Dark Victory, written by Casey Robinson, based on the play by George Emerson Brewer and Bertram Bloch - Nine out of 10

Dark Victory, written by Casey Robinson, based on the play by George Emerson Brewer and Bertram Bloch

Nine out of 10

This motion picture is important on many levels, one of which might be that it seems to have launched the career of godly Humphrey Bogart, who is ‘just a stable hand’ – as he describes himself in a  dialogue with the main character – but his presence here, though in a supporting role would be noticed and later on ’Bogie’ would be the  star in classics like The Maltese Falcon http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-maltese-falcon-by-dashiell-hammett.html - Casablanca -- http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/casablanca-with-humphrey-bogart-and.html - The African Queen http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-african-queen-by-c-s-forester.html  and many other extraordinary movies.

Dark Victory is also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/5 - and it benefits from the performance of another member of the select committee that lives eternally on The Olympus of Cinema, Bette Davis, the first actress to benefit from an independent contract – before that, actors and actresses had been under slavish arrangements with this studios that dictated what they did, even what would be projected from their private lives, for the use of the audiences –and the star of films like Now, Voyager - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/now-voyager-based-on-novel-by-olive.html - The Whales of August - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-whales-of-august-with-bette.html and many more films...

In Dark Victory, Bette Davis has the role of Judith Traherne, a character who has so much in common with the star, independent, strong, gritty, vivacious, determined, intelligent, modern, charming, remarkable as she is, in the prime of her life, but alas affected by some mysterious ailment, which is puzzling her and her entourage, when she tries to jump with her horse and has an accident, caused as she confesses, by the fact that she had seen two images and instructed the quadruped to jump over the false image…

George Brent is just as good in the role of Doctor Frederick Steele, a busy brain surgeon who is in a hurry to catch a train when they first meet, but mesmerized by the attractive beauty, he decides to miss the voyage and consults her, worried by what he sees, the fact that she does not feel with her right hand and confuses different materials which she has no problem in identifying as silk and other things with her other hand.

Upon further investigation, he concludes that these manifestations are caused by a brain tumor and he needs to operate immediately, as soon as it is possible, given the severity of the problem and because a clear bond is created between the two, the patient is obviously under a spell, she obeys though she is generally a little spoiled, upper class woman, with access to stables, horses, money and even Humphrey Bogart works for her as the man at the stables, the one who warns her that a new born animal might die of bronchitis during one night when she seems to care little if anything about the rest of the world

If Hollywood motion pictures are known and often mocked for the rosy, Panglossian depictions of life, wherein Fast and Furious, but often ridiculous heroes beat all adversity and triumph in the end against well, common sense, this is that one rare bird, rara avis, that makes it clear from the very title, Dark Victory, that this is going to be quite negative and there would be ‘death’ as the idiot in The White House has just said yesterday, after denying the pandemic and calling it a ‘hoax’ made up by the Democrats, and much talk about it going to zero, when it was just starting, he is now denying any responsibility and lying as he always does

The operation does not solve the problem and Doctor Steele and other experts conclude that the patient is going to die in a matter of months, though he does offer a small silver lining, saying that she would not suffer, but just die peacefully and without pain…

Frederick Steele talks with the friend of the patient, Ann King aka another superb actress, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and shares with her the tragic diagnosis, or ‘the negative prognosis’ as it is officially inscribed in the medical records and they decide to keep this a secret from the dying woman, though that would be illegal in many lands today…

As they secretly meet and come together to the residence, though one after the other, not at the same time, Judith is suspicious and jealous, but frank about it, expressing a mild concern about their possible interaction…

Alas, she is about to find out accidently, as she visits the office of the doctor who has become her lover and might soon be her husband, and she has a breakdown, hidden to some extent by an attempt to exaggerate her exuberance in the company of others and trying to pretend she is blissful, only to confess to her stable man…

This is a very sad, but wonderful meditation on dying, enjoying the present, trying to get the best out of life, dignity, bravery, self-sacrifice and altruism…