Now, Voyager (1942)
- kbroer
- Nov 10, 2023
- 3 min read
Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper
Directed by Irving Rapper
Available to stream on Amazon Prime
Our next shipboard film is a classic melodrama/romance where repressed Bette Davis escapes from her domineering mother with help from psychiatrist Claude Rains, and finds shipboard romance with unhappily married Paul Henreid.
Why we love it: A classic makeover story – Bette Davis is a frumpy old maid with unstylish hair and bushy eyebrows. She is repressed and overpowered by her mother until she has a nervous breakdown. She gets her hair cut, eyebrows plucked, and suddenly she’s on a glamorous cruise and just happens to have a shipboard romance with the dashing Paul Henreid! It is certainly melodramatic, but it’s a classic Bette Davis film with some fantastic supporting actors and it's definitely worth watching.
InThe Essentials Jeremy Arnold writes, “...there’s even more to Now, Voyager than its supremely entertaining melodrama. Underneath the surface lies a potent statement – especially resonant for female audiences of the time – about a woman making her own choices in life, including those that go against a conformist society’s expectations. It’s one thing for Charlotte simply to escape her mother’s dominance; it’s quite another for her to choose a path to fulfillment that doesn’t include getting married and having kids.”
Fun Facts:
Now, Voyager was Bette Davis's most successful film at Warner Brothers, making $2.8 million in profit.
Bette Davis received her 5th Oscar nomination in a row for her role as Charlotte Vale, but she lost out to Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver. The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper) and Best Score (Max Steiner). The film won the Academy Award for Best Score.
Bette Davis had to convince Jack Warner, the head of the studio, to let her have the role of Charlotte Vale. The producer originally wanted Irene Dunne, Norma Shearer, or Ginger Rogers for the part.
This was only Paul Henreid's second Hollywood film and it (along with his next film, Casablanca) launched his Hollywood career.
The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Proudy. The title comes from Walt Whitman's poem "The Untold Want."
The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find.
Max Steiner's Oscar winning score (and the theme which was turned into a popular song, "It Can't Be Wrong") can be heard in the clip below along with the famous quote, "Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."
The final scene of the movie (in the clip below) contains one of the most iconic moments in the film when Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes at a time and then gives one to Davis. (This happens four times throughout the film.) This cigarette lighting trick has since been imitated and parodied in other films, including Young Frankenstein (1974) and Austin Powers (1997).
For articles and reviews from the time, go to the Fan Magazine Reviews page.
Featured Cocktail:
Bourbon Old Fashioned
Cole Porter’ song “Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please” was featured in the 1940 stage play Panama Hattie.
In Now, Voyager, Paul Henreid orders Bourbon Old Fashioneds for the two of them.
2 oz (60 ml) bourbon or rye
1-2 tsp (5-10 ml) sugar syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Mix simple syrup and bitters in rocks glass. Add ice, then whiskey. Stir to chill and garnish with a lemon twist and maraschino cherry.
The current fashion is to garnish with a simple maraschino cherry. Early on in its history, lemon, orange, and other fruit was usually muddled into the drink.
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