now voyager tina

“Now, Voyager”: Why the 1942 screen classic with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid will never age

“Box office dynamite—that’s ‘Now, Voyager’.” Those are the first words of Naka ‘s “Now Voyager” Variety film review, as published August 19, 1942. Continuing in the very same review: ‘Here is drama heavily steeped in the emotional tide that has swept its star, Bette Davis, to her present crest, and it’s the kind of drama that maintains Warners’ pattern for box office success. (…) It affords Miss Davis one of her superlative acting roles, that of a neurotic spinster fighting to free herself from the shackles of a tyrannical mother. (…)  For Henreid, perhaps, this is his top role in American pictures; he neatly dovetails and makes believable the sometimes underplayed character of the man who finds love too late.’

The film tells the story of Boston heiress Charlotte Vale (in the beginning unglamorously portrayed by Bette Davis), a sheltered, frumpy, and middle-aged neurotic who is driven to a nervous breakdown by her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), but with the help of a soft-spoken idealized therapist (Claude Rains), she is transformed into a modern, secure and attractive young woman. During an ocean voyage to South America, she meets a suave man, Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid), and blooms as a woman. Durrance, unhappily married to a woman he dares not to hurt, has a young daughter Tina (played by the then twelve-year-old promising juvenile actress Janis Wilson in an uncredited role). She is an emotionally depressed child victimized by the insecurity of their unsettled home. Ultimately, Charlotte Vale and Jerry Durrance end up in a platonic relationship in which she keeps Tina, who in the meantime, is in the process of recovering, while Henreid stays with his unwanted wife.

“Now, Voyager” is an unabashed first-rate soap opera—or a woman’s picture, if you wish—and as such, it’s one of the very best of its kind, thanks to Warner Bros. expertise. At the same time, the powerful drama is backed by Max Steiner’s lush and Academy Award-winning musical score which is almost as much a part of the film as the actors. Bette Davis, one of Hollywood’s queens in the 1940s, made the film’s heroine a touching, dignified, and truly believable woman.

Miss Davis was not the first choice to play the role of Charlotte Vale, though. Irene Dunne, along with Charles Boyer, her co-star in “Love Affair” (1939), were considered to be perfect for the leading roles. Producer Hal B. Wallis also offered the female lead to Norma Shearer, and although she was fond of it, she had already made up her mind to retire from the screen after George Cukor’s “Her Cardboard Lover” (1942), due to her eye problems. When Irene Dunne heard that the script had also been discussed with Norma Shearer, she declined as well, fearing that both actresses were played against each other. Then Ginger Rogers was offered the part. She liked it, but weeks passed by for her to reply, and even after Wallis sent her a wire while she was on her ranch on the Rogue River, she did not respond, so finally the part went to Bette Davis, who was eager to play it.

One of the most famous and landmark scenes of the film is when Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes simultaneously and gallantly hands one of the cigarettes to Bette Davis, thereby starting a new custom (in an era when people obviously weren’t aware of the danger of smoking). The film became highly successful: “Now, Voyager” was Warner Bros.’s fourth biggest grossing film of 1942.

Compared to the then-established two-time Academy Award-winner Bette Davis, Mr. Henreid only had a few years of experience in Hollywood. After leaving Austria in the mid-1930s, he first settled in London and then moved on to the West Coast. So, although pretty much a newcomer in Hollywood when “Now, Voyager” was made, his performance was well-received. The New York Herald Tribune wrote, ‘Paul Henreid achieves his full stature as a romantic star’ while Time praised him as ‘Hollywood’s likeliest leading man who acts like a kind and morally responsible human being.’

In his autobiography “Ladies Man” (1984), Paul Henreid remembers Bette Davis as ‘a solid master of her craft’: “I found her a delight to work with, and we got along famously. In fact, a very close friendship started between us, and she remained a dear, close friend—and always a very decent human being.” The atmosphere on the set was amiable and supportive, although Miss Davis did have problems with her co-star Bonita Granville (who played the part of Charlotte’s young niece June Vale). “She was bitchy in the film and off. I don’t remember the details, but she struck me as flighty and gossipy,” she told Boze Hadleigh in his interview book “Bette Davis Speaks” (1996).

Principal photography of “Now, Voyager” began on the Warner lot on April 7, 1942, and ended on June 23, with retakes on July 3. The film was released in the U.S. on October 31, 1942. “Casablanca,” another Hal B. Wallis production, also starring Paul Henreid and Claude Rains (a frequent performer in Wallis’ pictures), was released a few months later on January 23, 1943, and was almost shot simultaneously at Warner Bros., from May 25 until August 3. Over the years, “Casablanca” gained a more popular following than “Now, Voyager” did; in 1998, a novel entitled “As Times Goes By,” written by Michael Walsh for Warner Books, follows the characters of Rick, Ilsa, Victor (Paul Henreid), Sam, and Louis (Claude Rains) after they left Casablanca.

When originally scheduled to direct “Now, Voyager,” filmmaker Edmund Goulding wrote a treatment for the film, but he fell ill and was unable to direct the film. Michael Curtiz then was assigned as director, as soon as he had finished shooting another Wallis production called “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942) with James Cagney. Still, from the very start, it became clear that Curtiz and Bette Davis couldn’t get along. Finally, producer Hal B. Wallis decided to go with a new director, London-born Irving Rapper. “He was a pleasant, amusing Englishman. He liked Bette, and she liked him,” Wallis recalled in “Starmaker,” his 1989 mémoires . Irving Rapper was a vocal coach, dialogue director, and assistant director in the 1930s who, prior to “Now, Voyager,” had directed only three features, including “One Foot in Heaven” (1941) starring Fredric March and Martha Scott, and “The Gay Sisters” (1942) with Barbara Stanwyck. In the end, just like Bette Davis, he was not the first choice by all means, but he turned out to be the right one.

Four years later, Irving Rapper and his three leading actors from “Now, Voyager”—Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains (Davis’ favorite co-star)—were reunited with the drama “Deception,” also made at Warner Bros. (this one without Hal B. Wallis). In 1964, Paul Henreid directed Bette Davis (playing twin sisters) in the crime drama “Dead Ringer,” with his daughter Monika Henreid playing a supporting role.

Irving Rapper and Bette Davis later worked together again in “The Corn Is Green” and “Another Man’s Posion’ (1951). “Irving has directed some of my best pictures,” she said in later interviews.

Author Olive Higgins Prouty wrote four novels about the wealthy Vale family in Boston (“Now, Voyager” being the third). She sold the “Voyager” rights to Wallis for $35,000 in October 1941, and made several suggestions. She preferred Technicolor to be used, with the flashbacks shown in subdued colors as if seen through a veil, and she had laid down a scheme for particular sequences. Wallis decided to go ahead and ignore them completely, but after she had seen the film in her New England home with twenty-five friends, ‘all of them applauded,’ Wallis wrote in his autobiography. She wrote him a letter, saying that ‘the plot follows very closely that of my book and the personalities of the various characters have been carefully observed and preserved.’

