory was Irish-born actress Fitzgerald’s first American film, after having appeared in films made in England, and on Broadway stage.
In the same year, Fitzgerald was nominated for the Supporting Actress Oscar in Wuthering Heights).
There’s strong chemistry between Davis and Brent: This was the eighth, of eleven, on-screen teaming of tr two actors.
Recycling:
The story was remade in 1963 as “Stolen Hours.”
Oscar Nominations
Picture, produced by David Lewis
Actress: Bette Davis
Original Score: Max Steiner
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context
Bette Davis lost the Best Actress Oscar to the popular favorite Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind,” which swept most of the Oscars in 1939, including Best Picture.
Max Steiner, one of Hollywood’s best and most prolific composers, lost the Scoring Oscar to Herbert Stothart for the Judy Garland musical fable, “The Wizard of Oz.”
Cast
Bette Davis as Judith Traherne
George Brent as Dr. Frederick Steele
Humphrey Bogart as Michael O’Leary
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King
Ronald Reagan as Alec Hamm
Henry Travers as Dr. Parsons
Cora Witherspoon as Carrie Spottswood
Dorothy Peterson as Miss Wainwright
Virginia Brissac as Martha
Charles Richman as Colonel Mantle
Herbert Rawlinson as Dr. Carter
Leonard Mudie as Dr. Driscoll
Fay Helm as Miss Dodd
Lottie Williams as Lucy
Credits:
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Casey Robinson, based on “Dark Victory,” 1934 play by George Emerson Brewer, Jr. and Bertram Bloch
Produced by David Lewis
Cinematography Ernest Haller
Edited by William Holmes
Music by Max Steiner
Production and Distribution by Warner Bros.
Release date: April 22, 1939 (U.S.); Radio City Music Hall
Running time: 104 minutes
