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After abandoning his artistic ambition, club-footed & super-sensitive Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) half-heartedly enrolls in medical school, financially sponsored by an uncle. Then meets a nearly illiterate, but highly seductive waitress, Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis). Rogers rejects him & becomes a salesman's lover, then returns to Carey pregnant & unwed. Carey furnishes Rogers with a flat & the 2 are engaged. But, Rogers runs away with a peer medical student of Carey's. Smitten with unrequited love, when Rogers again returns, now with her baby, Carey welcomes her home. After Rogers trashes his flat & burns Carey's tuition funds, Carey becomes a salesman. When he receives an inheritance, he has surgery on his foot, then returns to medical college where he finds Rogers dying. The story isn't nearly as captivating as the acting or the story of the on set & behind the scenes activities. "It is an interesting fact that most people believe that 'Of Human Bondage' was my first picture, although I had made 21 films before it," recalls Miss Davis. "Cabin in the Cotton," (see my review for details) was 1 such film that John Cromwell was so impressed by that Bette Davis was chosen for the lead instead of veteran film darling, Irene Dunne. But, Davis had to beg Jack Warner to do the film for RKO. Davis prevailed with Jack Warner but, as she remembers: "The first few days on the set were not too heartwarming. Mr. Howard & his English colleagues, as a clique, were disturbed by the casting of an American girl in the part. I really couldn't blame them. There was lots of whispering in little Druid circles whenever I appeared. Mr. Howard became a little less detached when he was informed that 'the kid is walking away with the picture'." In retrospect, as well as contemporaneously, Davis' portrayal of the vixen Rogers was a ground-breaking performance for a woman in the 1930's. Women of the silver screen were expected to be exemplary role-models, gorgeous characters & submissive to men's characters, as well as to the actual entire male-dominated film ensemble. Bette Davis shattered that mold by begging her way into this part & by playing a wretched woman who is anyone but a role-model & anything but beautiful! Even though Bette Davis was not officiously nominated in 1934 by the AFI for her leading, ground-breaking performance in "Of Human Bondage", there was such an objection by the public to this oversight that she was nominated by write-in votes. So this counts as Bette Davis 1st Oscar nomination for 'Best Actress'. Davis said she never felt she was as deserving of her subsequent Oscar for "Dangerous," in 1935. Nevertheless, she kept it polished & proudly displayed until she gave it to her beloved son, Michael Merrill. Interestingly, in 1934, the Catholic Church relegated this film to its "condemned list," probably because Rogers' contracted Syphilis. RKO changed Rogers' disease to Tuberculosis in order to abide by the MPAA-PCA Production Code. Fifty-four years post-hence, I doubt the Church would blink twice over this film today. Don't expect the actual film footage quality to be good. This version hasn't been remastered (edited to upgrade the quality). However, there is a computer-colored version of it (which I haven't yet seen). With every classic film, owning the originally released VHS is the collectible version, not another release or a DVD version~Read full review
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