Finally, film director Irving Rapper, born in 1898 in London, passed away at age 101 in 1999 in Woodland Hills, California, of natural causes. Never really in the spotlights, there’s not too much written about him. Authors Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg did include him in their interview book “The Celluloid Muse: Hollywood Directors Speak” (1969), a collection of fifteen interviews with film directors who spent most of their careers working in Hollywood. In their introduction of the Irving Rapper interview, they describe his whereabouts at the time of the interview: ‘Irving Rapper’s apartment is set high in a glistening white building in the very heart of Hollywood. Only a stone’s throw from Hollywood Boulevard, with its seedy spangle of light-signs,  its driven restless sixties people, and its ever-skulking hustlers, Rapper inhabits a seemingly sealed-off forties world. As so often in Hollywood, fantasy and reality seem one, so that as you enter the hall, where a super-efficient blonde announces your arrival directly from the reception desk to the host’s telephone, you could easily be in a scene from a vintage Bette Davis picture, and you half expect to see her charge stormily at any moment through the glass window doors, ready for an argument with David Brian or Bruce Bennett—those lost figures of Hollywood’s past. Chez Rapper, the atmosphere of that past exists. Comfortably plump and relaxed, with an elegant and cultivated personality, he is utterly unlike the brisk new generation of grey-suited, fiercely efficient Hollywood men. (…) Like so many Hollywood talents, he has been put firmly—and one hopes only temporarily—on the shelf by the newest generation, but looking round his apartment, you see the compensations: Chinese lampstands ‘fit for a museum,” magnificent paintings crowded tightly up of a wall, a louvered cocktail recess, an atmosphere of spacious, glossy luxury. And beyond the great windows and the penthouse balcony, the whispering traffic, the horn-bleeps and the diamond shine of an ocean of lights: Los Angeles.’

Just for the record, even though “Now, Voyager” isn’t mentioned in AFI’s list of 100 Greatest American Films of All Time, the film ranks at #23 in AFI’s 100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time, while Bette Davis’ closing line, ‘Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon… we have the stars!’ is at #46 in AFI’s Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time. In 2007, “Now, Voyager” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’

“Now, Voyager” (1942, trailer)

NOW, VOYAGER (1942) DIR Irving Rapper PROD Hal B. Wallis SCR Casey Robinson (novel ‘Now, Voyager’ [1941] by Olive Higgins Prouty) CAM Sol Polito MUS Max Steiner ED Warren Low CAST Bette Davis ( Charlotte Vale ), Paul Henreid ( Jerry Durrance ), Claude Rains ( Doctor Jaquith ), Gladys Cooper ( Mrs. Vale ), Bonita Granville ( June Vale ), John Loder ( Elliott Livingston ), Ilka Chase ( Lisa Vale ), Mary Wickes ( Dora Pickford ), Janis Wilson ( Tina Durrance )

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Now, Voyager

• Photos & Videos

Film Details

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, irving rapper, bette davis, paul henreid, claude rains, gladys cooper, bonita granville, photos & videos, technical specs.

Dowdy, thirtyish Charlotte Vale lives with her dictatorial, aristocratic mother in a Boston mansion. Fearing that Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa brings psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith to the Vale home to examine her unobtrusively. Jaquith's observations and conversation with Charlotte convince him that she is, in fact, very ill, and he recommends that she visit his sanitarium, Cascade. Away from her domineering mother, Charlotte recovers quickly, but does not feel ready to return home and accepts Lisa's proposal of a long cruise as an alternative. On board the ship, a newly chic Charlotte is introduced to Jerry Durrance, who is also traveling alone. The two spend a day sight-seeing together, during which time the married Jerry asks Charlotte to help him choose gifts for his two daughters. Charlotte is touched when Jerry thanks her with a small bottle of perfume. Subsequently, Charlotte tells Jerry about her family and her breakdown and learns from his good friends, Deb and Frank McIntyre, that Jerry is unhappily married but will never leave his family. After the ship docks in Rio de Janeiro, Jerry and Charlotte become stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain and spend the night together. Having missed her boat, Charlotte stays with Jerry in Rio for five days before flying to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they promise not to see each other again. Back in Boston, Charlotte's family is stunned by her transformation. Her mother, however, is determined to regain control over her daughter. Charlotte's resolve to remain independent is strengthened by the timely arrival of some camellias. Although there is no card, Charlotte knows the flowers are from Jerry because he had called her by the nickname "Camille," and, reminded of his love, she is able to forge a new relationship with her mother. Charlotte eventually becomes engaged to eligible widower Elliot Livingston. One night, at a party, Charlotte encounters Jerry, who is now working as an architect, a profession he had renounced years before in deference to his wife's wishes. His youngest daughter Tina is now seeing Dr. Jaquith for her own emotional problems. Charlotte asks Jerry not to blame himself for their affair as she gained much from knowing that he loved her. This chance encounter forces Charlotte to realize that she does not love Elliot passionately, and they break their engagement, so angering Mrs. Vale that during an argument with Charlotte, she has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to Cascade, where she meets Tina. Seeing herself in the girl, Charlotte takes charge of her, with Jaquith's tentative approval. When Tina improves enough, Charlotte takes her home to Boston. Later, Jerry and Jaquith visit the Vale home, and Jerry is delighted by the change in Tina. Charlotte warns him, however, that she is only able to keep Tina with her on condition that she and Jerry end their affair. Jerry believes that he is responsible for her decision not to marry Elliot, but Charlotte reassures him otherwise, saying that Tina is his gift to her and her way of being close to him. Jerry then asks if Charlotte is happy and she responds, "Well, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon; we have the stars."

Lee Patrick

Franklin Pangborn

Katherine Alexander

James Rennie

Mary Wickes

Michael ames.

Charles Drake

David clyde.

Frank Puglia

Janis wilson, claire du brey.

Don Douglas

Charlotte wynters, lester matthews, sheila hayward, bill edwards, isabel withers, yola d'avril, georges renavent, bill kennedy, reed hadley, elspeth dudgeon, george lessey.

Constance Purdy

Corbet morris, hilda plowright, tempe pigott, dorothy vaughan, martha acker, al alleborn, eddie allen, george becker, edward blatt, meta carpenter, phyllis clark, joseph cramer, emmett emerson, frank evans, leo f. forbstein, hugh friedhofer, robert haas, robert b. lee, rydo loshak, fred m. maclean, scotty more, harold noyes, charles o'bannon, casey robinson, marguerite royce, sherry shourds, gilbert souto, max steiner, willard van enger, perc westmore, photo collections.

Hosted Intro

Award Nominations

Best actress, best supporting actress, the essentials - now, voyager.

Pop Culture 101 - Now, Voyager

Trivia - now, voyager - trivia & fun facts about now, voyager, trivia - now, voyager - trivia & fun facts about now, voyager, the big idea - now, voyager, behind the camera - now, voyager, critics' corner - now, voyager, critics' corner - now, voyager.

No member of the Vale family has ever had a nervous breakdown. - Mrs. Henry Windle Vale

Well there's one having one now. - Dr. Jasquith

Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars. - Charlotte Vale

Remember what it says in the Bible, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." - Dr. Jasquith

How does it feel to be the Lord? - Charlotte Vale

Not so very wonderful, since the Free Will Bill was passed. Too little power. - Dr. Jasquith

I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid, mother. I'm not afraid. - Charlotte Vale

A maiden aunt is an ideal person to select presents for young girls. - Charlotte

Producer Hal B. Wallis originally wanted Irene Dunne for the lead role, but Bette Davis convinced him otherwise.

The Walt Whitman poem Bette Davis reads (just before leaving Cascades) is "The Untold Want" from Songs of Parting (just 2 lines): "The untold want by life and land ne'er granted / Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find."

Bette Davis complained about 'Max Steiner' 's Academy Award-winning musical score, saying that it was too intrusive on her performance.

