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sabotai · 01-30-2020, 10:04 PM

Of Human Bondage (1934)

Directed By: John Cromwell
Written By: Lester Cohen, Ann Coleman
Starring: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee
Length: 83 min.
Genre: Drama
Based on: 1915 novel "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham

The only reason to watch this movie is to see Bette Davis and work towards your "Bette Davis Collection" Achievement. There isn't much to see here.

Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) is born with a club-foot, and he's a wanna-be artist. A teacher tells him he has no artistic talent so he returns to London to study medicine. Okay, so he might turn out to be a sympathetic character. Disabled and told he sucks at his passion. Let's see how he deals with adversity.

He meets a woman named Mildred (Bette Davis) and does everything he can to win her over. She's a bit of a player, she tolerates Carey's advances while also tolerating the advances of other men. And so it goes throughout the movie. They sorta get together, but then she rejects him. She falls on hard times, he takes her back. She rejects him again, but comes running back when things go sour. He takes her back again, she ends up rejecting him again. So often this happens, along with a few other dumbass decisions our hero makes, that I just can't feel sympathy for his character at all by the midpoint of the movie. I'm now actively rooting against him, hoping he ends up miserable.

Bette Davis absolutely nails her character. Months later, I can still hear her "I don't mind" line in my head. I can see why voters for the Oscars had a write-in campaign on her behalf. But I can also see why the Academy overlooked the movie, because besides her performance, this was a stinker. I didn't think any of the other performances were particularly good and the story was more annoying than anything else.

Everything about this movie, besides Davis, was bad.

My Rating: 4/10
IMDB User Rating: 7.2/10 (5k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 83% Critics (10-2), 69% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 2k votes)

01-30-2020, 10:04 PM	#309
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	Of Human Bondage (1934) Directed By: John Cromwell Written By: Lester Cohen, Ann Coleman Starring: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Frances Dee Length: 83 min. Genre: Drama Based on: 1915 novel "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham The only reason to watch this movie is to see Bette Davis and work towards your "Bette Davis Collection" Achievement. There isn't much to see here. Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) is born with a club-foot, and he's a wanna-be artist. A teacher tells him he has no artistic talent so he returns to London to study medicine. Okay, so he might turn out to be a sympathetic character. Disabled and told he sucks at his passion. Let's see how he deals with adversity. He meets a woman named Mildred (Bette Davis) and does everything he can to win her over. She's a bit of a player, she tolerates Carey's advances while also tolerating the advances of other men. And so it goes throughout the movie. They sorta get together, but then she rejects him. She falls on hard times, he takes her back. She rejects him again, but comes running back when things go sour. He takes her back again, she ends up rejecting him again. So often this happens, along with a few other dumbass decisions our hero makes, that I just can't feel sympathy for his character at all by the midpoint of the movie. I'm now actively rooting against him, hoping he ends up miserable. Bette Davis absolutely nails her character. Months later, I can still hear her "I don't mind" line in my head. I can see why voters for the Oscars had a write-in campaign on her behalf. But I can also see why the Academy overlooked the movie, because besides her performance, this was a stinker. I didn't think any of the other performances were particularly good and the story was more annoying than anything else. Everything about this movie, besides Davis, was bad. My Rating: 4/10 IMDB User Rating: 7.2/10 (5k votes) Rotten Tomatoes: 83% Critics (10-2), 69% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 2k votes)