Rating: 
Summary: The fascinating film that made Bette Davis a star
Review: Of Human Bondage, based on the novel by Somerset Maugham, is a powerful but melancholy film that I find strangely mesmerizing. Leslie Howard stars as Philip Carey, an introverted, artistic man who comes to London to study medicine after abandoning his dreams of becoming an artist in Paris. Carey was born with a club foot, and we watch rather mortified as one of his instructors makes him show his foot to the class, revealing the embarrassment that he normally keeps contained on the outside. One day in a nearby café, Carey sees waitress Mildred Rogers (played fabulously by Bette Davis), a rather ill-natured, brazenly taciturn waitress. Her attitude is rather rude and certainly strange and cold, but Carey is immediately fascinated by her. After inexplicably falling in love with Mildred, he succeeds in winning a few dates with her, putting up with her mind games, deception, and seeming lack of humanity. She is frustratingly noncommittal in everything he asks her, replying "I don't mind" to virtually all of his questions and allowing him almost no emotional contact with her at all. He finally resolves to ask her to marry him, but she shocks him by declaring her impending nuptials to another man. Carey's depression grows, and his grades in medical school suffer horribly. In time, he finds a young woman who is a bit matronly but genuinely cares for him. Then Mildred shows up again, pregnant and alone. He takes care of her with money he doesn't really have only to see her leave again with another man. This trend continues throughout the story. Whenever Carey finds happiness within his grasp, Mildred shows up unannounced, and he finds himself powerless to save himself from her debilitating influence on him. Carey and Mildred are complicated creatures. While Mildred basically comes off as an unfeeling tramp, one can't help but believe that there is something human inside her that is genuinely attracted to Carey and the kind of gentlemanly life he can offer her, but her affections continually prove themselves fickle at best. As for Carey, his fatalistic love for Mildred makes no sense whatsoever, as she never fails to treat him harshly. Other women do come to love him deeply and truly, and Sally, the daughter of one of his patients, seems perfect for him, yet one strongly senses the fact that he can only truly love Mildred. It is really that part of the story and not the tragic life of Mildred herself which makes this movie so poignant and sad. Of Human Bondage is the movie that made Bette Davis a verifiable star way back in 1934. Her performance is certainly fantastic, but she really provides only a hint of the actress she would become. The fact that her character is so impossibly self-serving and unfeeling makes it hard to identify with or like her (especially when she gets angry), yet Bette Davis makes her an unforgettable character of almost hypnotic fascination. I should say that Leslie Howard is also wonderful in this movie. The kind of aloof passive resistance he showed five years later in Gone With the Wind is a perfect match for the character of Philip Carey. He is almost incapable of standing up to fate, allowing his life to be brought to the point of ruin, both financial and emotional, by a woman who seemingly lives to torment him. I'm always left with a strange feeling after watching this movie, one of strange disquiet and sentimentality. Released in 1934, Of Human Bondage remains a powerful and compelling story of human passion, and Bette Davis' performance is eternally magical.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, poor DVD transfer
Review: The film is brilliant, but the quality of the DVD, particularly the audio, will try the patience of many viewers. Much dialogue is undecipherable.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent film, great price, but dubious transfer to DVD
Review: The film is brilliant, but the quality of the DVD, particularly the audio, will try the patience of many viewers. Much dialogue is undecipherable.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful film!
Review: This film is a must see if you're a fan of Bette Davis or Leslie Howard. Even if you're not fans of these two incredible stars, you're sure to enjoy this film. It's all about a doctor (Leslie Howard) who develops a crush on a coarse waitress (Bette Davis) and the hardships that follow. This is a great film to watch if you enjoy classic films. Also starring in this movie are Frances Dee, Kay Johnson and Reginald Denny. With great performances all the way around, this is a must see!
Rating:
Summary: The Joseph Goebbels story this ain't!