The film is remembered for the scene in which Paul Henreid places two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them, and then passes one to Bette Davis, but it wasn't an original idea - a similar exchange occurred ten years earlier between Davis and 'George Brent' in _Rich Are Always With Us, The (1932)_ .

The title of Olive Higgins Prouty's novel was taken from Walt Whitman's poem "The Untold Want." In a letter to literary agent Harold Ober included in the Warner Bros. Collection at the USC Cinema-Television Library, Prouty made the following suggestions about the novel's adaptation: "...In my novel I tell my story by the method of frequent flashbacks....It has occurred to me, however, that by employing the silent picture for the flashbacks, in combination with the talking picture, similar results can be accomplished, and with much interest to an audience because of the novelty of the technique....I am one of those who believe the silent picture had artistic potentialities which the talking picture lacks. The acting, facial expressions, every move and gesture is more significant....Of course the silent picture has 'gone out' now, but I believe it has a place, for depicting what goes on in the mind of a character...."        Various contemporary sources add the following information about the production: Mary Astor was first signed as the second female lead and Norma Shearer and Irene Dunne were approached to play the role of "Charlotte." Producer Hal Wallis sent Ginger Rogers a copy of Olive Higgins Prouty's novel, hoping to interest her in the film. Juanita Quigley tested for the role of "Tina." Director Edmund Goulding wrote a treatment for the film and, at that time, was scheduled to direct; later Michael Curtiz was assigned to direct the film. Some scenes were filmed on location in Laguna Beach, CA and the Cascade scenes were filmed at Lake Arrowhead, CA. Although Frank Puglia's character is called "Giovanni" in the film, contemporary reviews, the screenplay and the CBCS list it as "Manoel."        According to modern sources, Prouty had written an elaborate cigarette-lighting ceremony for her characters, which proved too awkward to complete on film. In its place, Henreid invented a romantic gesture which has since become famous. He lit two cigarettes at the same time and handed one of the cigarettes to "Charlotte." Modern feminist critics have described Now Voyager as an "initiation" or "coming of age" film in which a psychologically immature woman becomes a self-determining adult and comment favorably on the accurate depiction of the mother-daughter relationship. Although contemporary critics derided the film as contrived and melodramatic, it was Warner Bros. fourth-highest grossing film in 1942 and has enjoyed an enduring popularity. Max Steiner won an Oscar for Best Score, and both Gladys Cooper and Bette Davis were nominated for Academy Awards. The film was adapted for radio and, starring Bette Davis and Gregory Peck, was broadcast on The Lux Radio Theatre on February 11, 1946 and May 24, 1955.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1942

Released in United States on Video April 5, 1988

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Now, Voyager Reviews

It fits within the genre and it is a great show for Davis’s talents.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2023

Davis gives a captivating career-high turn as Charlotte Vale...

Full Review | Jul 21, 2022

It was directed by a certain Irving Rapper, who, quite possibly, may not be a fool. Unfortunately, this is how they degrade the tragic heroine of The Little Foxes, The Letter, Of Human Bondage.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2021

This is a movie in which all the elements come together in perfect harmony to give an essentially hackneyed theme the imprint of greatness.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 14, 2021

In this conflict between inner and outer beauty, loving oneself without the affirmation of others, altruism, self-truth vs societal expectation and discovering that happiness comes from within, Now, Voyager -- and its leading lady -- soars.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2021

This film is exquisitely crafted and passionately acted.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2021

Bette Davis, as the neurotic daughter, Claude Rains, the doctor, and Paul Henreid, combine to make a fine production.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2020

It may be a standard tale of forbidden romance, but it dwells on an uncommon twosome; these past-their-prime souls aren't the typical fare for a melodramatic love yarn.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 13, 2020

Tender, poignant and lusciously calibrated by Rapper, Now, Voyager is one of the few romantic melodramas which manages a timelessness due to its almost accidental universality.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2020

...a part that's perfect for Davis, which makes it odd that Now, Voyager feels the need to do so much of the work for her.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 3, 2020

Davis' performance anchors [the story], preventing it from flying off into the realm of camp, turning an outlandish story into one painfully human and universal.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 9, 2020

the emotional resonance of Charlotte and Tina's surrogate mother-daughter connection is so strong that the film's plot contrivances are easy to forgive

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 27, 2019

Now, Voyager contains one classic image and one classic line of dialogue. As for the rest? It's soap opera par excellence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 9, 2019

It's one of the better 'women pictures,' though it got too weepie, mushy and full of itself for me.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 4, 2015

A superlative, juicy mother-daughter melodrama with top notch performance from Bette Davis, at the top of her form, and the rest of the cast.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 5, 2011

Lots of appeal for highly romantic teens.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 26, 2010

If you can resist Bette Davis in fat suit, hideous dress, and monobrow, you're not as gay as you think you are. I guess I kind of liked it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 28, 2010

It's all far more complicated than it needs to be, but then again, what would you cut?

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 27, 2010

Compulsively watchable four-hankie weepie.

Full Review | Oct 18, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 14, 2006

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• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

Now, Voyager - Full Cast & Crew

• 70   Metascore
• 2 hr 0 mins
• Drama, Comedy
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A neurotic, unmarried woman chafing under a domineering mother is helped by an eminent psychiatrist, who instills self-confidence in her, which is put to the test when she falls in love with an unhappily married man. Bette Davis was nominated for Best Actress as the daughter and Gladys Cooper got a Best Supporting Actress nod as her mother. The film's title is from a line in Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

Screenwriter

Music director, cinematographer, production company, art director, sound/sound designer, special effects.

The Blonde at the Film

A fresh look at old films.

Now, Voyager (1942)

via: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1922/Now-Voyager/#tcmarcp-145921  Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own.

Now, Voyager is one of the classic “woman’s films,” a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Woman’s films, also called melodramas or even “weepies,” featured woman-centered narratives revolving around female protagonists, and dealt with “women’s issues” like motherhood, marriage, domestic life, romance, and a (un)healthy dose of self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

For those reasons, some of these films, especially the more melodramatic ones, can seem a little dated.

But they’re still worth watching, especially for the great stars who populated this genre, like Bette Davis , Barbara Stanwyck , Jane Wyman , and Joan Crawford.

Fun fact: the idea of the “woman’s film” was a hot topic in film scholarship in the 1980s, and it continues to be explored. Do these films qualify as a separate genre? Are they subversive? Patriarchal? Anti/Feminist? Repressive? Liberating? And what about the name? Is the term “woman’s film” positive or negative?

We won’t delve into that too much, but it’s worth noting the complications that accompany these films.

To the movie! It’s based on Olive Higgins Prouty’s 1941 novel of the same name. She wrote a series of four novels about the wealthy Vale family of Boston, and Now, Voyager is the third. Fun fact: Prouty’s novel  Stella Dallas was adapted for the screen in 1925 and 1937, and both are quintessential entries in the woman’s film canon.

Production on this film started in April, 1942 at Warner Bros., led by producer Hal Wallis . It stars Bette Davis , who was at the height of her career after several huge hits and four consecutive Best Actress Oscar nominations.

But Davis wasn’t Wallis’ first choice to play Charlotte Vale; Irene Dunne  was Wallis’ pick, but Norma Shearer was also in the running. When Dunne and Shearer became involved in other projects, Wallis thought about Ginger Rogers  for the role. But Davis heard about the project, campaigned for it, and eventually was cast.

