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The interior life of a natural-born introvert is a tricky thing to convey in any story medium, but perhaps nowhere more than in feature films. Fortunately for this 1934 version of Of Human Bondage (the first of three), the introv… More >>
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First of all, the ‘quality; of this DVD is reprehensible. It’s a blurry, jerky print of a very dirty negative and simply will not do. It’s difficult to believe this is a DVD, but there you go. Catch this movie on TV if you can, or if you’re a huge Bette completist, pay as little as you can for it.
Now, on with the review. To say that ‘Of Human Bondage’ is a silly and dull movie is an understatement of the first magnitude. It takes people’s preconceptions of silly and boring and completely redefines them, creating instead new and terrible adjectives to replace them. ‘Flapsnot’ could be one, ‘Turd-esque’, another. Adapted from a well-loved W. Somerset Maugham novel, this original version of the movie (there are two others) attempts to utilise procrastinated silences and over-long facial close-ups of its leading man, Leslie Howard, to express the deep emotional turmoil and self-destructive impulses wrought on his life by Mildred The Slutty Waitress, played by the usually sublime Bette Davis. The trouble with this, however, is that Mr. Howard is, was, and ever shall be, a wooden character actor, with just one facial expression in his repertoire (see ‘Gone With The Wind’ for proof of this), so we can’t really tell if his character, Philip Carey, is upset, bored, hungry, depressed or gassy. The result is a leading man of unprecedented blandness. We don’t care about his disability, or his artist’s soul, nor do we give one whit about why he finds Mildred so compelling – we don’t give a damn about him in general.
Running a close second to Mr. Howard’s performance in terms of sheer pointlessness is that of Ms. Davis in the role of Mildred. Normally, Bette Davis is a true virtuoso, a delight to watch and a memorable character, no matter how drab her supporting cast. Sadly, in this, her first major motion picture, she comes off as totally and utterly irritating. As the wanton and manipulative Mildred, she has neither enough lines nor screen presence to pull off a convincing man-eater. She is disjointed because her character, direction and particularly her script are disjointed. We can’t believe that any man, even one as shy and ill-favoured as Carey, could find her attractive. And the accent! In all of history, there has surely never been a worse attempt at a cockney accent. Ever. We can hear that she’s struggling with it – she mispronounces Champagne as something like ‘Sham-paaaaaan’ and her own clipped British-ish accent is clearly audible beneath it all. It’s a horrible thing to see such a great actress in a terrifically demeaning role.
Devoid of all human emotion, the film goes from bad to worse (and ends up at confusing and unwatchable) when Carey finally rids himself of his lust for Mildred and begins dating impoverished-but-upstanding Sally Athelny, a woman who appears to live in a calendar. In fact, it’s thanks to over-ambitious and disasterously-edited ‘special’ effect sequences like this, prevalent from the get-go, that, by the pictures’ end, we don’t actually know what’s going on. Mildred dies and we assume Carey gets married to Calendar-Woman. The fact that he does not see her as she dies totally negates any emotion we think he may have once felt for her. The film is full of confusing and contradictory vignettes such as this, and with such a terrible DVD transfer, it’s quite likely that you’ll switch off well before Bette’s one fiery speech, which is itself marred by her horrible forced accent.
A turgid, unappealing piece that serves only to bore, and cause great distress to fans of Bette Davis and/or Cockney people, ‘Of Human Bondage’ is a grossly overrated, undeserved classic. Avoid like the plague.
Rating: 1 / 5
I spent my hard-earned money on this movie, and sat through an eternity of talky scenes, and Bette Davis acting all catty and cheap, just to get to the bondage scenes.
Well, THERE AREN’T ANY! NOT ONE BONDAGE SCENE AT ALL! I was waiting for the scene in which Bette Davis dons her dominatrix getup, and has Leslie Howard down on the floor at the tip of her whip, bound in a leather harness, with a gag in his mouth.
I’m here to tell you: YOU CAN SAVE YOUR MONEY, BECAUSE IT’S NOT IN THERE! Not even Bette Davis in a catsuit!
Spend it instead on “Buxom Bondage Club,” which you can find in the DVD section here at amazon.
This movie is a RIPOFF!!!!!!!!
Rating: 3 / 5
Bette Davis plays femme fatale Milred Rogers, Leslie Howard plays an introvert with a major complex because of his club foot. Of course, he falls madly in love with her. However, she never loves him and repeatedly uses him. She destroys his life and still he gives up everything for her. Until her sad demise from tuberculosis. Then, he decides to go for the next best thing: marriage to the girl we really like.
What makes this movie bad?
Throughout the movie, we want Leslie’s character, Philip, to become a painter. He shows no motive to become a doctor, and yet becomes one anyway. We don’t care therefore, about his occupation, and when Mildred destroys all of his paintings, our heart breaks, but he shows no emotion.
He never loves the girl he marries in the end, but she adores him. There is no happy ending.
He never learns to stand up for himself. It takes the death of this caustic woman for him to move on. What is wrong with him?
Basically, this movie was a huge disappointment.
Rating: 1 / 5
I fell in love with Leslie Howard when I saw this movie. How could you not? The waitress was crazy for refusing his proposal.
Rating: 4 / 5
An extremely dated film in terms of script and style, “Of Human Bondage” sports exceptionally excellent performances with Bette Davis a standout in the role of a vicious-minded cockney waitress on the make. The dated quality of the film will no doubt turn most viewers off, but those who endure are in for a treat.
Rating: 3 / 5