Directed by:
Irving RapperScreenplay:
Casey RobinsonCinematography:
Sol PolitoComposer:
Max SteinerCast:
Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, John Loder, Ilka Chase, Lee Patrick, Franklin Pangborn, Katharine Alexander (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Nervous spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is stunted from growing up under the heel of her puritanical Boston Brahmin mother (Gladys Cooper), and remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist (Claude Rains) gives her the confidence to venture out into the world on a South American cruise. Onboard, she finds her footing with the help of an unhappily married man (Paul Henreid). Their thwarted love affair may help Charlotte break free of her mother’s grip—but will she find fulfillment as well as independence? Made at the height of Davis’s reign as the queen of the women’s picture and bolstered by an Oscar-winning Max Steiner score, Now, Voyager is a melodrama for the ages, both a rapturous Hollywood romance and a poignant saga of self-discovery. (Criterion)
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Reviews (2)
Now, Voyager may at first glance look like a 1940s Hollywood melodrama, some would even say it's penny-dreadful. Yet you really can't erase the time gap without knowing the context. In the Protectorate, we mostly had a hard time with stars like Bette Davis, but nowadays it is not a problem to study at least something about the author of the novel's subject, isn't it. Olive Higgins Prouty became famous for her drama "Stella Dallas" (1923), a story that inspired stage and film adaptations (including a modern one with Bette Midler). She went on to write a pentalogy of so-called "Vale novels" from 1931 to 1951, of which "Now, Voyager" is the third volume. Prouty's work has traditionally been praised for its emphasis on psychotherapy, which she derived from her own experience. Prouty was also a personality who greatly influenced Sylvia Plath and if we put all this together, the resulting film becomes more understandable. Let's not be fooled by the packaging.
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Bette Davis showcases her mastery in a movie that couldn't captivate me at all. Its heroine is great, even her male counterpart is good, but overall the film just bored me and I didn't find anything in it that sufficiently caught my attention. However, the transformation from an ugly duckling to a beautiful one was worth it.
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