Opposite Davis is Paul Henreid , an Austrian actor whom you might know as Victor Lazslo in Casablanca (1942). Now, Voyager was Henreid’s first big role in Hollywood, and it established him as a romantic leading man.

Fun fact: Henreid was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernried Ritter von Wassel-Waldingau, but he went by Paul von Hernried as an actor in Europe. When he emigrated to the United States and got a contract with RKO, the studio recommended that he drop the “von” and change the spelling in his last name, which is how he got to Paul Henreid.

The movie opens in a stuffy Boston mansion. A noted psychiatrist named Dr. Jaquith ( Claude Rains ) has come to visit Charlotte Vale at the request of Charlotte’s sister-in-law, Lisa (Ilka Chase). Lisa is afraid that Charlotte is about to suffer a massive nervous breakdown, but Charlotte’s mother ( Gladys Cooper ) thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. Her daughter is fine, thank you very much, and she doesn’t appreciate Dr. Jaquith’s interference.

Mrs. Vale is a scary, tyrannical woman who has run Charlotte’s life (into the ground.) She is an exaggerated, Freudian example of “Momism,”  a term coined that year in Philip Wylie’s book A Generation of Vipers . Wylie nastily claims that mothers who exert too much power, and make their children too dependent upon them, turn their kids into immature, utterly dependent losers. Like Charlotte.

Mrs. Vale is terrifying, but Dr. Jaquith holds his own. She tells him that Charlotte was a “late child” who arrived years after her brothers were born, and wasn’t super “wanted.” She has not been kind nor supportive to her shy, sensitive daughter. Speaking of whom…

Charlotte is summoned from her room, where she was carving ivory boxes and smoking cigarettes on the sly. We first see her sensible, dowdy shoe on the stairs before we get a shock.

Is that really Bette Davis in that frumpy old dress, glasses, and old-fashioned hairstyle? It’s an especially effective look next to sharp Lisa in her trim suit.

Fun fact: Davis got really into this role and was extremely meticulous about her performance. She worked closely with costume designer Orry-Kelly  and her hair and makeup personnel to get the right look for Charlotte.

To simulate the addition of about twenty-five pounds, Davis asked Orry-Kelly to add padding to her costumes, and besides the dowdy hairstyle, she asked makeup artist Perc Westmore to thicken her eyebrows into furry caterpillars.

Although it’s a pretty extreme alteration, what appears in the film was actually a compromise. Davis had wanted to go even further, but Wallis thought it was too grotesque and pulled things back.

We see immediately how Mrs. Vale orders Charlotte around, refuses to accept that anything might be wrong, and generally acts like a cruel, overbearing parent. Charlotte becomes more and more agitated until she leaves the room. Notice how Mrs. Vale looms large in the frame, just as she looms large in Charlotte’s life. You can watch the scene here .

Dr. Jaquith follows and asks if she might show him around the house. They end up in her room, where she shows him her ivory boxes and he sees the hidden cigarette butts in her trash can. She gets more and more upset as she explains how her mother picks out her clothes, glasses, and hair style, the books she reads, and the food she eats, exclaiming “I’m fat; my mother doesn’t approve of dieting!”

She shows Dr. Jaquith a photo album of the last trip she took, a cruise with her mother when Charlotte was twenty-years old. And…flashback!

A pretty young Charlotte fell in love with one of the ship’s officers, and they engaged in a steamy, secret romance. But then they were discovered inside a car on the ship ( Titanic , anyone?).

And despite their protestations that they wanted to get married, Mrs. Vale took charge and ended things, since the officer wasn’t suitable for a “Vale of Boston.”

And that was the last trip, and probably the last fun, that Charlotte had. Fun fact: Author Prouty suggested that the film be shot in color with the flashbacks in black and white, but Warner Bros. didn’t go for that idea.

Dr. Jaquith is deeply concerned, and he returns to the parlor to tell Mrs. Vale that Charlotte is seriously ill: “If you had deliberately and maliciously planned to destroy your daughter’s life, you couldn’t have done it more completely.” He’s a brave man.

Charlotte returns to the parlor. But things get worse when Lisa’s pretty blonde daughter June (Bonita Granville) arrives and begins teasing and mocking Charlotte.

It’s rather merciless and mean, and I’m always struck by the fact that Lisa doesn’t stop her daughter. After all, Lisa genuinely cares about Charlotte, and she has brought a famous doctor to help, and he just announced that Charlotte is very sick. So why does she let her daughter be so cruel? It’s weird.

June teases until poor Charlotte can’t take it anymore. Out comes an anguished burst:

And she runs back to her room. Mrs. Vale says, stupidly and in denial: “No member of the Vale family has ever had a nervous breakdown.” Dr. Jaquith, who has been watching it all, answers simply: “Well, there’s one having one now.”

Fun fact: In Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice , author David Skal writes that at first, Rains wasn’t crazy about making this movie because the part of Dr. Jaquith was very small. He actually turned it down until screenwriter Casey Robinson  re-wrote it, boosting the psychiatrist’s role and tailoring it to Rains. Rains was paid $5,000 a week for six weeks, though the shooting went badly over schedule and almost kept Rains from his next movie, a little film called Casablanca (115).

Next thing we know, Charlotte is at Cascades, Dr. Jaquith’s retreat/facility. She’s been there for almost three months, and Dr. Jaquith thinks that she is ready to re-enter the world. But she disagrees. Also, her eyes have somehow improved and she doesn’t wear glasses anymore.

To help her venture out into the world, Dr. Jaquith gives her a poem by Walt Whitman:

And that’s where the title comes from! Walt Whitman’s two line poem “The Untold Want.” You can watch the scene at Cascades here .

Charlotte doesn’t want to go home, so Lisa helps her arrange passage on a South American cruise to gently ease Charlotte back into the world. Fun fact: Prouty’s novel includes a Mediterranean cruise and time spent in Italy, but since WWII was raging, the film changed Charlotte’s journey to South America. There was a concerted effort made in the 1940s to court the South American audience and make that continent look great (for more, see my reviews of Bathing Beauty , Nancy Goes to Rio , and Easy to Wed ), so the alteration wasn’t a hardship.

Cut to the ship where cruise director Franklin Pangborn  is making final arrangements for the day’s shore excursion.

Passengers are impatiently waiting for Charlotte to arrive so they can depart. No one has seen her yet, and they’re curious.

In a lovely repetition of the first time we saw Charlotte, it is her shoe that introduces the new Charlotte before the camera gives us a look at her face and form.

The difference is striking:

No more padded clothes, bushy eyebrows, and sensible shoes! Besides the thrill of a makeover, it’s a very poignant moment, as you can imagine Charlotte being terrified to meet people, and cautiously emerging from her cabin in her new clothes and elegant hat, self-conscious and nervous.

She sits by herself until Pangborn introduces her to a fellow traveler, Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) and asks if Jerry could accompany her on the excursion, as they are the only lone travelers. Charlotte doesn’t have much choice in the matter, but Jerry is very nice and non-threatening. And Dr. Jaquith told her to try to “unbend” and be more open to new people and opportunities (a scene we see in a brief flashback at this very moment). So she agrees.

