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now voyager | Year: 1942 Classification: Drama Directed: - Irving Rapper Actors/Actresses: - Bette Davis - Paul Henreid Davis in her element NOW VOYAGER is one of Bette Davis' greatest screen vehicles. It's a tender love story, taut psychological drama and inspiring tale of physical and spiritual transformation. It runs neck-and-neck with DARK VICTORY as Davis' greatest performance. Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is a lonely and repressed spinster living with her cold and domineering mother (Gladys Cooper). Her kind sister-in-law (Ilka Chase), fearing that Charlotte is headed for a complete breakdown, sees no other option than to bring Dr Jaquith (Claude Rains) to the house to inspect the situation. Jaquith takes Charlotte back to his secluded estate Cascades where she recovers. When Charlotte travels abroad after her discharge, she meets the handsome but very-much married Jerry (Paul Henreid) and embarks on an affair. Charlotte then returns home alone, but soon finds herself back in Jerry's life when his troubled daughter Tina ends up at Cascades during Charlotte's relapse. Charlotte helps Tina recover and regain her life, and in turn, Tina helps Charlotte rediscover her romance with Jerry. The DVD includes music scoring sessions and the trailer. Bette Davis at her Best 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. Overwrought and Only Somewhat Convincing Melodrama Davis plays nice with middling results. The acting is fine, to be sure, but I miss the feistyness of her better movies. A hapless neurotic woman breaks free of her tyrannical and hateful mother. She seeks therapy and begins to live her own life. She learns that life can't be perfect but it can always be better & happiness s not impossible. Could be seen as encouragement to wallflowers. Buy Now Voyager at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Now Voyager Search with the Priority Search Engine on Now Voyager This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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