Of Human Bondage Reviews

"Of Human Bondage" is a wonderful movie, yet very sad in so many ways. Bette Davis was excellent as "Mildred Rogers" and Leslie Howard was equally good as "Philip Carey".

The 1934 adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s seminal novel, Of Human Bondage, is notable for two things: it is widely considered the film that made Bette Davis a star, and the best of the three different adaptations of the novel (it was remade in 1946 and 1964). While there is much to laud over when it comes to the film, it also suffers greatly from the central performance by Leslie Howard and the fact that it has slipped into the public domain, meaning the film is flaw-ridden and of questionable visual and audio quality.

Of Human Bondage concerns itself with a sadomasochistic love affair (if that is the correct term for it, which it is not) between the fitfully dull Philip Carey, an Englishman studying to become a doctor, and the object of his obsession, Mildred, a vulgar and venomous waitress. She takes him for all he’s worth, uses him and spits him back out. He loves every minute of it, and lacks any kind of distinct personality, so he kind of deserves it.

Leslie Howard was always, to me, a bland and dull actor. His Ashley in Gone With the Wind was always so wishy-washy and boring that I never understood Scarlett O’Hara’s conflict in deciding between Rhett and Ashley. Rhett always seemed the obvious choice. Here that blandness works to a point. He still doesn’t emote much, and he’s a very stiff actor, but one can see how a man like him could get swept up in an obliterating force like Bette Davis’ Mildred. Davis doesn’t just walk off with the picture; she obliterates him at every turn. With her cockney accent and ability to send tremors down your spine with just the change in her eyes, Davis proved that she was far beyond the mandated roles she had been given at that time. She was a real actress. When she returns towards the end in the final throws of tuberculosis (syphilis in the novel, changed because of the Hays Code for the film), she looks like walking death. Naturally, she was ignored when it came time for the Academy Awards. Not even nominated, she was allowed as a write-in submission and placed third. She won the next year for Dangerous, a consolation prize if there ever was one. But, here it is, the first milestone of Davis’ long and illustrious career.