151. Now Voyager (1942)

Directed By Irving Rapper

Synopsis

Ugly Duckling turns into Swan. Falls in love with married man and helps turn his daughter into a little swan as well.

Review

I don't know what wrong with me, if I didn't like boobs so much I'd probably be gay. I love this kind of melodramatic soap opera stories. And that is what this film is, a soap melodrama with Rachmaninov soundtrack and everything. When the strings of the second piano concerto start, probably the tackiest piece of classical music ever, you know you are in for a treat.

There are many good features about this film, Betty Davies is fabulous and there is a very good amount of character development here, from Bettie's transformation both physical and psychological to the kind of text book psychology used in the film to explain reasons and motivations for actions it is a tour de force.

So it is well written, very well acted, with a great avuncular Claude Rains as a psychiatrist and the hateful character of Bettie's mother also played to perfection, you really want her dead. So if you love melodrama and good ones get this.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The title comes from the Walt Whitman poem "The Untold Want", which reads in its entirety: The untold want by life and land ne'er granted, / Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find.

Although not an original idea, the movie's most famous "bit" is having Paul Henreid put two cigarettes in his mouth, light both of them and hand one to Bette Davis.

Last Scene: