Dark Victory (1939)

85% of critics liked it
(20 reviews)
83% of users liked it
(4,879 ratings)

Bette Davis earned an Oscar nomination for her role in this classic four-hanky tearjerker. Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a very wealthy Long Island heiress whose life is a constant whirl of cocktails, parties, and wild living. Despite her hedonistic lifestyle, Judith derives little pleasure from… More Bette Davis earned an Oscar nomination for her role in this classic four-hanky tearjerker. Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a very wealthy Long Island heiress whose life is a constant whirl of cocktails, parties, and wild living. Despite her hedonistic lifestyle, Judith derives little pleasure from life except for her horses, cared for by stable master Michael O'Leary (Humphrey Bogart). When Judith begins suffering from headaches and dizzy spells, Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) gives her the bad news: she has a brain tumor that could threaten her life if not treated immediately. Judith consents to surgery, and Frederick informs her that the operation was a success. A grateful Judith quickly falls in love with Frederick, and they plan to marry. However, the tumor returns, and when Judith discovers that she has only a few months to live, she calls off the wedding, convinced that Frederick is marrying her only as an act of pity for a dying woman. A major success and perennial favorite, Dark Victory was later remade as Stolen Hours with Susan Hayward and as a TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 46 min.
Directed By: Edmund Goulding, Robert Butler
Written By: Bertram Bloch, George Emerson Brewer Jr., Casey Robinson
Genres: Drama, Classics

In Theaters: Apr 22, 1939 Wide
On DVD: Sep 23, 1997
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, Variety
Guilty pleasure: One of Warner's best acted melodramas and Bette Davis's all-time favorite, in which she lives hard but dies in dignity as an heiress gone blind. Also Davis revenge as Tallulah Bankhead failed to bring the role to life in the 1934 play.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Bette Davis loses her sight, and we gain a classic.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Bette Davis's frisky sprint sets the pace
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Naught but a torrid melodrama, but oh! what a humdinger of a melodrama it is! It's films like this that give trash a good name.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A classic women's pic that strings together a collection of syrupy clichés that can make a real man double up in pain.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
It's horribly dated, playing today like some weird, contrived burlesque of common sense.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
One of Bette Davis' best acted, most enjoyable melodrama, in which she gloriously plays a dying blind woman.
Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine
Dark Victory DVD: Prognosis Positive.
Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine
Even by the standards of a typical Bette Davis melodrama Dark Victory is an embarrassment of riches.
Chris Barsanti, Filmcritic.com
What happens when a three-hankie picture just isn't that sad? You get Dark Victory.
Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
Of interest to both Goulding and Davis fans...Dark Victory catches both of them operating at their best while also learning new tricks from each other.

Read all 11 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

This is a good movie, with good actors, and a good story. It's a dramatic and exciting thriller. I saw it a while ago, but I remember it was good.
Randy T

"I think I'll have a large order of PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE." Bette Davis has a brain tumor and about 10 months to live. A classic that's replete with melodrama and old fashioned sentimentality.
First L

Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is rich and young, but also has been having dizzy/ fainting spells. She is all but dragged to the local brain surgeon, Dr. Frederick "the Animal" Steele (Brent) who tells her he needs to pop her melon open for a look-see. He goes in there,… More
Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is rich and young, but also has been having dizzy/ fainting spells. She is all but dragged to the local brain surgeon, Dr. Frederick "the Animal" Steele (Brent) who tells her he needs to pop her melon open for a look-see. He goes in there, takes care of what he can (it's all very vague), but the results are pretty bad, in fact, it's "prognosis: negative". Judy only has months to live, so the doctor conspires with her friend/ personal assistant (Fitzgerald) to keep it from her, and let her live her life as always, without imminent death looming over her head. If you think this all sounds like an excellent musical comedy, while I'd agree with you, you'd best think again. Dark Victory is played pretty straight, and while there is some unintentional humor (Humphrey Bogart as an irish horse trainer replete with bad, phony accent?), it's not exploited to the point of being thoroughly enjoyable. I'm also convinced that Ronald Reagan was the David Arquette of his day, in that he's quite convincing at playing the 'dumb' guy, to the point where you're not so sure he's acting. Reagan was really... wow. And that guy got to be our president??? Dr. Emmett Brown's incredulity at Marty McFly's flippant remark that "Reagan is president in the future" seems completely warranted and even logical to me now, as I'm sure I'd react the same way if some kid from the future came back to tell me about President Arquette. Also, I realize that back in the 30s, smoking was seen as a health exercise, much in the way we treat juicing machines today, but watching the doctor smoke while talking to the patient who's lying in bed and smoking, it's a little too much. If you were to edit out the smoking scenes from this movie, it would be about 30 seconds long. Anyway, at the end of the movie, she dies, but you already knew that. What's amazing to me is, the doctor marrys her, drags her off to Vermont of all places, and then holes up in his laboratory to do unrelated research. He's so engrossed in his work, he even gets annoyed when she dares bring him his lunch. Gee, what a way to spend your last remaining days on earth, as a subservient wife to an asshole doctor in the middle of nowhere Vermont.
nefnie l

Is there a bad Bette Davis movie? If so, I haven't found it yet. This is one of my favorites.

Cast

            Bette Davis as Judith Traherne

            George Brent as Dr. Frederick Steele

            Humphrey Bogart as Michael O'Leary

            Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King

            Ronald Reagan as Alec Hamin

            Henry Travers as Dr. Parsons

            Cora Witherspoon as Carrie Spottswood

            Dorothy Peterson as Miss Wainwright

            Virginia Brissac as Martha

            Charles Richman as Colonel Mantle

            Herbert Rawlinson as Dr. Carter

            Leonard Mudie as Dr. Driscoll

            Fay Helm as Miss Dodd

            Lotta Williams as Lucy

            Wilda Bennett
            
            Diane Bernard as Agatha

            Richard Bond
            
            Sidney Bracey as Bartender

            Nat Carr
            
            Mary Currier
            
            Frank Darien as Anxious Little Man

            Edgar Edwards as Trainer

            John Harron as First man

            Leyland Hodgson
            
            Stuart Holmes as Doctor

            Alexander Leftwich as Specialist

            Frank Mayo as Judith's Friend

            Will Morgan
            
            Jack Mower as Veterinarian

            David Newell
            
            Wedgewood Nowell
            
            John Ridgely as Second Man

            Jeffrey Sayre
            
            Rosella Towne as Girl in Box

            William Worthington as First Specialist

            Maris Wrixon
            
            Ila Rhodes as Secretary

            Marian Alden
            
            Paulette Evans
            
            Jack Goodrich as Doctor

            Eddie Graham
            
            Elizabeth Montgomery
            
            Anthony Hopkins
            
            Michele Lee
            
            Janet MacLachlan
            
            Michael Lerner
            
            Harry Travers
            
See full cast