Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel, Of Human Bondage (1934) gave Bette Davis the role that made Hollywood take notice. As Mildred Rogers, the waitress whom medical student Philip Carey, played by Leslie Howard, loves against all reason, Davis was given a character with little glamour and less sympathy, and she played her without apology.
Mildred is vain, restless and often cruel, and Davis refused to soften the edges. Where another actress might have pleaded for the audience’s pity, she let Mildred’s selfishness stand in full light, and the honesty of the performance is what makes it linger. Philip’s infatuation becomes understandable precisely because Davis makes Mildred vivid, changeable and alive.
The film marked a turning point for Davis at Warner Bros. The acclaim that followed helped carry her toward her first Academy Award, for Dangerous (1935), and established the fearless streak that would define her career. She would go on to play heroines, villains and everything between, but few of her later roles are as unguarded as Mildred.
Looked back on today, Of Human Bondage remains the film where Davis announced herself. It is not a comfortable performance, and it was never meant to be. In Mildred Rogers, she showed that she could hold the screen by sheer force of character, and Hollywood never underestimated her again.
Image: Bette Davis, 1938. Wikimedia Commons, public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bette_Davis_-_Photoplay,_June_1938.jpg