Of Human Bondage

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Classic Movie
Review: Every time I see this I always want to grab poor Leslie Howard by the coat sleeve, shake him , and shout "WAKE UP YOU FOOL--SHE'S USING YOU!" Of course, the fact that she does use him, and that he won't wake up is the whole basis of this movie!! Bette Davis is utterly believable in the role of Mildred, and Leslie Howard turns in a good performance as her milk toasty admirer. You almost breath an audible sigh of relief at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Revolting
Review: First of all, the 'quality; of this DVD is reprehensible. It's a blurry, jerky print of a very dirty negative and simply will not do. It's difficult to believe this is a DVD, but there you go. Catch this movie on TV if you can, or if you're a huge Bette completist, pay as little as you can for it.

Now, on with the review. To say that 'Of Human Bondage' is a silly and dull movie is an understatement of the first magnitude. It takes people's preconceptions of silly and boring and completely redefines them, creating instead new and terrible adjectives to replace them. 'Flapsnot' could be one, 'Turd-esque', another. Adapted from a well-loved W. Somerset Maugham novel, this original version of the movie (there are two others) attempts to utilise procrastinated silences and over-long facial close-ups of its leading man, Leslie Howard, to express the deep emotional turmoil and self-destructive impulses wrought on his life by Mildred The Slutty Waitress, played by the usually sublime Bette Davis. The trouble with this, however, is that Mr. Howard is, was, and ever shall be, a wooden character actor, with just one facial expression in his repertoire (see 'Gone With The Wind' for proof of this), so we can't really tell if his character, Philip Carey, is upset, bored, hungry, depressed or gassy. The result is a leading man of unprecedented blandness. We don't care about his disability, or his artist's soul, nor do we give one whit about why he finds Mildred so compelling - we don't give a damn about him in general.

Running a close second to Mr. Howard's performance in terms of sheer pointlessness is that of Ms. Davis in the role of Mildred. Normally, Bette Davis is a true virtuoso, a delight to watch and a memorable character, no matter how drab her supporting cast. Sadly, in this, her first major motion picture, she comes off as totally and utterly irritating. As the wanton and manipulative Mildred, she has neither enough lines nor screen presence to pull off a convincing man-eater. She is disjointed because her character, direction and particularly her script are disjointed. We can't believe that any man, even one as shy and ill-favoured as Carey, could find her attractive. And the accent! In all of history, there has surely never been a worse attempt at a cockney accent. Ever. We can hear that she's struggling with it - she mispronounces Champagne as something like 'Sham-paaaaaan' and her own clipped British voice is clearly audible beneath it all. It's a horrible thing to see such a great actress in a terrifically demeaning role.

Devoid of all human emotion, the film goes from bad to worse (and ends up at confusing and unwatchable) when Carey finally rids himself of his lust for Mildred and begins dating impoverished-but-upstanding Sally Athelny, a woman who appears to live in a calendar. In fact, it's thanks to over-ambitious and disasterously-edited 'special' effect sequences like this, prevalent from the get-go, that, by the pictures' end, we don't actually know what's going on. Mildred dies and we assume Carey gets married to Calendar-Woman. The fact that he does not see her as she dies totally negates any emotion we think he may have once felt for her. The film is full of confusing and contradictory vignettes such as this, and with such a terrible DVD transfer, it's quite likely that you'll switch off well before Bette's one fiery speech, which is itself marred by her horrible forced accent.

A turgid, unappealing piece that serves only to bore, and cause great distress to fans of Bette Davis and/or Cockney people, 'Of Human Bondage' is a grossly overrated, undeserved classic. Avoid like the plague.

Rating:
Summary: Leslie Howard's finest work
Review: I fell in love with Leslie Howard when I saw this movie. How could you not? The waitress was crazy for refusing his proposal.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie... Horrible DVD
Review: I like this movie and was excited to see it out on DVD, but was very disapointed with the transfer. Look like they went straight from VHS (used rental) to DVD. It's extreamly washed out and completely unwatchable. I don't know how Madacy can expect return business with quality as bad as this. I will never buy Madacy again.

Rating:
Summary: Foolish Heart vs. Cheating Heart
Review: I liked this film because of Bette Davis' (Mildred Rogers) performance. The character was strong, selfish, conniving, and in today's jargon, a supreme "diva" as far as her relationship with Philip Carey (played by Leslie Howard) was concerned. The nomination for Best Actress was well deserved. Though Philip is the perfect foil for Mildred, I could not sympathize or like him. His very minor handicap (a cub foot) gave him an inferiority complex to the point that he would invite another man along to entertain his date. Give me a break! The extent of Philip's infatuation with Mildred is conveyed by the perfect use of dream sequences. The character could have been redeemed had he treated Nora and Sally better. Instead, he was portrayed as even more pathetic in his treatment of them.

Of Human Bondage is a clasic film that depicts how love, if not blind, can compel people to overlook serious character flaws in a person and how it may take many years (if ever) for one to get pass the devastation of a bad relationship.

Rating:
Summary: Take notice Warner Brothers
Review: I purchased this DVD for rental at my store and not only was i pleased with the price and the film transfer but I was thrilled at the amount of extras on this edition. This DVD contains about 20 minutes of "bloopers" from early Warner Brother films. Granted, these "blopers have shown up on "Hollywood Outake" tapes but it was a nice addition to this DVD. The "newsreel" section was interesting as well, even though historically out of context with the film. . This DVD package is one of the best I've seen of older Warner Brothers films. Wouldn't it have been nice if "Jezebel" and "Now Voyager" had such extras? Take notice Warner.

Gary Dennis,

Movie Place, New York City

Rating:
Summary: Take notice Warner Brothers
Review: I purchased this DVD for rental at my store and not only was i pleased with the price and the film transfer but I was thrilled at the amount of extras on this edition. This DVD contains about 20 minutes of "bloopers" from early Warner Brother films. Granted, these "blopers have shown up on "Hollywood Outake" tapes but it was a nice addition to this DVD. The "newsreel" section was interesting as well, even though historically out of context with the film. . This DVD package is one of the best I've seen of older Warner Brothers films. Wouldn't it have been nice if "Jezebel" and "Now Voyager" had such extras? Take notice Warner.

Gary Dennis,

Movie Place, New York City

Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies I've seen.
Review: I would definetly put this on my list of top ten favorite films. It really is a mus see movie. Leslie Howard is perfect in the role of Phil. In my opinion it's one of his best films. Bette Davis perfect in her role as well, as Mildred. It's a great movie, and is a nice love story too, anout a kind hearted man who won't give up on a women even though she scorns hime and is cold to him. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Print Sloughed Off on Terrible DVD
Review: I'm not commenting on the quality of the movie itself, but of the DVD. This DVD has been taken from a worn-out, scratchy, blurry, indistinct print. Other reviewers have commented that there is no discernible difference between VHS and DVD versions; no doubt there has been no movement by any organization or company to locate a better print. Beware of buying this for more than "cheapie, budget"prices. I recommend renting the DVD if you must see the movie; otherwise I'd be patient and wait for the day the movie is "rediscovered" and issued properly so that it can actually be seen and heard.

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.