Dark Victory

1939 drama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A rich girl has some disease, but I was too bored to pay attention to what it was. She and the doctor fall in love, and the doctor isn't sure whether or not he should tell her the truth about whether she has less than a year to live or not.

Another film in my journey through the year of 1939, and this is easily the worst one I've seen. Let's just say it's tied with Gone with the Wind for the worst film of 1939.

Both Bogart and Ronald Reagan are in this. If it was the first film I'd ever seen from Bogart, nothing in his performance would have convinced me that the guy had much promise. With Reagan, I could have seen this performance in 1939 and figured that he would make a pretty good president some day because he doesn't say anything racist or sexually assault a single woman.

Of course, I'm supposed to be amazed by Bette Davis's performance rather than the performances of any of the men. And you know what? I didn't like it at all. Bette comes in hot, like she's simultaneously trying really hard to remember all of her lines and refraining from biting off a face. And there are times when she seems a little dazed. I was confused by the performance mostly, especially when she asks another character, "What does prognosis mean?" and "What does negative mean?" in a way that had me trying to figure out if her character was really stupid or trying to cleverly let somebody know she was on to them.

I never wish for fictional characters to get hurt, of course, but I may have laughed when Bette Davis fell down some stairs a few days after her horse ran into a wall and knocked her to the ground.

There's an awesome scene of fake 1930's movie driving when Bogart hops on the side of a car and has a conversation with Bette Davis's character.