Here they are filming this scene:

via: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1922/Now-Voyager/#tcmarcp-145919

Jerry and Charlotte chat and have lunch, and it’s all going nicely. There are a few odd moments, though, as when Jerry says something that is the exact opposite of what Mrs. Vale often told Charlotte. Mrs. Vale’s face appears superimposed on top of Charlotte’s in an eerie effect as she hears her mother’s voice:

Charlotte can’t believe that handsome Jerry is being so kind to her. She still feels like dumpy, awkward Charlotte despite her transformation and newfound but fragile confidence.

She catches her reflection in a window and looks surprised to find herself in this moment. You can watch the scene here .

After lunch, Jerry asks Charlotte to help him shop for presents for his wife and two daughters. Yes, alas, Jerry is married. He shows her a photograph of his wife Isabelle and two daughters when they return to the ship. Charlotte is intrigued to learn that the younger daughter, Tina, was also a “late child” who wasn’t very “wanted” by Jerry’s wife. And Tina wears glasses and thinks she is an ugly duckling. Hmm, ain’t that a coincidence!

To thank her for helping him shop that afternoon, Jerry gives Charlotte a bottle of perfume, and asks if she’d like to dine with him that evening. She rushes to her room and pulls out an evening gown with attached instructions:

Lisa and Charlotte have thought of everything to ensure an easy, stylish sailing!

Charlotte puts on the pretty white dress and embellished cape, and meets Jerry in the dining room, though she is petrified.

But he is all charm and consideration, and they have a pleasant evening, though she wants to disappear into the floor when he plucks another note off the back of her cape! (Renee is the woman who gave up her spot on the ship, and also apparently her wardrobe, for Charlotte).

Charlotte is mortified when Jerry sees the note, (can you even imagine her embarrassment? She’s already way outside of her comfort zone, she barely made it to dinner at all, and she can’t even fathom the idea of someone being kind to her!)

But Jerry is sweet about it, and, after all, it’s not the first odd thing he’s noticed about Charlotte. She calls herself a spinster aunt and acts prickly and unused to positive attention.

Plus, she admits that she is traveling under a friend’s name, and confesses that she is really Charlotte Vale. Jerry says he’d like to call her Camille, as she is something of a chameleon. He likes her. Here they are between takes:

Eventually, as all couples must when onboard ship, they make their way outside to stand close together in the moonlight. That shimmering cape does indeed make an impression!

As they talk, Jerry picks up on some more not-so-subtle hints, which lead him to ask, tenderly:

Charlotte just shakes her head as she fights tears. She tells him that she’s been ill and maybe isn’t quite well yet, and shows him a picture of her family. He points out the “fat lady with the heavy brows and all the hair,” not realizing it’s Charlotte. She sets him straight.

And then it all makes more sense. That evening, he writes Tina a letter:

The next day, and for many days after, Jerry and Charlotte spend time together. Charlotte meets his buddies, one of whom sits beside her on deck and tells her that Jerry’s wife is a terror who makes his life miserable. But Jerry stays with her because of the kids, especially Tina. That’s good to know.

When they arrive in Rio, Jerry and Charlotte hire a car to take them up the mountain, but there is a crash. Everyone is killed.

Just kidding, everyone is fine. But the car is stuck at the bottom of the gully, so Jerry and Charlotte are forced to spend the night together in a hut. They snuggle, but just for the warmth…Charlotte is sound asleep when Jerry kisses her tenderly on the cheek and wraps her more firmly in his arms. It’s very sweet and romantic. He’s in love with her.

The next morning, Charlotte has a choice to make. Jerry is staying in Rio on business, but Charlotte was supposed to continue to Buenos Aires, though she missed the boat because of the car accident. Now, she can either catch a plane to Buenos Aires that day or wait to catch the flight in five days, which would enable her to spend that time with Jerry.

Obviously, she decides to spend some extra time in Rio. She’s no dummy.

They have a wonderful time together full of platonic, appropriate friendship on the surface and forbidden love just underneath. But the night before her plane leaves, Jerry climbs onto her balcony to tell her how he feels. Ready for some romantic melodrama? And a very famous cigarette lighting scene?

As composer Max Steiner ‘s love theme surges in the background, Jerry puts two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them, and hands one to Charlotte. It’s sexy but also quite perfect because remember how Charlotte used to hide her smoking? Now a handsome man who is in love with her is helping her smoke! She’s come a long way!

This cigarette lighting ritual was a sensation and became a trademark for Henreid and Davis. The two stars claimed that they came up with the routine while rehearsing, based on how Henreid and his wife lit their cigarettes. The director, Irving Rapper, claimed he invented it to cover an awkward moment in the script. And screenwriter Casey Robinson said that it was always in the screenplay, which is true–it is in early drafts.

But it goes even further back than that, as the whole thing had appeared in a scene with Ruth Chatterton and George Brent in  The Rich Are Always With Us  (1932), which was one of Davis’ first films at Warner Bros.! So it’s got a complicated history, but it became indelibly linked to this film and these stars.

Meanwhile, things get real with a passionate declaration from Jerry and stunned tears from Charlotte:

You might wish Charlotte would just kiss him or something rather than play the “old maid” and “crumbs” card, but she’s still slightly stuck in old Charlotte mode.

As tears fill her eyes, she tells him “You see, no one ever called me darling before!” And they kiss, finally. And we all tear up.

But their love for each other doesn’t trump his (horrible) marriage, so they decide it’s better if they part and try to move on.

The next day Jerry accompanies Charlotte to the airport. They gaze in each other’s eyes, and Jerry does the cigarette thing again:

Then off she flies to catch her ship. Sigh.

Guess what? We’re barely halfway through! But things speed up. Cut to the dock in New York where Lisa and June wait for Charlotte. They’re shocked, shocked! to see chic, popular Charlotte stroll down the gangplank. It’s a great rhyme with the first gangplank scene at the beginning of her cruise. That time she was insecure and self-conscious, but now she owns that stroll!

June is shocked to see her spinster aunt surrounded by adoring men carrying her bags, and she’s even more disoriented when Charlotte dishes out some teasing of her own.

Fun fact: Bonita Granville played Nancy Drew in four films in 1938-1939. Another fun fact: Davis later said that Granville was the only actor who was rude to her when they were making this movie. Which is pretty ironic, and pretty stupid on Granville’s part.

Everyone is trying to catch up with Charlotte to say goodbye, and the cruise director even has this surprising news.

If June and Lisa didn’t see it with their own eyes, they would never have believed it! You can watch Charlotte’s triumphant arrival here .

Things don’t go as smoothly when Charlotte gets home, though. Her mother liked having submissive Charlotte at her beck and call, and she isn’t happy about confident, self-assured Charlotte. She even threatens to cut her off if Charlotte refuses to abide by her rules. You can watch the scene here .

Charlotte is deflated after her chat with her monstrous mother. How can she maintain her newfound mental health and habits if her mother insists on treating her as she always has? Just when she really, really needs a boost, one arrives in a plain box. Inside is a trio of glorious camellias (a reference to her pet name Camille) from Jerry. And Charlotte is reminded that she is loved and wanted.

She pins the camellias to her new black dress and goes to set some new rules with her mother. Their conversation is tense but Charlotte holds her own. Then Mrs. Vale falls down the stairs and hurts her ankle, leaving Charlotte to play hostess at a dinner party for her family.

Charlotte’s brothers are shocked to see their sister:

But she rolls with their utter confusion, flitting about like the charming, confident woman she has become. She even dares to light a fire in the parlor’s fireplace, something her mother has never allowed. Go, symbolism, go! The camera even lingers on the flickering flames in the long dormant fireplace to make sure we get it.

