Of Human Bondage (1934)

Director: John Cromwell                                    Writer: Lester Cohen
Film Score: Max Steiner                                    Cinematography: Henry W. Gerrard
Starring: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Reginald Denny and Alan Hale

Of Human Bondage is the film that made Bette Davis a star, though it’s difficult to see why. Davis certainly played her share of despicable characters, from Jezebel to Baby Jane, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that this was the worst of all. The story comes from the novel by Somerset Maugham, which RKO had optioned. After director John Cromwell had seen a young Bette Davis in Michael Curtiz’s latest film he suggested her to producer Pandro Berman, who not only agreed with the choice but was able to get the blessing of Maugham himself. Leslie Howard, on the other hand, was anything but happy. He had a lot of clout in Hollywood at the time and hated the idea of an American playing the part. On the set he was clearly unhappy with her during filming. Still, Davis persevered. She received tremendous reviews, much to the horror of Warner Brothers who had loaned her out to RKO. Many thought her lack of an Oscar nomination for best actress was a snub by the Academy, but it seems clear that in an era that finally managed to put teeth into the production code, her performance was something of a throwback. Either that or Jack Warner engineered the omission. Either way, as oftentimes happens, she was awarded the Oscar the very next year for the film Dangerous.

The opening credits roll over a Parisian skyline. Leslie Howard is being driven through town and gets out at a café. There he meets with his art teacher, Adrian Rosley, and tells him he’s thinking of giving up painting because he doesn’t believe he has the talent. Rosley goes to his studio to see for himself and agrees, so Howard moves back to London to study medicine. During examinations at the free clinic, his professor embarrasses him about his clubbed foot, but later one of his fellow students, Reginald Sheffield, asks him to assist in gaining the affections of a waitress, Bette Davis, because he’s been to Paris. The first shot of her in the restaurant is waiting on Alan Hale. Though she acts rudely to Howard, he’s smitten but she sees his clubbed foot as he’s leaving and dismisses him. He doesn’t know that, however, and comes back the next day. She agrees to go out with him, but is still cold and distant as he desperately tries to win her over. It’s painful to watch as Howard tries so very hard to be with her and she is simply mean and nasty to him. Though he threatens never to see her again, after he flunks his exams he seeks solace in her and manages to kiss her, keeping his hopes alive. Against the advice of all his friends at school, Howard says he wants to marry Davis. When he proposes, however, she drops the news that she’s engaged to Hale.

On the advice of Reginald Denny, Howard seeks out a new love and finds a good one. Kay Johnson is everything that Davis is not, kind, supportive, appreciative and thoroughly in love with him. She makes him study hard for his exams, and his life is finally on the right track. Then Davis shows back up, pregnant and abandoned by Hale. But when Howard confronts Hale, it turns out he never actually married her. Realizing she has Howard on the hook, Davis now plots how she can get Howard to marry her and avoid scandal, even though she doesn’t care for him at all. The story is a fascinating one for its portrayal of raw emotion. In many ways it could be seen as a proto-noir film, but for the fact that it’s overly dramatic and too sentimentalized to be noir. Still, the obsession that Howard has for Davis, even though she is ruinous to his life, would fit very well in that genre. There is a relentlessness to the plot that is also very noirish, and it can be difficult for the viewer to take. One can see why the film was so popular in its day. Even though it was made in 1934, it still fits very much into the pre-code ethos of the early thirties.

Davis’s Cockney accent is a bit forced, which is too bad. It might have been better had her part been one of a stranded American. Alan Hale’s German accent is just as bad, though. Director John Cromwell has a very pleasant style that is indicative of the era. He makes Howard’s foot the focal point of many transitions and, with the aid of Henry Gerrard, gets some fluid camera movement in many of the scenes. One of his favorite transitions is a simple pan that moves from one scene into the next. Max Steiner’s original score for the film was evidently blamed for laughter by preview audiences and he was ordered to go back to write a new one. It’s not a particularly memorable score for the composer and perhaps his haste in assembling new material is the reason. Despite the initial misgivings of Leslie Howard, the actor would go on to work in two more films with Davis, The Petrified Forest in 1936 and It’s Love I’m After the following year. The film was remade twice, but neither of them resonated with audiences. The original Of Human Bondage remains a powerful film for its time and comes highly recommended.