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#347 - Now, Voyager
Irving Rapper, 1942
A frumpy spinster gets a physical and mental makeover before embarking on a romance with a married man she meets aboard a cruise ship.
Now, Voyager is another one of those classic Hollywood melodramas that isn't bad by any measure but it's still hard to think of it as anything more than alright. It's reasonably well-made, even if it does invoke the tiresome trope involving a homely bespectacled woman becoming highly attractive once she drops the glasses and gets dolled up, which has gone beyond cliché by now (and I do wonder how fresh it was in 1942). Fortunately, Bette Davis is a good enough performer to sell such a transformation as she plays the black sheep of a well-to-do Boston family due to her unsightly physical appearance and various psychological problems. Her new psychiatrist (Claude Rains) decides to push her to extremes in order to bring her out of both her internal and external shells - before long, she's looking like Bette Davis and on a cruise ship where she meets a debonair gentleman (Paul Henreid), exploring the highs and lows of their tumultuous courtship.
The film does betray its assembly-line nature a bit with its cast of familiar actors, somewhat utilitarian romantic storyline, and appropriately emotional yet none-too-distinctive background score. Of course, when it comes to films like this I don't mind the more boilerplate aspects provided there's some good talent involved. I'm still yet to see a genuinely bad performance by Davis and she has some decent actors backing her up here. The melodramatic aspects are handled rather well as Davis is constantly at odds with various members of her family, especially her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), as well as her relationship with Henreid's charming family man going in some rather unexpected (but not entirely disappointing) directions. Definitely recommended to those with a fondness for old-school Hollywood romance, though I can't see its appeal going further than that.
Irving Rapper, 1942
A frumpy spinster gets a physical and mental makeover before embarking on a romance with a married man she meets aboard a cruise ship.
Now, Voyager is another one of those classic Hollywood melodramas that isn't bad by any measure but it's still hard to think of it as anything more than alright. It's reasonably well-made, even if it does invoke the tiresome trope involving a homely bespectacled woman becoming highly attractive once she drops the glasses and gets dolled up, which has gone beyond cliché by now (and I do wonder how fresh it was in 1942). Fortunately, Bette Davis is a good enough performer to sell such a transformation as she plays the black sheep of a well-to-do Boston family due to her unsightly physical appearance and various psychological problems. Her new psychiatrist (Claude Rains) decides to push her to extremes in order to bring her out of both her internal and external shells - before long, she's looking like Bette Davis and on a cruise ship where she meets a debonair gentleman (Paul Henreid), exploring the highs and lows of their tumultuous courtship.
The film does betray its assembly-line nature a bit with its cast of familiar actors, somewhat utilitarian romantic storyline, and appropriately emotional yet none-too-distinctive background score. Of course, when it comes to films like this I don't mind the more boilerplate aspects provided there's some good talent involved. I'm still yet to see a genuinely bad performance by Davis and she has some decent actors backing her up here. The melodramatic aspects are handled rather well as Davis is constantly at odds with various members of her family, especially her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), as well as her relationship with Henreid's charming family man going in some rather unexpected (but not entirely disappointing) directions. Definitely recommended to those with a fondness for old-school Hollywood romance, though I can't see its appeal going further than that.