Format: 
Black
& White / Dolby 5.1 / Mono
Rating: 
Original release date: 1939
Video/DVD Release Date: 9/19/2000
UPC: 12569502925
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From Barnes &
Noble.com
This lavish four-hankie melodrama provided Bette
Davis with one of her more successful and reliable star vehicles, netting
her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in the process. The story concerns a
glamorous socialite/heiress who develops a potentially fatal brain tumor, a
tragic event that nonetheless brings love and redemption to her previously
frivolous life. Davis is a powerhouse as always -- her charisma and strength of
personality dominating the picture -- and her supporting cast includes the
stalwart Geraldine
Fitzgerald, a wobbly Ronald
Reagan, and budding star Humphrey
Bogart. As one would expect, director Edmund
Goulding wraps Davis up as prettily as possible, outfitting her in a variety
of stylish togs and staging her numerous crises in a string of attractive
settings. Laden with clichés and not ashamed to embrace the most reliable
devices of emotional manipulation, Dark Victory is an unabashed bit of
soap opera that revels in every one of its tear-inducing moments. Amy
Robinson
From All Movie Guide
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
