NOW VOYAGER
US, 1942, 117 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper.
Directed by Irving Rapper.
Now Voyager is something of a 40s Warner Brothers romantic classic. It features one of Bette Davis’s many Oscar-nominated performances. However, she plays against type by portraying a mother-dominated spinster who eventually emerges as an attractive, increasingly confident woman. The title comes from Walt Whitman, “…. Now, Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find”.
The film has all the production values of Warner Brothers’ top-class films: strong cast (Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Oscar-nominated Gladys Cooper as the mother), black and white photography, affluent settings, a lush Max Steiner score (an Oscar-winner). The film, adapted by Casey Robinson from a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, has all the ingredients of noble-minded soap opera including family love and hatred, the heroine’s humiliation and emergence, the cruel mother, a marriage suitor, a re-emergence, a repressed girl and plenty of self-sacrifice. The last line: “Jerry, why reach for the moon when we have the stars?”.
1. The final impact of this film? As a romance story? A sentimental story?
2. Warner Bros' style of romance of the forties? Black and white photography, musical score?
3. The film as a Bette Davis vehicle? The variety in her characterisation? Her skill and the impact on audiences?
4. The focus of the title, the quotation from the poem, its relevance to Charlotte Vale? Indication of themes?
5. How well did the film give its Boston setting? The details of the Vale household, the house itself, the society position in Boston, the people who came to call?
6. Charlotte's life in this house? As the repressed spinster, the explanation for this, her look, her dress, the secrecy of her room? Her privacy and her private world? How interesting a character was Charlotte as a repressed spinster?
7. The importance of the characterisation of her mother? Her mother and her character? Her dominance, her dislike of Charlotte and its effects? Her selfishness? The final blaming of her mother's death on herself? Which scenes best illustrated the relationship between the two? The contrast with Charlotte as repressed confronted by her mother, and Charlotte with some assurance confronting her mother?
8. How interesting was the psychological background? The credibility of the use of psychology and language? The doctor and his clinic? His entry into the house, his claims on Charlotte and her frightened of him, her responding to him, her going to the clinic, getting used to it, her response to the treatment?
9. How credible and attractive character was the doctor? His personality, his style of running his clinic, the effect of the personnel with him on Charlotte?
10. How credible was the change? In appearance, dress, make-up? The significance of the voyage? The sophisticated looking Charlotte and yet her continued shyness? Her reluctance to mix? Her gradually meeting people?
11. What happened in the change in her personality? Was this credible? Could audiences understand it?
12. The appearance of Gerry and his impact on Charlotte? What kind of character was he? His wife, his daughter? His stories about himself? The attraction, fascination and love? The significance of the two cigarettes?
13. The effect of Gerry's care for Charlotte and her growing love for him? The impact on her life? The lack of fulfilment, yet the value for her? The transformation?
14. The significance of the story about Gerry's daughter, Charlotte's sympathy and understanding?
15. The irony and the coincidence of Charlotte helping Gerry's daughter? The significance of the 'phone call to Gerry? Life at the clinic? Especially in view of her guilt for her mother's death?
15. Was it inevitable that the two part? A satisfactory ending to the film and its themes?
16. Was the film too much of an unreal Cinderella story? Its use of coincidence? Or did it use these conventions well for a genuine audience response to humanity and feeling? How much achievement in this kind of soap opera?
