Rent Of Human Bondage (1934)

Cockney Melodrama.. - Of Human Bondage review by Steve

This is the role Bette Davis went to war with Warner Brothers to get, and which made her a star. She is a Cockney waitress who cruelly breaks the inoffensive student (Leslie Howard) who is in love with her. She doesn't care, but humiliates him because she has the power and it is in her nature

And he would rather have her spite than nothing. It's a psychosexual power game. The adaptation was compromised by censorship. So, Mildred dies of poverty and TB- in the book she is a sex worker who contracts syphilis. The difficulty of condensing an epic meditative novel into an 82m melodrama would have meant trade-offs anyway. It's still transgressive.

Howard is studying anatomy. His own physical injury (he has a deformed foot) has marked him as a victim and is a symbol of his emotional inferiority. She is inarticulate and ordinary but has a sexual charisma that prevails. There is nothing else quite as extreme as this in thirties Hollywood, even precode. Her death scene is phenomenal.

Davis is astonishing. Her accent is a disaster. She is raw and wild, but this is one of her stand out performances. Howard is fine, though too old. But Bette is dominant, as she should be. It's like watching a sadistic, predatory creature torment its victim. It's not a realistic portrayal, it's far more than that: it's horrifying and among the greatest performances of the decade.

Fascinating 1934 Film Featuring a Young Bette Davis Complete with Catastrophic Cockney Accent! - Of Human Bondage review by PV

I have to be honest, I did not enjoy this BUT it is a film from 1934, and interesting to see a 25 year old Bette Davis, though ear-splitting to hear her mangled Cockney accent which is so utterly atrocious it should win some sort of award (the Dick Van Dyke Cockney Accent Oscars?).

I have not read the 1915 novel OF HUMAN BONDAGE originally called BEAUTY FROM ASHES. The upper class and predominantly homosexual Somerset Maugham’s autobiographical novel is a profound exploration of personal struggle, emotional complexity, and the pursuit of fulfillment. The later title is from SPINOZA and is all about whether reason or emotion are in charge of man's actions - that man is slave to his passions/emotions so should master them and his life via reason and logic.

The novel is semi- autobiographical, esp re the bits in France though the novel also has sections in Germany. Maugham had a stammer (instead of a club foot), lost his parents early in life, was sent to live with his aunt/uncle. He studied medicine and his tastes in literature coincide with those of the main character in this book. Although Maugham was never an artist, he was interested in painting and owned some works by Picasso, Renoir and Monet to boot. The novel and film are full of references to art.

It is rather extreme for 1934, with its themes and the paintings of nude women on display - and the cautionary tale of the doomed Bette Davis character is milked for all its worth. The audience root for the rather hapless Leslie Howard character, who jus cannot help himself, even if he is in effect eating crumbs from the floor. Some may think the morality misogynist and old-fashioned; I'd say the characters exist now, and are just human, in any age.

2 stars