Rating: 
Summary: Top of the line
Review: Great old movie, filled with great plot, great acting, and a great score. This is probably Bette Davis's second best, first place going to ALL ABOUT EVE with its even better plot, actors, and twists and turns. But VOYAGER is different in that it's much more psychologically complex. And why not? It is, after all, dealing with psychiatrists and their craft. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of Bette's Best
Review: I can never decide whether VOYAGER is the best Bette Davis
movie or DARK VICTORY. She is fantastic as a spinster who
is dominated by her monster mother, beautifully played by Gladys
Cooper. After her nervous breakdown she begins a new life
and meets Paul Henried who of course is married but later she
is able to help Paul's child. This is the movie where he lights
two cigarettes and gives her one and ends with "Oh Jerry, let's
not ask for the moon, we have the stars" Fabulous score by
Max Steiner. Fine acting from Claude Rains, Bonita Granville,
Ilka Chase and in a very small role, Lee Patrick. They don't make 'em like this anymore so thank God for home video. The
DVD transfer is terrific.
Rating:
Summary: Bette Davis at her Best
Review: I caught this film late one evening when BBC2 was doing a run on black and white classics. All I can say is "what a little gem of a movie." I am not normally the love story type of person, but this film made me reach for the Kleenex box on more than one occasion. Bette Davis was superb as the repressed Charlotte Vale living with an overbearing mother, (Gladys Cooper at her nasty best) slowly being driven toward a nervous breakdown. Enter a kindly psychiatrist Dr Jaquith (Claude Rains)who teaches the unhappy Charlotte that life is for living and sets her off on a voyage of self-discovery. Charlotte falls in love of course, with the handsome Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) but he is unhappily married so all they can have is a gentle love affair that will surely break both their hearts. However it is Charlotte's love for Jerry that enables her to defy her mother and make a life for herself outside of the family home. Even though she and Jerry can't be together, Charlotte can help Jerry's trouble daughter Tina who has suffered the same fate as Charlotte, being a child her mother does not want. There are many memorable scenes, everyone remembers Jerry lighting two cigarettes at the same time and the words "Don't ask for the moon we have the stars" but my favorite scene is Charlotte remembering her youth and a rare boat trip with her mother when she falls in love for the first time, and that love is reciprocated. The young actor (I can't remember his name) who plays that brief love interest bought tears to my eyes, as did the innocent quality of Charlotte's love as her blossoming passion for this young man is crushed beneath her mother's cruel reign. Now Voyager is one of those films you can watch again and again, and the soundtrack is equally as addictive. I'm so glad this is film is now on DVD because I have practically worn out my tape watching it so many times. Worth the Kleenex value alone if you want a real weepie to munch popcorn by.
Rating:
Summary: Bette Davis at her Best
Review: I caught this film late one evening when BBC2 was doing a run on black and white classics. All I can say is "what a little gem of a movie." I am not normally the love story type of person, but this film made me reach for the Kleenex box on more than one occasion. Bette Davis was superb as the repressed Charlotte Vale living with an overbearing mother, (Gladys Cooper at her nasty best) slowly being driven toward a nervous breakdown. Enter a kindly psychiatrist Dr Jaquith (Claude Rains)who teaches the unhappy Charlotte that life is for living and sets her off on a voyage of self-discovery. Charlotte falls in love of course, with the handsome Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) but he is unhappily married so all they can have is a gentle love affair that will surely break both their hearts. However it is Charlotte's love for Jerry that enables her to defy her mother and make a life for herself outside of the family home. Even though she and Jerry can't be together, Charlotte can help Jerry's trouble daughter Tina who has suffered the same fate as Charlotte, being a child her mother does not want. There are many memorable scenes, everyone remembers Jerry lighting two cigarettes at the same time and the words "Don't ask for the moon we have the stars" but my favorite scene is Charlotte remembering her youth and a rare boat trip with her mother when she falls in love for the first time, and that love is reciprocated. The young actor (I can't remember his name) who plays that brief love interest bought tears to my eyes, as did the innocent quality of Charlotte's love as her blossoming passion for this young man is crushed beneath her mother's cruel reign. Now Voyager is one of those films you can watch again and again, and the soundtrack is equally as addictive. I'm so glad this is film is now on DVD because I have practically worn out my tape watching it so many times. Worth the Kleenex value alone if you want a real weepie to munch popcorn by.
Rating:
Summary: you haven't seen the dvd yet...
Review: I find it amusing that someone would lie about having seen the DVD when it hasn't even been manufactured yet. I wish I was clever enough to lie online and try to impress people.Oh yeah, the movie is great. When the DVD is released, I'm sure it will be stellar.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Turner Ent./Warner Bros.
Review: I have come to look to Warner Bros. Video for the excellence of their film-to-DVD transfers, and this is a prime example of How-It-Should-Be-Done. Beautiful 35mm source material, impeccably restored with all the specks, stains and dirt digitally removed. crispy dialogue and the Max Steiner score may be heard to full advantage. I am a 16mm film archivist who is slowly going over to the DVD format for the simple reason that products like this are becoming available. Thank you, Warner Bros. Video for taking the time to do justice to a great, great feature.