Review: This film offers excellent portraits of three very different women. Each woman is connected to the clubfoot milquetoast Philip, played exquisitely by Leslie Howard. Norah (Kay Johnson) is a striking Nordic beauty. She writes Romance novels under a male pseudonym. She is strong, devoted and demonstrates her love for Philip by insisting that focus on his medical studies. This means nothing to Philip because Norah's love takes on mundane characteristics. It isn't full of histrionics or morbid devotion. Sally (Frances Dee) is quite young and fickle in her way. She seems fascinated with Philip and appears "fond" of him. However, she lacks any passion whatsoever and comes across as merely a mirror image of Philip. She's capable and strong, but ultimately dull. She's not the kind of girl one goes mad over or that causes one to nearly flunk out of medical school because he can't stop obsessing over her. Those afflictions attack our hero because of Mildred, famously played by Bette Davis and her flickering Cockney accent. Mildred is unencumbered by almost every affectation expected in polite society of the well-bred woman. Mildred is ill-bred, snotty, corrosive, opportunistic and terminally bored. Philip falls into the psycic sewer for her and she gives him nothing for his troubles but frustration and heartbreak. He stupidly loves her and she sees it all to clearly. She sees it as a weakness and despises him for it. The clubfoot plays an interesting psychological role in this film. There is suggestion that Philip suffers from a clubfoot of the mind--something that has emotionally crippled him and turned him into a pathetic ladies blouse who is quite unmanly in his inability to cast women aside when they no longer serve any purpose. Overall, it is difficult to recognize love in this film. There is very little affection on screen. Sex is, of course, only implied. There is a marvellous musical sequence that comes just after one of Mildred's many betrayals. The music fits perfectly with Philip's wan dejection. His depression is expressed with expert clarity, and it is a stunning moment in an thoroughly enjoyable film.
Rating:
Summary: The Joseph Goebbels story this ain't!
Review: This film offers excellent portraits of three very different women. Each woman is connected to the clubfoot milquetoast Philip, played exquisitely by Leslie Howard. Norah (Kay Johnson) is a striking Nordic beauty. She writes Romance novels under a male pseudonym. She is strong, devoted and demonstrates her love for Philip by insisting that focus on his medical studies. This means nothing to Philip because Norah's love takes on mundane characteristics. It isn't full of histrionics or morbid devotion. Sally (Frances Dee) is quite young and fickle in her way. She seems fascinated with Philip and appears "fond" of him. However, she lacks any passion whatsoever and comes across as merely a mirror image of Philip. She's capable and strong, but ultimately dull. She's not the kind of girl one goes mad over or that causes one to nearly flunk out of medical school because he can't stop obsessing over her. Those afflictions attack our hero because of Mildred, famously played by Bette Davis and her flickering Cockney accent. Mildred is unencumbered by almost every affectation expected in polite society of the well-bred woman. Mildred is ill-bred, snotty, corrosive, opportunistic and terminally bored. Philip falls into the psycic sewer for her and she gives him nothing for his troubles but frustration and heartbreak. He stupidly loves her and she sees it all to clearly. She sees it as a weakness and despises him for it. The clubfoot plays an interesting psychological role in this film. There is suggestion that Philip suffers from a clubfoot of the mind--something that has emotionally crippled him and turned him into a pathetic ladies blouse who is quite unmanly in his inability to cast women aside when they no longer serve any purpose. Overall, it is difficult to recognize love in this film. There is very little affection on screen. Sex is, of course, only implied. There is a marvellous musical sequence that comes just after one of Mildred's many betrayals. The music fits perfectly with Philip's wan dejection. His depression is expressed with expert clarity, and it is a stunning moment in an thoroughly enjoyable film.
Rating:
Summary: Fans new and old must see this film!
Review: This film was brilliant! Ms. Davis takes over the story with her character and is absolutely spellbinding in her manipulation, captivating!. I am a long time fan of Bette Davis. I decided to read the novel before watching the movie. As movies tend to spoil books. NOT THIS TIME! About half way thru the novel I just could not take anymore and needed to watch the film. (The novel is LONG). The movie regained my interest in finishing the book and made it a more relaxing read. I agree that there needs to be a bit more of a romantic allure of Howard's character towards Davis' (as in the original story)- but Ms. Davis did such an amazing job that I did not finds this to be too large a disappointment. If you are a new Davis fan and looking for movies to test-drive, this one is an absolute must! You cannot go wrong. The 3 movies you MUST watch to see a great example of her captivating range : Of Human Bondage Dark Victory All About Eve Also, for Biographies - check out the one written by Alexander Walker.
