OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1946)

This was director Edmund Goulding’s other Somerset Maugham project of 1946, going directly from this 1915 semi-autobiographical novel at Warners to recent bestseller THE RAZOR’S EDGE at 20th/FOX. (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/razors-edge-1946.html)  The second of three futile tries at BONDAGE (R.K.O 1934; M-G-M 1964*), it’s largely forgotten now, with miscast actors and an unworkable script with more obstacles than a game of bumper pool.  Surprisingly, Patrick Knowles makes a decent show as a med school pal, but elsewise, accents alone make this a non-starter with Eleanor Parker’s Cockney waitress inexplicably ensnaring Paul Henreid’s artist-turned-med student stumbling awkwardly over her just as he does over his psychologically debilitating club foot.  Parker trying to be unrefined; Henreid trying to be British.  (A Viennese father is mentioned, but the real explanation is that Warners was running out a soon-to-expire contract.)  Even Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s fine score seems detached from the story* while Goulding proved better at turning THE RAZOR’S EDGE into silky smooth melodrama.  And if that film’s spiritual elements now look like a Hollywood embarrassment, pulpy human interest and plus-perfect casting make it as intensely watchable as this film is missable.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Perhaps because all attempts at BONDAGE come up short, the three films (1934; 1946; 1964) offer a unique chance to study changing Hollywood mores & manners/style & content without much emotional involvement getting in the way.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/10/of-human-bondage-1934.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/11/of-human-bondage-1964.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *A fine piece of music on its own, Korngold was brought in to ‘punch up’ a film that obviously wasn’t working.  Later, Korngold asked to see the 1934 version with Bette Davis and told her it was excellent, though some scenes after ten years seemed somewhat ridiculous.  ‘Our film, however, is ten years ahead of its time; we’re ridiculous already!’  A superb suite from the score, recorded as part of the famous RCA series of classic film scores in the early 1970s, helped start a full-scale Korngold revival that now sees almost all his film, opera and concert compositions available in multiple versions from top classical artists.