Amarga victoria

"Dark Victory" features a superb performance by Bette Davis, portraying Judy Traherne, a socialite struggling to come to terms with terminal brain cancer, a diagnosis that ironically brings her the greatest joy of her life, as she falls in love with and marries the doctor who diagnosed her, also superbly played by George Brent.

There's nothing really to dislike in this movie. The basic point is simple to figure out: whatever darkness you may face, make the best of it and live life to the fullest, because even in darkness there may be victory. The supporting cast is tremendous, particularly Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King, Judy's friend and assistant who helps her through this bewildering time of conflicting emotions. The movie is not exactly filled with suspense and there's no dramatic death scene, but the emotion is raw all the way through, and the sympathy the viewer feels for this couple who are so much in love but have so little time to enjoy it is very real.

This is very well done, and well worth a look see. I would rate it as a 7/10.

You've been feeling somewhat ill, and just not with it, your vision gets quite blurred, but you admit it, so it's off to see the doc, though you're in for quite a shock, an operation is required to get you fit. You start to mend, but there's something new you feel, seems you've fallen for the man who's made you heal, emotions at a high, but there are things you've been denied, then indiscretion leads you to a big reveal.

There's some racy dialogue to contend with, but the performances of both Bette Davis and George Brent are divine, in what is not your typical boy meets girl story of the time. You also get the added bonus of Humphry Bogart, although his Irish brogue would never earn him any rewards, and a future President provides some small support.

A film of its time but plenty to enjoy still today.

When Bette Davis was in ball buster mode, watch out!! But when she decided to suffer nobly, she could suffer with the best of them.

In "Dark Victory," Davis plays a woman dying from the deadliest of deadly diseases---the vague, unnamed illness that beautiful actresses died of in movies from the 1930s. The symptoms never seem to be the same, but they're always tear-inducing. Here, they make Davis go blind and we know when the disease is getting worse because a fuzzy black halo begins to appear around the edges of the frame.

Actually, this movie is a rather pale companion to the ultimate Davis melodrama, "Now, Voyager." But it has perhaps my favorite line ever delivered in a Bette Davis movie. She's found out that her illness is fatal, and she's at dinner with the doctor who has kept this from her to protect her fragile soul. When the waiter comes to take her order, she says, "How about a nice big helping of..." pause, as she throws the most withering of withering stares at her companion ..."prognosis negative." That should really be on a bumper sticker somewhere.

As for the other actors.....wait, other actors? No one watches a Bette Davis movie to see other actors. I'm not even sure there were any other actors in this movie.

Grade: B

By today's standards, "Dark Victory" might seem cliched. Of course, that could be because it was so greatly copied! Here is Bette Davis, a star in the fullness of her talent and ability. Bette simply shines; she owns this film from first frame to last. Ably supported by a wonderful cast (including a somewhat mis-matched Humphrey Bogart as an Irish-brogued horse trainer), it is still difficult to watch the film and not be constantly anticipating Bette's appearance in any scene she isn't in. The ending, even in those days, might have turned out either wimpy or waspish. In Bette's hands, it is neither. It works in a way that literally drains one of emotions. I might also add that, while revealing only a bare back, Bette shows more sensuality than a dozen of today's more "open" actresses.

There is an old disparaging adage about "showing the full gamut from a to b," in this movie Bette not only shows A to Z, but some letters that haven't been invented yet.

Despite my gushing over Ms. Davis, the film is solid in all departments. If you wish to experience when melodrama is great movie-making, see this film.

Judith is a wealthy Long Island society girl given to a dizzy lifestyle… Self-assured of her affluence and her faculty over men, she is unprepared for tragedy, which strikes in the form of a brain tumor… The underlying bravery and courage with which she faces this physical suffering eventually demonstrates the woman of substance that she is…

Among her friends is Ann King (Fitzgerald), her secretary, and handsome young Alex Hamm (Reagan), who directs her toward brain specialist Dr. Frederick Steele (Brent). The doctor diagnoses her illness as one which will end her life within a year… Judith falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage… When she discovers that her tumor is calamitous, she rejects the doctor's proposal considering it an act with compassion…

Davis provides scene after scene with the special magic only she was able of bringing vividly…

Swept into the current of events was Bogart playing an Irish horse trainer, who fails in an attempt to make love to her, yet encourages her to enjoy her time with her true love, George Brent…

The film was remade in 1963 as "Stolen Hours" with Susan Hayward, and as a 1976 TV movie under its original title with Elizabeth Montgomery