After the party, Charlotte and her mother reach an uneasy truce.

But Charlotte and Dora ( Mary Wickes ) her mother’s nurse, are fast friends. Dora intuitively senses what’s going on, and she is absolutely on Charlotte’s side.

With Dora’s help, Charlotte and her mother maintain a fragile equilibrium over the next months. It’s assisted by Charlotte’s budding relationship with eligible widower Elliot Livingston ( John Loder , who also plays Bette Davis’ love interest in Old Acquaintance ).

Elliot is a major catch, and Mrs. Vale really wants Charlotte to land him. And Charlotte is into it. They even get engaged!

But she still wears Jerry’s camellias, and leaves the roses that Elliot sends her at home.

It’s all going pretty well for Miss Vale, but that can’t last. We need more melodrama! So at a party one evening, guess who Charlotte sees across the room?

She and Jerry chat as though they are the merest of acquaintances, but they’re still in love, darn it. You can watch the scene here.

To his credit, when Jerry learns of Charlotte’s engagement, he cancels their late-night rendezvous and takes a train out of town. He doesn’t want to mess up Charlotte’s life. But she runs to the train station to catch him before he goes. Every melodrama needs an intense parting scene at a train station!

When Jerry says he feels bad for saddling Charlotte with an impossible love, Charlotte jumps in with all the reasons that she doesn’t regret her love for Jerry:

She continues:

On that very first day, a little bottle of perfume made me feel important. You were my first friend, and then when you fell in love with me, I was so proud. And when I came home I needed something to make me feel proud. And your camellias arrived, and I knew you were thinking about me. Oh, I could have walked into a den of lions. Matter of fact, I did, and the lions didn’t hurt me.

It’s brilliantly delivered in Davis’ intense way–magic!

Then Jerry boards his train, and Charlotte watches him go, mascara smudged and camellias smooshed.

And yet the movie continues!

Charlotte realizes that she can’t marry Elliot while loving Jerry, so she breaks off their engagement. It’s about the friendliest breakup you’ll ever see.

And how interesting that Charlotte is wearing a dress reminiscent of the one she wore in her first scene of the film, though the situations are far removed.

Mrs. Vale is furious when Charlotte tells her that the engagement is off. They say some nasty things to one another, including this gem that Charlotte hurls at her mom: “I didn’t want to be born. You didn’t want me to be born. It’s been a calamity on both sides.”

And in the midst of their fight, Mrs. Vale dies. You can watch it here .

How fitting that Charlotte’s similar dresses bookmark the first and last scenes with Mrs. Vale, too.

Although Charlotte is now free and very wealthy, (she has inherited the massive Vale estate), she feels terrible guilt over her mother’s death.

So she returns to Cascades to stave off a breakdown. When she arrives, guess who she sees working on a puzzle? Why, ’tis Jerry’s daughter Tina (Janis Wilson)!

After meeting Charlotte, Jerry realized that he had to get Tina away from her mother, so he sent her to Cascades. Charlotte knows who Tina is, but Tina has no idea. Charlotte tells Tina that she can call her Camille if she’d like, and of course Tina loves that idea!

Charlotte decides to cheer up miserable Tina. They get ice cream together, and Charlotte lets Tina call her dad. She tells him that a lady named Camille is being her friend…and Jerry knows.

That night, Charlotte holds Tina as she weeps about how she’s ugly and no one likes her and no one wants her. And Charlotte decides to help Jerry’s daughter. The pair are inseparable, and under Charlotte’s care, Tina begins to blossom. At first, Dr. Jaquith isn’t sure that this is such a good idea, but Charlotte convinces him to let her be Tina’s nurse.

Charlotte even convinces Dr. Jaquith to let her take Tina away from Cascades on a big camping trip. Because that’s totally fine, liability-wise, to let one patient take another patient off into the wilderness.

Fun fact: Davis also really liked Janis Wilson, and chose her to be her daughter in Watch on the Rhine (1943).

Tina’s confidence skyrockets, and Charlotte feels fulfilled while mothering Tina. Each feels loved, plus Tina gets the mother she’s always wanted, and Charlotte gets to be the mother she always wanted. Perfect!

Oddly enough, Tina’s parents give the okay for Charlotte to take Tina back to Boston with her. She’s essentially adopted the kid, and they’re having a great time in that huge mansion, which is now filled with people and laughter.

Jerry stops by one evening to see Tina, you know, like a dad. He’s amazed at the change in his daughter:

And he still loves Charlotte. In fact, when he’s hugging Tina, he says “I love you,” while staring straight at Charlotte. Tina assumes it’s for her, and Charlotte knows it’s for her. It’s not as creepy as it sounds.

That evening, Jerry and Charlotte find a quiet room for a chat. But first, they need their cigs!

Divorce somehow remains utterly out of the question, but the two re-pledge their love to one another. They discuss what to do about Tina, and Charlotte says she wants her to stay in Boston. At first Jerry protests against Charlotte sacrificing her own life like this for Tina, but then he agrees to the plan.

He even calls Tina “our child,” as in his and Charlotte’s. He can’t divorce Isabelle but he can adopt out their daughter and create another family with Charlotte? What?

So it’s settled. Tina will stay with Charlotte, and Jerry will stop by once in a while. Which leads us to the final, famous lines spoken as Steiner’s love theme cascades beneath them:

I don’t know, I think they could reach a little higher. But that’s that, and it’s melodramatic and romantic and poignant. You can watch it here .

When the film was first released, Davis said in interviews that she thought Charlotte and Jerry would eventually get together. But years later, Davis would change her mind and say she thought Charlotte and Dr. Jaquith probably got married, and she helped him run Cascades. So lots of options.

This was Bette Davis’ biggest hit at Warner Bros., raking in $2.38 million in profit. It also did well critically, garnering Oscar nominations for Gladys Cooper, Max Steiner, and Bette Davis, giving Davis her fifth consecutive Best Actress nomination, matched only by Greer Garson. Steiner’s Best Score was the only winner, as Mrs. Miniver cleaned up that year, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress (Teresa Wright) and Best Actress (Greer Garson).

Fun fact: due to bad weather on location, illness, and Davis’ meticulous pace, the film ran over schedule. This forced changes in Casablanca ‘s shooting schedule, as that film was waiting on Henreid and Rains to finish Now, Voyager .

Another fun fact: this was the first of four films that Davis would make with director Irving Rapper. After Now, Voyager,  Rapper directed Davis in The Corn Is Green (1945), Deception (1946) and Another Man’s Poison (1951).

Here’s the trailer –enjoy! For more, follow me on  Twitter ,  tumblr ,  Pinterest , Instagram at BlondeAtTheFilm , and  Facebook . You can buy this great film here . As always, thanks for reading!

Modern Screen, November 1942. via: http://archive.org/stream/modernscreen2425unse#page/n1114/mode/thumb

As for that smoking ritual…for the rest of his life, Henreid’s fans would ask him to light their cigarettes, and he used a picture of himself with two cigarettes in his mouth for the cover of  his autobiography!

Davis’ fans were also forever asking if they could light her cigarettes the way Henreid did. And when Henreid directed Davis over twenty years later in Dead Ringer (1964), they re-staged the cigarette scene for promotional photos.

via: http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/paul-henreid-two-cigarettes/

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Categories: Drama , Romance

Tagged as: 1940s , Bette Davis , Bonita Granville , Casey Robinson , Claude Rains , Franklin Pangborn , Gladys Cooper , Hal Wallis , Ilka Chase , Irving Rapper , Janis Wilson , John Loder , Mary Wickes , Max Steiner , Orry-Kelly , Paul Henreid , Sol Polito , Warner Bros.

