Of Human Bondage (1934)

Philip Carey: "You know, you have a lovely smile. You should use it more often."

By John Cromwell
With Leslie Howard and Bette Davis

Of Human Bondage is one of these old movies that fell into the public domain by lack of copyright renewal, therefore it is widely available and when I saw that it had both Bette Davis - who I enjoyed in All About Eve (1950) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) with her characteristic gaze; and Leslie Howard who was in Gone with the Wind (1939) but also in the lesser known The Petrified Forest (1936), a friend and supporter of Humphrey Bogart he helped him rise to fame.

In the film, Philip Carey is a young English man living in Paris hoping to become a painter. One night a man who he asked for advice tells Philip that he is talentless and needs to find another meaning to his life. Philip decides to become a doctor, however, a club foot severely impends on his self-esteem and confidence . When Philip goes to a café and sees the young flirtatious Mildred with another patron, he falls in love immediately. Mildred turns out to be really cold towards Philip and only uses him to go to the theater when it pleases her, while still seeing the man of the restaurant. Nonetheless, Philip decides to ask her to marry him but Mildred prevents it by saying she is already getting married. A few months later, Philip finds himself in a similar situation where a woman, Norah, loves him but he doesn't love her back. When Mildred reappears, broke, pregnant and alone, Philip can't help it and helps her, leaving Norah pondering about what happened to him. Philip and Mildred are unable to live together yet their paths will cross many times and again.

The best thing in the movie has to be Bette Davis' performance of the cold and cynical Mildred. She is despicably perfect in her vanity. The main issue I had with the film is probably a very personal one, but it's the fact that a man falls desperately in love with a woman. I don't believe in such a thing. Now, I do believe a woman can take advantage of a man in this very same way, but Philip felt too at loss with his own feelings that I found it hard to believe--especially because of the fact that while Mildred is absent from Philip's life, he gladly partake in another woman's life, with or without shared feelings that remains to be seen.

The dialogues are very clever, particularly the discourse which inspired the movie title about human bondage. I wish there were more to be analyzed from the line of work of Philip who goes from painting nude women to medical student to business man without particular choices, as if on railtracks. What pleased me the most was the character of Mildred, it was powerful and weak at the same time. A thin line that makes characters real.

I liked: Strong female lead. Cyclic. Pride and vanity - a downfall.

I disliked: Filming letters is annoying for the plot, I sometimes couldn't decipher them. The role of the child. Last scene with blocked out sound.

73/100
Not your typical romance, fortunately carried out by two grand actors of the 30's.