Dark Victory (1939)

A young New York socialite (Bette Davis) leads a rather aimless sybaritic lifestyle. But after a serious brain operation, she falls in love with her surgeon (George Brent) and looks forward to a life as the wife of a small town doctor when he decides to do research work in Vermont. But he's kept the truth about her illness from her ... it's terminal. The overrated year of 1939 is often unjustifiably considered the greatest single year for (American) films and DARK VICTORY is often among the films listed that made 1939 such a banner year. It's a three hankie weepie but it's not a great film. But Davis's performance is! It's a classic example of an actor's performance elevating an average film into something special. One shudders to think how treacly the film might have been like with a lesser actress, say, Irene Dunne or Loretta Young in Davis' role. There's a lifeforce in Davis that really does make her premature death a tragedy that such a fire should be extinguished before it's ready to burn out. The film is based on a play that flopped but the movie was a big hit and it's not ungentlemanly to suggest Davis was the reason why. Tastefully directed by Edmund Goulding. With a miscast Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan as a playboy and a lovely performance by Geraldine Fitzgerald as Davis' loyal companion.