22 replies »

My favorite is the “moon and star” cigarette scene. Very sexy!

I agree! Thanks for reading!

Fabulous information on one of my favorite films!! I loved reading about the Casablanca connection and I love that Bette to make Charlotte even more unattractive. What a dame!!

Janet (Sister Celluloid)

Thanks, Janet! So glad you enjoyed my review. And I agree, Bette was quite a dame!

I love this movie too in spite of its many oddities. How is farming off your daughter better than divorce? So strange. But, of course, it makes it more romantic that they don’t get to be together…I love the idea of her getting together w/Rains. Loved him in this. What a great review. Made me like even better:)

Thank you! Rains is great in this role, and I can see Charlotte being very happy with him! Thanks for stopping by!

THANK YOU for keeping NOW VOYAGER alive for the next generation of Classic movie lovers. Well done! If you’d like some more background information, join me on facebook PAUL HENREID BEYOND VICTOR LASZLO.

I heard about now voyager back in 1975. But I didnt watch it until March of this year,’ i never thought she knew who Tina was until the phone booth scene, but maybe she did know all along . The way She treated Tina after that was really touching though. Janis Wilson did a convincly good job I thought as Tina. I always have liked Bette Davis as a actress

I think one of the most beautiful things about this movie is the relationship between Tina and Charlotte. It’s so sweet! Thanks for reading!

Just watched 2 stupid modern movies recently, Gone girl and Wedding crashers, vulgur and lewd, nothing with any depth and feeling like Now Voyager and other classics from the old days, Something is missing from movies these days

There’s something special about these old movies!

I think it’s Lovely that Charlotte sacrificed her own desires to just “take” the man she loved away from his wife and family. I think that if people today could be so selfless there would be less divorce. If I could only have lived in that era, at least I can dream like I did tonight. Thank You So Much!

Thanks for reading!

Just viewed the movie for the first time. I use to watch these classics as a little girl. Now I am tryimng to get my teenage daughter into them too. Thanks for the post, it pulled together a few questions.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I hope your daughter likes these old movies!

Love your article. I’m reading the Olive Higgins Prouty novel at the moment and the cigarette scene is there too. Here’s the paragraph:

“It wasn’t until Jerry performed the simple act of lighting her cigarette when they were sipping their bitter black coffee, that Charlotte lost control of her tears for a moment. It was Jerry’s last attempt to perform one of their playful little rituals, trivial in itself, consisting merely in lighting both their cigarettes from one match and then exchanging cigarettes, a ceremony practised, Charlotte had no doubt, by many another pair experimenting with untried intimacies. Or was it one of Jerry’s original ideas? She had never read of it in a novel. As Jerry held the flame to the tip of the shaft between her lips she thought, ‘It’s for the last time in our lives,’ and the tears that had sprung to her eyes, and her throat had been so constricted that it was difficult to draw in enough air to keep the glow of the cigarette alive so as to pass it lit to Jerry.”

The book was published in 1941, so Prouty could have borrowed from the The Rich are Always with Us.

Even more interesting is a very ambiguous paragraph just before which implies that Jerry and Charlotte slept with each other at least once before the end of the cruise…

Also interesting is a very ambiguous paragraph on the previous page which implies that Jerry and Charlotte slept together before the cruise voyage ended.

Thank you! I have never read the novel and had no idea that the cigarette thing was in there! I think you’re right to read into the ambiguity surrounding their physical relationship. I think the movie tries to suggest that, too. Thanks for this comment!

I love your article on Now Voyager. In fact I watched it on TCM last week during the Bette Davis tribute. The cast is typically excellent because it’s Warner Brothers. I especially loved seeing Gladys Cooper, a wonderful actress of the Golden Age of Films. What is there not to enjoy about this film? I consider Max Steiner to be at the top of the list among the other great composers, Rosza, Storthart, Hermann,Friedhofer et al. Thank you for allowing me to share my passion for films of the golden age.

Thank you for this comment! This is a tremendous movie. I agree–Steiner is one of the greatest! Thanks for reading!

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Now, Voyager review – Bette Davis at the height of her powers

Irving Rapper's newly restored 1942 classic about a spinster who learns to appreciate life is a brilliant showcase for its magnetic star

09 Aug 2021

A Hollywood icon in every sense of the word, Bette Davis was an actor capable of summoning wit, charisma, and intensity all in a single line of dialogue. Exhibiting the qualities that made her such a commanding screen presence, Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager – newly restored and now in cinemas courtesy of the BFI – is a star vehicle that endures beyond its original standing as a “women’s picture” thanks to its stunning depiction of a person coming to understand who they really are.

Here is a classic film with a great deal of universal appeal, with themes ranging from self-discovery, to building trusting and robust relationships. It's all subtly interwoven into Davis' magnetic portrait of a woman in crisis, and through the subtle complexities of Casey Robinson’s adapted screenplay (based on the source novel by Olive Higgins Prouty).

Now, Voyager follows the affluent Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), stunted after having grown up under the heel of her puritanical and controlling mother (Gladys Cooper), and who remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist, Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), gives her the confidence to set out on a restorative South American cruise.

The monumental moment leads Charlotte onto a ship and into the company of another solo traveller, Jerry, played by Paul Henreid. Although he's married, they embark on a friendship and somewhat thwarted love affair, which helps Charlotte break free of her mother’s grip and discover a sense of self that's always been lacking.

Produced at the peak of Davis’ stardom at Warner Bros., the dominating actress transforms effortlessly between an initially shy and timid spinster into a woman filled with a verve for life and all its wonders. She flourishes with independence as the film gains momentum and, with each scene, finds noble strength to care for others.

The visual transformation owes a great deal to Davis’ dexterous acting ability, though she is aided by a good number of flowing gowns and lavish hats, conjured by the delicate touches of costume designer Orry-Kelly, who Davis frequently collaborated with across her entire career. These two forces culminate through the stark juxtaposition of costumes before and after the defining cruise. Specifically, Kelly’s costumes play with literal veils, an extended visual metaphor of the character’s name and her journey of self-discovery.

Unlike many productions of the era, Now, Voyager places a great deal of attention towards location shooting, creating its memorable images far away from the usual Hollywood sound stages, what with their artificial lighting and fake trees. As a result, the truest sense of exploration comes to the forefront – the kind that shaky backdrops on studio lots rarely afford.

As in Prouty’s original novel, the film does not shy away from melodrama, yet still places a women’s authority central to proceedings, notably echoed in the film's last line. The deliverance of the film’s final line (not to be spoiled here) could have been played with a straight romantic quality, yet in Davis’ vivid delivery a whole array of feminist themes are unearthed, placing an emphasis on women caring and supporting one another outside of a purely patriarchal family structure.

Although the film was originally intended towards a female audience, Now, Voyager avoids cliche and sentimentality about a woman's place in the world and fully transcends its origins. What emerges is a universal message about the resilience of the human condition – a timeless expedition of self-discovery with an enduring lead performance from a dedicated actor working at the height of her powers.

Now, Voyager is now showing in select UK cinemas.

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NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried

Nell Greenfieldboyce

This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space.

