Dark Victory (1939)
Bette Davis
Lights Out In Vermont
Dark Victory (1939)
Studio: Warner Bros • 104 min B&W • AR 1.33:1 • US: 22 Apr 1939
Re-release: Warner Bros (June 2005)
Series: Bette Davis Collection, Vol 1 (5-DVD)
Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a spoiled 23 year old socialite with her whole life ahead of her. Among her passions: horses, and horse-racing; happily among her other possessions, she owns a stable of thoroughbreds. Her father is dead; her mother absent in Europe; Judith’s family seems to consist of best friend Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and perpetually drunk Alec (Ronald Reagan). New to her circle is Michael O’Leary (Humphrey Bogart) who joined the stables a month earlier, from Ireland, and is included in the first scenes featuring a promising young horse, Challenger. As everyone cheers the future prospects of Challenger, Judith gets a headache. Not long after, she takes a tumble down the stairs and is referred to Dr Frederick Steele (George Brent) who is a brain specialist – those damned headaches! He quickly recognises Judith is in serious shape, cancels his plans to retire to Vermont, and orders a battery of tests, and specialists, to confirm his grim prognosis. An operation to remove a brain tumour is ordered; the operation is a success but, when the tumour grows back, there is no hope. The prognosis is plain: Judith’s future is unalterably young, pretty and dead.
In a splendid turn of ethics, Dr Steele reveals the truth to Judith’s best friend Ann but withholds it from Judith. With just months to live, Judith can have a full life before the end when she will suddenly go blind and perish a few hours later. He proposes to Judith, whom he has fallen in love with, but before the marriage can take place, the truth leaks out: enraged and betrayed, she begins a drinking spree (allowing Alec to return to the story). Judith has continued riding and, following a triumph at the track, Michael summons her to the stables to check in on fever-ridden Challenger. In the ensuing conversation, Michael proves himself to be a philosopher and delivers some impassioned advice to our heroine. Judith resolves to become a better person; marries Dr Steele; retires with him to Vermont; invites Ann to come for a visit; and suddenly notices it’s getting dark out though the sun seems still shining in the garden ….
In lesser hands, this would be a bloody awful melodrama but somehow the performances lift it beyond the sum of the parts. Bogart has been particularly criticised as being “horribly mis-cast” as the stable hand with a suspect Irish brogue; and there is no denying the accent, and curly hair, seems out of place. There’s also almost zero sexual tension between he and Judith, which seems a seriously missed opportunity (Judith shows no interest in anyone except Dr Steele throughout). But to give him his due, Bogart’s “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” soliloquy plays well and is good enough to earn the character a place in the picture. Ronald Reagan has so little to do, it hardly matters whether he’s in the picture or not; and to be candid, he’s not the most convincing drunk on screen – and that’s his major contribution! Henry Travers plays the family physician and (grand-)father figure stand-in; he’s delightful, if repetitious (“I brought her into the world!”), and most audiences will flash back to kindly Clarence the Angel from Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life whenever he’s on screen.
Geraldine Fitzgerald’s best friend warmth is an added plus; her character and performance are more fully rounded than anyone else’s other than Davis. She’s particularly good in the interaction in the garden toward the end; and with Dr Steele on the patio as he reveals Judith’s fatal condition. In other notes, I have been less impressed with George Brent; here he rises to the occasion as a solid, patient doctor, and compassionate and passionate husband. Brent easily makes the case for why Judith falls in love with him, and forgives him. If nagging doubts remain, it’s perhaps that he’s just too goody two-shoes for my liking; other than professional ethics, there is no “dark side”, let alone any fallibility, to Brent’s portrayal – which ultimately leads to “job well done” as opposed to “bravo!”. As noted in the opening, this is an exquisite outing for Davis and is not to be missed. She was at the peak of her powers at the onset of WWII and, in the hands of a studio willing to surround her with the best available talents, she delivers superbly. Although Davis may not have seen it that way at the time, her legacy as a great film star is made up of a handful of performances which very definitely includes this one.
The sound and print are strong – although it seems that the latest Bette Davis box has even finer video remasterings. The supplements include a featurette highlighting other films vying for the 1939 Academy Awards (Gone With The Wind won Best Picture in a field of 10 nominees; Davis was nominated alongside Greer Garson, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo and, of course, Vivien Leigh who won for Scarlett O’Hara in GWTW); and an engaging commentary by film historian James Ursini and film critic Paul Clinton.
*OK, so that’s a stretch. Geraldine Fitzgerald also appeared in Wuthering Heights in 1939 and it opened 15 days earlier than Dark Victory. Plus, Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Wuthering Heights; she lost to Hattie McDaniel’s vivid portrayal of Mammy in GWTW.