Classic Film Guide

Of Human Bondage (1934)

Better than average, this film stars Bette Davis (write in Academy Award Best Actress nomination!) as an unlovable waitress who's pursued by club-footed artist come medical student, played by Leslie Howard, who loves her at his peril. She runs off with Alan Hale's character only to later return to him, pregnant. He breaks his relationship with Kay Johnson's character because of his obsession with Davis's. The cycle repeats: she runs off with Reginald Denny's character, and this time it's Frances Dee's character, as the daughter of Reginald Owen's, that Howard's character drops to support Davis's and her baby. Directed by John Cromwell, this W. Somerset Maugham novel was adapted by Lester Cohen. Remade twice, once in 1946 and again in 1964 with Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey.

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