The last time Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis saw the Voyager 1 space probe in person, it was the summer of 1977, just before it launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Now Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away, beyond what many consider to be the edge of the solar system. Yet the on-board instrument Krimigis is in charge of is still going strong.

"I am the most surprised person in the world," says Krimigis — after all, the spacecraft's original mission to Jupiter and Saturn was only supposed to last about four years.

These days, though, he's also feeling another emotion when he thinks of Voyager 1.

"Frankly, I'm very worried," he says.

Ever since mid-November, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending messages back to Earth that don't make any sense. It's as if the aging spacecraft has suffered some kind of stroke that's interfering with its ability to speak.

"It basically stopped talking to us in a coherent manner," says Suzanne Dodd of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has been the project manager for the Voyager interstellar mission since 2010. "It's a serious problem."

Instead of sending messages home in binary code, Voyager 1 is now just sending back alternating 1s and 0s. Dodd's team has tried the usual tricks to reset things — with no luck.

It looks like there's a problem with the onboard computer that takes data and packages it up to send back home. All of this computer technology is primitive compared to, say, the key fob that unlocks your car, says Dodd.

"The button you press to open the door of your car, that has more compute power than the Voyager spacecrafts do," she says. "It's remarkable that they keep flying, and that they've flown for 46-plus years."

Each of the Voyager probes carries an American flag and a copy of a golden record that can play greetings in many languages. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

Each of the Voyager probes carries an American flag and a copy of a golden record that can play greetings in many languages.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, have outlasted many of those who designed and built them. So to try to fix Voyager 1's current woes, the dozen or so people on Dodd's team have had to pore over yellowed documents and old mimeographs.

"They're doing a lot of work to try and get into the heads of the original developers and figure out why they designed something the way they did and what we could possibly try that might give us some answers to what's going wrong with the spacecraft," says Dodd.

She says that they do have a list of possible fixes. As time goes on, they'll likely start sending commands to Voyager 1 that are more bold and risky.

"The things that we will do going forward are probably more challenging in the sense that you can't tell exactly if it's going to execute correctly — or if you're going to maybe do something you didn't want to do, inadvertently," says Dodd.

Linda Spilker , who serves as the Voyager mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says that when she comes to work she sees "all of these circuit diagrams up on the wall with sticky notes attached. And these people are just having a great time trying to troubleshoot, you know, the 60's and 70's technology."

"I'm cautiously optimistic," she says. "There's a lot of creativity there."

Still, this is a painstaking process that could take weeks, or even months. Voyager 1 is so distant, it takes almost a whole day for a signal to travel out there, and then a whole day for its response to return.

"We'll keep trying," says Dodd, "and it won't be quick."

In the meantime, Voyager's 1 discombobulation is a bummer for researchers like Stella Ocker , an astronomer with Caltech and the Carnegie Observatories

"We haven't been getting science data since this anomaly started," says Ocker, "and what that means is that we don't know what the environment that the spacecraft is traveling through looks like."

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That interstellar environment isn't just empty darkness, she says. It contains stuff like gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Only the twin Voyager probes are far out enough to sample this cosmic stew.

"The science that I'm really interested in doing is actually only possible with Voyager 1," says Ocker, because Voyager 2 — despite being generally healthy for its advanced age — can't take the particular measurements she needs for her research.

Even if NASA's experts and consultants somehow come up with a miraculous plan that can get Voyager 1 back to normal, its time is running out.

The two Voyager probes are powered by plutonium, but that power system will eventually run out of juice. Mission managers have turned off heaters and taken other measures to conserve power and extend the Voyager probes' lifespan.

"My motto for a long time was 50 years or bust," says Krimigis with a laugh, "but we're sort of approaching that."

In a couple of years, the ebbing power supply will force managers to start turning off science instruments, one by one. The very last instrument might keep going until around 2030 or so.

When the power runs out and the probes are lifeless, Krimigis says both of these legendary space probes will basically become "space junk."

"It pains me to say that," he says. While Krimigis has participated in space missions to every planet, he says the Voyager program has a special place in his heart.

Spilker points out that each spacecraft will keep moving outward, carrying its copy of a golden record that has recorded greetings in many languages, along with the sounds of Earth.

"The science mission will end. But a part of Voyager and a part of us will continue on in the space between the stars," says Spilker, noting that the golden records "may even outlast humanity as we know it."

Krimigis, though, doubts that any alien will ever stumble across a Voyager probe and have a listen.

"Space is empty," he says, "and the probability of Voyager ever running into a planet is probably slim to none."

It will take about 40,000 years for Voyager 1 to approach another star; it will come within 1.7 light years of what NASA calls "an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor" — also known as the Little Dipper.

If NASA greenlights this interstellar mission, it could last 100 years

Knowing that the Voyager probes are running out of time, scientists have been drawing up plans for a new mission that, if funded and launched by NASA, would send another probe even farther out into the space between stars.

"If it happens, it would launch in the 2030s," says Ocker, "and it would reach twice as far as Voyager 1 in just 50 years."

• space exploration
• space science

NASA reports unplanned 'communications pause' with historic Voyager 2 probe carrying 'golden record'

NASA's historic Voyager 2 probe is experiencing an unplanned "communications pause" after the space agency revealed that the spacecraft's antenna was inadvertently pointed into the wrong direction.

Mission control transmitted a series of routine commands on July 21 that had the unintended effect of triggering a 2-degree change in Voyager 2's antenna orientation, NASA announced on Friday. As a result, the deep-space probe's ability to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth has been disrupted.

The spacecraft first launched into orbit in 1977 carrying a "golden record" to act as a time capsule if it encounters any extraterrestrial lifeforms.

The issue has prevented Voyager 2's data transmission from reaching the array of giant radio network antennas known as the Deep Space Network , whose team of ground controllers are similarly unable to communicate with the probe.

NASA is hopeful that the technical glitch is only temporary, and that when the spacecraft resets its orientation in October, communication lines will reopen between it and the ground control team. That reset is planned for Oct. 15, and NASA expects the spacecraft will remain on its planned trajectory until then.

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Where is Voyager 2 now?

Voyager 2 is 12.4 billion miles from Earth.

The spacecraft is one of two twin probes launched in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida , to explore planets in the outer solar system − particularly Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 1, which NASA said was not impeded by the glitch, in 2012 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space and − at 14.8 billion miles away − is the farthest human-made object from Earth.

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Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2018 and has the distinction of being the only spacecraft to have explored Uranus and Neptune.

The 'golden record' on board Voyager

Both Voyager spacecrafts also carry a so-called " golden record " as a greeting to any lifeform they may encounter. The phonograph record − a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk − contains sounds, images, spoken greetings in 55 languages, and musical selections of various cultures and eras intended to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta.

Janis Wilson (1930-2003)

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Martha - As a Child

• Penny Boardman

• Kate Hereford

• Nora Cavigny

• Janie Elkins

• Tina Durrance (uncredited)

Personal details

• February 9 , 1930
• Santa Barbara, California, USA
• November 17 , 2003
• Spokane, Washington, USA (undisclosed)
• Sidney Victor Petertyl November 12, 1955 - November 17, 2003 (her death, 1 child)

Did you know

• Trivia Met her future husband at age 12 on the Warner Brothers lot of "Now Voyager".
• Quotes I am the last surviving witness to the filming of Casablanca (1942) , which was being filmed on the set right next door. I used to slip over there and watch it.

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