Rating:
Summary: Deep and Ironic but fun for you when you're down
Review: This is the type of movie that is good for you to watch when you are really fed up with someone. It is full of poetic justice and just leaves you with the feeling of hope! It is a wonderful drama!
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Summary: Mildred and Phillip: More Alike Than You Think
Review: Those who have read Maughm's OF HUMAN BONDAGE agree that the greatness of the book is focused on the tight yet oddly bound relation of Phillip Carey to Mildred Rogers. The 1934 version intensifies the electricity between the club-footed Phillip (Leslie Howard) and the sluttish Mildred (Bette Davis). It is not immediately apparent that there is a connection between them that cannot be explained away as blind infatuation on Phillip's part or mean-spirited golddigging on Mildred's. Howard plays Phillip as a man who has suffered all his life. He was born with a club foot for which his childhood companions unmercifully ridiculed him. His shy, overly sensitive nature did not permit him to rebound from these rebukes. Instead, he sought refuge in a world of dream-filled books. He knew nothing of the kind of woman that Mildred was when she stepped into his life as a cheap waitress in a cheap restaurant. Miss Davis also plays Mildred as one who has been raked over the coals of mean-spirited men. But in her case, her good looks combined with her low-caste breeding practically guaranteed her unchivalrous treatment by the very kind of those men who either used her or were in turn used by her. Phillip sees in Mildred the passion that he lacks. She sees in him yet another opportunity to lash back at a world that contained only pain for her. Nearly as soon, as Mildred begins dating Phillip, she dates others, and does not even try to hide her infidelities. Alan Hale and Reginald Denny sparkle in the roles of men who show no shame in lowering the already low esteem of Phillip Carey. Most of the film details the same dreary rounds of Mildred's breaking Phillip's heart with unspeakably cruel actions, leaving him for another, getting dumped by those others, and returning contritely to Phillip. Phillip takes her back even after he has found some happiness with other women.Director John Cromwell presents a view of two people who seem radically unlike in everything that ought to count in a relation, yet in her desire to lash out in a rage fueled by no self-esteem and in his desire to accept that abuse because of his own esteem issues, OF HUMAN BONDAGE indelibly portrays the destruction that results when one human forms a bondage with another all for the wrong reasons.
Rating:
Summary: Mildred and Phillip: More Alike Than You Think
Review: Those who have read Maughm's OF HUMAN BONDAGE agree that the greatness of the book is focused on the tight yet oddly bound relation of Phillip Carey to Mildred Rogers. The 1934 version intensifies the electricity between the club-footed Phillip (Leslie Howard) and the sluttish Mildred (Bette Davis). It is not immediately apparent that there is a connection between them that cannot be explained away as blind infatuation on Phillip's part or mean-spirited golddigging on Mildred's. Howard plays Phillip as a man who has suffered all his life. He was born with a club foot for which his childhood companions unmercifully ridiculed him. His shy, overly sensitive nature did not permit him to rebound from these rebukes. Instead, he sought refuge in a world of dream-filled books. He knew nothing of the kind of woman that Mildred was when she stepped into his life as a cheap waitress in a cheap restaurant. Miss Davis also plays Mildred as one who has been raked over the coals of mean-spirited men. But in her case, her good looks combined with her low-caste breeding practically guaranteed her unchivalrous treatment by the very kind of those men who either used her or were in turn used by her. Phillip sees in Mildred the passion that he lacks. She sees in him yet another opportunity to lash back at a world that contained only pain for her. Nearly as soon, as Mildred begins dating Phillip, she dates others, and does not even try to hide her infidelities. Alan Hale and Reginald Denny sparkle in the roles of men who show no shame in lowering the already low esteem of Phillip Carey. Most of the film details the same dreary rounds of Mildred's breaking Phillip's heart with unspeakably cruel actions, leaving him for another, getting dumped by those others, and returning contritely to Phillip. Phillip takes her back even after he has found some happiness with other women.Director John Cromwell presents a view of two people who seem radically unlike in everything that ought to count in a relation, yet in her desire to lash out in a rage fueled by no self-esteem and in his desire to accept that abuse because of his own esteem issues, OF HUMAN BONDAGE indelibly portrays the destruction that results when one human forms a bondage with another all for the wrong reasons.
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