Dark Victory (Warner Bros.) (1939)

Bette Davis In ‘Dark Victory’ Opens Today (Opening Day) S the heroine of “Dark Victory,” the Warner Bros, picture opening at the Music Hall today, Bette Davis enacts what she herself considers the finest part she has ever portrayed in the course of the brilliant career that has established her indubitably as the greatest actress on the screen today. The role is so unlike any that Bette has ever done before and the picture itself is so far from the beaten track of banal, trite theatrica formula that it is likely to create more comment and discussion than any production which has come from Hollywood in many a day. It is a poignantly tender love story, one of the saddest and yet bravest tales ever told. On its face it is an up-to-the minute story about hard and brittle modern people, but under that bright surface it is a narrative of elemental emotions as old as the world itself, The girl portrayed by Bette is the gay and popular leader of a Mat 104—15c BETTE DAVIS and GEORGE BRENT hard-riding, hard-drinking social set. There is nothing of the spoiled heiress about her, however, for she is presented as a thoroughly likeable modern miss. Into her life of heedless gayety, the shadow of tragedy creeps when she becomes the victim of a mysterious malady. Taken against her will to consult a brilliant young doctor, she falls in love with him and he with her, But theirs can be no ordinary, placid romance, for, unknown to the girl, the young doctor has diagnosed her illness as one from which she cannot recover. That is the premise from which the authors spun as moving a thread of narrative as has ever been transferred to the screen. The beautifully writen screen play of Casey Robinson was based upon a stage play written by George Emerson Brewer, Jr., and Bertram Bloch. ‘The young doctor who shares the romance with Bette is played by George Brent, and other important characters in the story are portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald (newcomer from the stages of Dublin and New York), Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon and Dorothy Peterson. The production was directed by Edmund Goulding, who has a special standing in Hollywood as a director of pictures in which “heart interest” is the chief element. His last previous picture was “White Banners,” outstanding among last season’s films. Page Fourteen Bette Davis Scores Dramatic Trrumph In “Dark Victory” Gives Matchless Performance In Warner Bros. Hit (Review) lf there really was any doubt, after “Jezebel” and “The Sisters,” as to just who is the greatest actress on the screen today, there can certainly be no more argument on the matter after everyone has seen—and they will—Bette Davis in her latest Warner Bros. picture, “Dark Victory,” which opened watethe. jiciiawss tts Theatre yesterday. The new film is fully worthy of the talents of its lustrous star. It tells a love story of transcendant beauty and deeply moving poignantly and it provides a central character upon whose portrayal Miss Davis can lavish every resource of her consummate art. Of course, while every happening in the picture revolves about the girl played by Miss Davis, the production is by no means a monologue for her. An exceptionally able supporting cast, numbering in it such luminaries as George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Henry Travers and Ronald Reagan, was provided by Warner Bros., and the superlative performance of the star seems to have inspired them all to attain a degree of ensemble excellence which has rarely before been achieved either on stage or screen. In this screen play, based by Casey Robinson on a stage play by George Emerson Brewer, Jr., and Bertram Bloch, Miss Davis is presented as a 1939 model of all that is best in American girls of good breeding and great wealth. She is the gay popular belle of a hardriding and hard-drinking set of “horsy” society fok, but she is decent, unselfish and altogether likeable. Her only fault is that her life has been an aimless pusuit of pleasure. Then love and accompanying tragedy come into her life and change her into a mature woman, whose courage conquers life itself. The role, as can be seen from this brief summation, ranges across the whole field of human emotions, And Miss Davis is equally facile and convincing in the depiction of every emotion from the most light-hearted whimsicality to the utterest and darkest despair. But, above and beyond this pyrotechnical display of sheer acting skill, she imbues her performance with a deep sincerity which makes it impossibe to resist her, impossible to remain cold to her. As the young surgeon, Brent has a role of rare sympathy and charm, and he plays it with an honesty and a restrained intensity that makes Mat 206—30c IN SOUL-STIRRING ROMANCE—Bette Davis and George Brent head the cast of "Dark Victory," the brilliant romantic drama which had its premiere at the Radio City Music Hall yesterday. the romantic passage between him and Miss Davis scenes long to be remembered. Bogart has a role altogether unlike any he has ever done on the screen before and he fairly revels in it. He is the Irish horse trainer employed by the ill-fated heiress, and he is a vigorous, earthy fellow, crude, disturbingly frank and even insulting at times, but with 2 sentimental heart that makes him dare to love above his station. One of the most interesting features of the production is that it marks the Amreican screen debut of Geraldine Fitzgerald. This Irish lass, who obtained her training at the Gate Theatre in Dublin and then made a sensational New York stage debut in “Heartbreak House” last year, is obviously being prepared by Warner Bros. for stardom soon, and in a role that is second in importance only to that of Miss Davis in “Dark Victory,” she demonstrates that the opinion of her employers is more than justified. Travers is an appealing figure as the family physician of the stricken heiress, young Reagan is charming as an irresponsible. society youth whose only important feeling about anything is his deep affection for the heroine, Lesser roles are expertly handled by Cora Withersoon, Dorothy Peterson, Virginia Brissac, Charles Richman and Herbert Rawlinson. At the directorial helm of this remarkable production was Edmund Goulding, and no other director in Hollywood could have been better for the job. He has added considerably to his repute for beautifully restrained handling of stories which are mainly concerned with sentiment and feeling. New Song Introduced Vera Van, known to radio fans as “the girl with the blue velvet voice,” introduces a new song in Warner Bros.’ Bette Davis starring picture, “Dark Victory,” which opened yesterday at the Music Hall. “Give Me Time for Tenderness,” was composd_ by Edmund Goulding, who directed the picture. Elsie Janis wrote the lyrics for the song. NOT-SO-GAY WHIRL In this dramatic scene from "Dark Victory" at Music Hall, Bette Davis tries to forget her sorrows (without much success!) in the gaiety of night life. Cora Witherspoon and Ronald Reagan accompany her. Mat 201—30c