FAQ

Clubfooted medical student Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) falls for Cockney waitress Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis). Even though she scorns him, makes fun of him, and goes off with his best friend Griffiths (Reginald Denny), it is Philip to whom she turns whenever she is in need, and he always helps her out...even after she has a baby and turns to prostitution. However, Philip's obsession with Mildred affects his health, his personal relationships, and his ability to tend to his medical studies.

Of Human Bondage is also a 1915 novel by British playwright W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965). The novel was adapted for the movie by Lester Cohen. This is the first screen adaptation of Maugham's novel, followed by Of Human Bondage (1946) and Der Menschen Hörigkeit (1964).

Philip takes a job at the store where Mr Athelny (Reginald Owen) works and returns to his medical studies. Just when things are finally beginning to look up for Philip, Mildred comes to see him and asks him to take care of her because she is sick and has nowhere to go. The baby died last summer, and Mildred has developed a cough. Philip examines her and proclaims that it's her lungs and that there's not much he can do for her. Time passes, Philip graduates from the University of London, and takes a position as ship's physician on the SS Pacific. The day before he's about to set sail, he asks Athelny's daughter Sally (Frances Dee) to marry him when he returns, but Sally is reluctant to say yes, believing that he may feel differently when he returns. While making rounds that night at the hospital, he stops to see a new patient only to find that it is Mildred, and she is dying. The next morning when Sally arrives to see him off, Philip informs her that he's not taking the job on the steamship and asks her again to marry him. Again, she is hesitant, believing that it's just a 'noble gesture' on his part. As they walk along the street, Philip convinces her that he loves her, and Sally finally agrees to marry him.