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Director: Edmund Goulding

Release Date: 22 April 1939

Main Cast:

Bette Davis … Judith Traherne

George Brent … Dr. Frederick Steele

Humphrey Bogart … Michael O’Leary

Geraldine Fitzgerald … Ann King

Ah… Bette Davis. There is none finer. An absolute gem of Hollywood’s golden years actors and, arguably, the finest of them all.

Bette Davis was one of a kind. She took on the studios and fought for better roles and was more than worth her weight in gold to Warner Bros.

Dark Victory is not only one of her more well known roles but is also one of her finest. I prefer the grittier characters that she played (such as her marvellous portrayals of Julie Morrison in Jezebel and Margo Channing in All About Eve), but she is still magnificent in this. She turns the sentimental and somewhat average storyline into something worthwhile.

Quite why we had to endure so much of the maid in the closing scene is beyond me though. Why waste such time with an absolute nobody in the script when they could have been showing us the wonderful Bette is beyond me.

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