This film seems like it’d be polarizing. It’s a bit darker than a lot of the films from this time period, but not exceptionally. If someone begging to feel happy had to pick between this and All Quiet on the Western Front, I’d recommend Dark Victory. It’s generally considered one of the best films to feature the great Bette Davis. Her excellent acting is present here. If you need your movie to be livelier, she’s great at that. Davis is so good at giving big, loud performances, but without overacting. She doesn’t seem like a cartoon character and instead seems like she’s alive. This film’s story is an adventure! And she’s living it! You really care about her and it’s so emotional watching the downer moments, because Bette’s so good at getting you to care about the plot and the characters. Her expressive face when something bad happens is so impactful. Also impactful is her mixed-emotioned face at the end.
A common criticism I give to films is the use of music when there really shouldn’t be. Tender, quiet, sorrow moments don’t often need music. They work much better when you let the emotions hit you. The music in this film is sometimes overly theatrical. They can really weaken the impact that should be carried only by the dialogue and the acting. One of the best moments of the film is when one character lights another’s cigarette with deafening silence and we learn something of the character due to information established earlier. That cold nothingness is more effective than any score. Light a cigarette, that’s it.
Many of the performances are moderate. While Davis as Judy is very good, her friend Ann is overacted a bit. Some of the other actors, like Henry Travers (who appeared in It’s a Wonderful Life) and Ronald Reagan (who was later the president), are easy to forget. A drama like this needs brilliant, top tier actors to get you as invested as possible. Some of the dialogue is overly theatrical in nature. The worst lines are some of Davis’. A particular one is along the lines of, “I hate you because X, I hate you because Y!” This doesn’t seem to come off like how a real person would act in this situation. Basically all the problems go away for the ending. The ending is so poignant and well done. It seems like the film was made just for it. The black and white film and dim cinematography paint the tone very well. It’s not the end, but a new beginning.
SPOILERS
Judy learns that she needs to have surgery for a brain tumor. There’s an awkward scene where she and Ann refuse to allow it, then in the next scene, she’s about to do it. A doctor, Dr. Steele, realizes the tumor can’t be removed and Judy has less than a year to live. Ann and Judy later learn this at different times. A lot of the drama comes from when and how and if they’ll learn this morbid info. Despite the film never mentioning a cure on the way, your mind is yelling “There’s got to be a cure!”. After the surgery, someone says to Judy, “And may you never be ill again,” which has a dark double meaning. The film gets meatier when after Steele tried to hide the illness from the starved for life Judy, she learns the truth. There’s some great scenes of her trying to accept this. This film is also largely a romance between Steele and Judy. If I was told this beforehand, I’d think it’s a bad idea, but the film plays the romance well. All of the film boils down to near the ending, where the two are simply living the best life they can while she can. It’s rewarding to see the two of them not worrying and just loving each other.
The ending is quite good. Judy realizes she’s going to die in a few hours and her husband is going to go to some event. Judy pretends to be fine and gets him going, as she doesn’t want him to miss it. She has Ann leave, who runs away, almost in tears, and she lies in her bed. The film ends with her lying there. This ending works well because of its simplicity. She’s just going along and making some dues. There’s no big overly theatrical performance. This film is constantly confronting the audience with dying and it boils over here when she’s about to die. This film can depress as it makes you think about your own death. You can sometimes almost forget you will die, but this movie subtly tells you otherwise. It makes you think about if and how you may have wasted your life so far and how much is left. This movie is so frank with that. You can compare yourself to Judy. The scenes earlier in the film, when Steele was hiding Judy’s secret, are mirrored as she’s hiding this from him at the end. You also think of the beginning of the film, where Judy was carefree and full of life. She often talked about the future. Now, she’s accepted death. It would’ve been nice to have more scenes of her accepting death earlier on and less quibbling between her and Steele, but the problems aren’t too bad.
OVERVIEW
Dark Victory is sometimes too over the top and almost silly, but the quiet and subtle moments are very effective. While many might know of Bette Davis as a loud actress, she carries subtlety here. The ending demonstrates just how good she is. This film can get bogged down in details and other unnecessary elements, but Davis pushes this movie above what it easily could’ve been and makes these problems more forgivable.
The Filme Diary 