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Come revisit this sublimely romantic Bette Davis classic, once described as “the Hollywood melodrama to end all melodramas.”
Boston heiress Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is a neurotic spinster, thanks to the constant interference of her cold, domineering mother (Gladys Cooper). But after a stint in a sanatorium, where she receives the kindly attention of Dr. Jasquith (Claude Rains), Charlotte blossoms into an amazingly elegant woman – one of Hollywood’s most glorious transformations, beautifully realized in Davis’s unforgettable performance. Once out of her shell, Charlotte elects to go on a cruise where she falls head-over-heels for Jerry (Paul Henreid), a kind, unhappily married architect, and so begins one of the most moving romances ever depicted on the big screen.
Bette Davis campaigned hard for this role and, more than any of her previous films, she became absorbed in the character, including choosing much of her wardrobe personally. Adapted from Olive Higgins Prouty's 1941 novel, Now, Voyager is one of the very first Hollywood depictions of psychotherapy, and is also remembered for a rapturous orchestral score by Max Steiner, who with this film cemented his reputation as the Tchaikovsky of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Upon its original release in 1942, the film was an enormous success and its keynote scene – where Henreid suavely lights two cigarettes at once, one for him, one for Davis – has become the stuff of legend.
Slant Magazine calls Now, Voyager “a highly narcotic, swoon-inducing romance.” Davis’s performance “is at once spiky and angular yet also soft, sensual and vulnerable,” said The London Times in a recent reassessment of the film. “This entire movie is exquisitely crafted and passionately acted.” After we watch the movie, we’ll also take a brief look at Davis’s bio – and how a self-described New England Yankee moved through the New York stage and on to Hollywood, bucking the system to become one of the big screen’s most enduring stars.
Directed by Irving Rapper. Starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper.
Runtime: 117 minutes | Not Rated