Rating:
Summary: Kiss me through my veil and let me go
Review: I have tried to concisely write a review several times for this wonderful movie and it always becomes far too long. In the world of Bette Davis movies, this ranks up there in the Excellent category with "Mr Skeffington". Perhaps there is something in the presence of Claude Rains? His first moment in the film is him tapping his pipe on one of Mrs Vale's ornate vases. There was something so natural and funny about it somehow that my interest was caught immediately. I don't know why. Other good moments: The way Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale entered the picture. First there is a shot of her hands carving on a little box; then the butler calls her, and she furtively disposes of a few half-smoked cigarettes before we watch her sensibly shod feet moving down the stairs with slow, deliberate steps. Besides her shoes, all we can see is the hem of a highly unbecoming skirt. And all we can hear is Mother downstairs, speaking to Dr Jaquith about Charlotte. And after Charlotte's sojourn at the sanitarium (which is neither surrounded by barbed wire nor filled with howling inmates, as Mother had threatened it would be) it is amazing to see the transformation that has taken place in her when you see her on the ship going on a pleasure cruise. Because she has taken the cabin of the relative lady's classy friend Renée Beauchamp, who cancelled her ticket at the last minute, the people on the ship all assume she is Miss Beauchamp, and treat her accordingly. Within five minutes the Man in Charge (who looks curiously similar to the Cowardly Lion) comes up to Charlotte with a man, an Ordinary American Tourist who is travelling alone, and the Man in Charge asks if they would be willing to share a carriage. Remembering her mother's negative attitudes towards Ordinary American Tourists, and Dr Jaquith's advice to mingle with people and get involved in the lives of others, Charlotte smiles and says she would be happy to accompany him. "Splendid," says the Man in Charge. "Splendid, splendid." Somehow he sounds curiously similar to the Cowardly Lion as well. Then in Rio, she and Jerry hire an "English-spoking" chauffeur to take them around the countryside. Unfortunately, about the only English this man can spoke is, "Yes, Senhor, banana-trees!" And Senhor Banana-Trees leaves the main road for a definitely less-travelled byway which snakes precariously over cliffs and clings to its mother-hill so closely that there is scarcely width enough to drive - much less turn around. I have been on roads such as these, and roads such as these have one other particular characteristic. There is never a guardrail. When they crash into a ditch trying to turn around, Senhor Banana-Trees exits the car first, frantically calling heavenward for help, a-weepin' and a-wailin' over the demise of his car. Jerry and Charlotte come out next, but their efforts to communicate with the dear Senhor are fruitless, and they are left behind to find a place to sleep in some rural Brasilian shack. I thought Tina was a very sweet little girl, genuinely grateful for all that Charlotte was doing for her, and to see her so happy at the end was very nice. I also thought it was nice that Jerry stayed with his wife like a good husband should rather than divorce her and marry Charlotte. Mother was genuinely vicious - a villain in every sense of the word, her true character masked to the outside world by her social status, civility, and money. And Dr Jaquith was a very nice understanding doctor. Why can't there be characters like this in movies today? Why can't there be ACTORS like this in movies today? Oh well. To use one of the most corny parting shots ever - let's not reach for the moon we have the stars. Even if they are all in the past, they're well-preserved on the screen for us forever.
Rating:
Summary: More Bette Davis from WB, PLEASE!!!!
Review: Kudos to Warner Brothers Home Entertainment for FINALLY releasing this film, which contains one of Bette Davis' finest performances. Her luminous work as the troubled spinster Charlotte Vale is perhaps her most sympathetic role, and she underplays with enormous restraint and feeling--truly one of the most powerful and memorable in the Davis gallery of indelible portraits. This DVD is GORGEOUS--a stunning print, masterfully brought to DVD the way ALL of the great Bette Davis Warner's classics of the 1930's and 40's should be. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Bette, Beautiful!
Review: Never thought of as being a drop dead beauty Bette Davis proves she truly was in this film. Now Voyager paints Davis as the comlpete package; they give her brains and an atitude of self assurance that just won't quit! But for one of the rare times in a film staring Davis. Davis' self assuredness is not the act of inner happiness but inner turmoil. After being denied true love in her younger days by an over protective mother Davis'grows sheltered and has a nervous breakdown only to be nutured by Claude Rains who turns Davis into an opulunet dame of society with a heart of gold or in other words her true self. With her new mindset Davis soon finds her self in love Paul Henreid but their love can not be Henreid is married and has a child who is in the same position Davis once found her self in. This is when the film flies. To see Davis turn in a magnificent portrait of an everyday woman turned mysterious lover is to watch one of the greatest performances on celluloid. The whole look of the film is mesmerizing it looks like a foggy dream as if Davis is still frumpy and unloved but living out a fantasy in her head with handsome men, amazing glamour (thanks to drop dead gowns by O. Kelly)and jewels. The last hour is hearbreaking as Davis turns into the parent that truly loves Henreid's daughter. The one bonds besides Davis' and Henreid's love that intertwines them. A film of this ilk has yet to be recreated and never will because a woman of Better Davis beauty will never exist again!
Rating:
Summary: If You Want To See The Best of Bette Davis
Review: Now Voyager and All About Eve. 'Nuff said.....
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