Dark Victory

Friday, September 26 - Sunday, September 28, 2014

35mm print

“In the glorious year of 1939, Bette Davis and Warner Bros. produced one of the best with DARK VICTORY, a pure soap opera whose predictable melodramatics are dazzlingly transcended by consummate acting backed by the glittering power of studio filmmaking. Davis bristles as spoiled socialite Judith Traherne, whose charmed life of horseback-riding and partying is rudely interrupted by a brain tumor. Davis is riveting in all her restless passion, as is her supporting cast, which includes George Brent as her surgeon/husband; Ronald Reagan, in probably the best role of his career, as a drunken playboy; Humphrey Bogart, uncharacteristically playing an Irish stable groom; and Geraldine Fitzgerald, warm and sincere as Trahern’s devoted best friend (one of the rare instances when golden-age Hollywood presented a relationship between women as more than the usual sniping and spitting). Legend has it Davis furiously contested the use of Max Steiner’s sweeping angelic crescendo at the film’s tear-duct-draining conclusion–and, typically, lost the argument to Jack Warner.” – Baltimore City Paper

• Country USA
• Rating NR
• Year 1939
• Running Time 104 min. minutes
• Director Edmund Goulding

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.