Dark Victory 1939 123movies

Watch: Dark Victory 1939 123movies, Full Movie Online – Judith Traherne is at the height of young society when Dr. Frederick Steele diagnoses a brain tumor. After surgery, she falls in love with Steele. The doctor tells her secretary that the tumor will come back and eventually kill her. Learning this, Judith becomes manic and depressive. Her horse trainer Michael, who loves her, tells her to get as much out of life as she can. She marries Steele who intends to find a cure for her illness. As he goes off to a conference in New York failing eyesight indicates to Judith that she is dying..
Plot: Socialite Judith Traherne lives a lavish but emotionally empty life. Riding horses is one of her few joys, and her stable master is secretly in love with her. Told she has a brain tumor by her doctor, Frederick Steele, Judith becomes distraught. After she decides to have surgery to remove the tumor, Judith realizes she is in love with Dr. Steele, but more troubling medical news may sabotage her new relationship, and her second chance at life.
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Ratings:

	7.5/10 Votes: 11,422
	88% | RottenTomatoes
	N/A | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 107 Popularity: 7.336 | TMDB

Reviews:

Love or hate her, this film shows why Bette was a star…
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.

Hollywood always recognises a good tear-jerker when it sees one
It is strange how an unsuccessful play can sometimes be turned into a highly successful film. The best-known example is probably “Casablanca” which is generally regarded as one of the great classics of the American cinema, even though nobody would consider its original source, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, one of the great classics of the American theatre. (Indeed, the play has never been published and was first performed as recently as 1991).

Similarly, the original stage version of “Dark Victory” only ran for a few weeks on Broadway, but Hollywood always recognises a good tear-jerking story when it sees one, and quickly snapped up the film rights. The plot is essentially that of “La Traviata” or, for that matter, that of “Love Story”, which is perhaps the most famous cinematic treatment of this theme in recent decades, although it is far from being the only one. Indeed, in recent years terminal illness has become a stock cliché, the starting-point of all those “disease of the month” TV movies. In the thirties, however, the theme was perhaps rather more original than it would be today.

The plot can be summarised as boy meets girl, boy marries girl, girl dies tragically but bravely of some fatal condition. The girl in this case is Judith Traherne, a spoilt, hedonistic socialite whose main interests in life are party-going and horse riding. The boy is Frederick Steele, the brilliant surgeon who operates on her when she is diagnosed with a brain tumour. The tumour, in fact, proves to be incurable, but Steele, who has fallen in love with his patient, pretends to her that the operation has been a success to allow them a short period of happiness together. A crisis, however, comes when Judith discovers that Steele has lied to her. The title is taken from a speech in which Judith declares that if she can face death with courage this will represent a “victory over the dark”.

It is said that Bette Davis considered this her best performance, although I would respectfully disagree; I found her better in some of her other films from around this period, such as “Jezebel” or “The Letter”. She is, however, by far the best thing about this film, and succeeds in lifting it above the level of the run-of-the-mill weepie it could so easily have been. She was not the most naturalistic of actors, but her very theatrical style of acting, characterised by heightened emotions, fitted in well with the “filmed theatre” style of film-making which prevailed at this time, and she must be regarded as one of the leading screen actresses of the thirties and forties. (Whether her style of acting would fit in with modern styles of film-making is another matter altogether). The character of Judith goes through considerable development in the course of the film, from the spoilt little rich girl of the opening scenes to the strong, courageous, dignified woman of the later ones, so Davis was required to call on a considerable range of emotions.

None of the other actors are as good as Davis. I was surprised to see a screen legend like Humphrey Bogart cast in the minor role of Michael, Judith’s Irish groom who is secretly in love with her, especially as Bogart makes a hopeless attempt at an Irish accent. The role of Steele is a rather thankless one as he is less a character than an idealised archetype of the noble, idealistic doctor, and George Brent’s performance is a rather stolid one. He does not bring much passion to the role, even though he and Davis were lovers in real life at the time they made this film. It might have been better if these two actors had switched roles; Brent, an Irishman by birth, would have had no problems with the accent, and Bogart might have made Dr Steele a more interesting figure.

I must confess that tear-jerkers are not always my favourite movie genre; my view of “Love Story” is similar to Oscar Wilde’s view of Dickens’ “Old Curiosity Shop”- a man must have a heart of stone to be able to watch it without laughing. “Dark Victory” is a rather better film than “Love Story”, although it does have its weaknesses. Nevertheless, I am surprised that it was nominated for an Oscar in 1939, a year which is sometimes regarded as the best in Hollywood’s history, when some much better films, such as “Dodge City”, missed out. 6/10

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 1 hr 44 min (104 min), 1 hr 36 min (96 min) (West Germany)
Budget 0
Revenue 0
Status Released
Rated Approved
Genre Drama, Romance
Director Edmund Goulding
Writer Casey Robinson, George Emerson Brewer Jr., Bertram Bloch
Actors Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart
Country United States
Awards Nominated for 3 Oscars. 3 wins & 6 nominations total
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.37 : 1
Camera N/A
Laboratory N/A
Film Length (11 reels), 2,871 m (Netherlands)
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm