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CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

skinner-c This movie is as fascinating as it is timeless. The movie itself motivated me to buy and read W. Somerset Maugham's novel from beginning to end.Both this 1934 original and the 1946 remake with Eleanor Parker are treasures, and while the remake was essentially a reproduction of the earlier version, that makes it no less intriguing for me.While this original (and the 1946 remake) primarily encapsulate Philip's eventful and traumatic encounter with Mildred Rogers, this episode only comprises about 40 percent of the pages of Maugham's 1915 masterpiece. The episode, however, effects Philip to the very end.The screenplay was adopted from the book with some modifications for a happier ending, while being very faithful to the essence of Maugham's dynamic characters, taking many of Mildred's cockney'd lines ("I don't mind") verbatim. In the movie versions Philip's clubfoot is healed through surgery, but in Maugham's novel he seems to bear the handicap to the end, although an operation to correct it was attempted without apparent success.You can't leave this movie (or the book) unchanged, and I am grateful to have experienced it. As for Mildred, we have in life met her, all of us. And perhaps - in one way or another - we are all Philip.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . to the MGM Brass, desperately hoping that OF HUMAN BONDAGE would win her the coveted role of "Scarlett O'Hara" in that studio's three-times-longer copy-cat triangular love affair melodrama set during the War to Stamp Out Lazy Racist Confederate Traitors' Sadistic Black Slavery Racket, aka GONE WITH THE WIND. Since this BONDAGE story was crafted by a Professional Writer, it's five times as good and twice as short as Martha Mitchell's Murky Mess, GWTW. As we all know, Bette Who's-Counting-My-Six-Abortions Davis was beat out for the part of Scarlett by a crazy chick on furlough from the nuthouse. It's hard to see how Bette's strained effort in BONDAGE to speak Londoner could lead to ANY future jobs on the Big Screen (except, perhaps, as the witch who unhands Bruce Dern in HUSH HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE). To rub salt in the wound of the Cracked Davis Vanity Cup, MGM's fat cats DID see fit to cast Leslie "Phil the Pill" Howard to reprise his BONDAGE performance as GWTW's quintessential milquetoast, Ashley Wilkes. MGM also signed on BONDAGE composer Max Steiner to score their Treasonous bladder buster. Though few people remember it Today, BONDAGE almost completed a GWTW Trifecta, as it convinced MGM hotshot David O. Selznick to award the Plum Role of "Rhett Butler" to Alan Hale. However, when the S.S. Minnow entered a Time Warp during a planned "three-hour cruise" just before GWTW filming began, Dave was forced to substitute the relative unknown Clark Gable instead.

Hitchcoc I don't know what it was about Leslie Howard that turned me off, but I always found him affected and sort of pale. So when he plays the victim of a woman with whom he is obsessed, I was not terribly sorry for him. That is an irrational response so I will try to be reasonable. As a reader I hated what that guy allowed that awful woman to do to him; and when I saw this movie I had the same feeling. I wanted to take him into an alley and beat some sense into him. Obviously, the poor guy was crippled and probably had never had anything like this happen to him which makes Bette Davis even more despicable. He cowered and hoped and did not have the experience to do anything right. Of all the versions, I think this one is probably the best. Although it's so hard to watch.

trish-64 Oh dear, how this film is showing its age: the endless fades, the wooden acting, the actors twenty years too old for their roles. Perhaps also it is that the very ideas and themes are showing their age. In a modern era, Leslie Howerd's character just seems wet rather than sensitive - you wish the guy would just grow a pair; the attitude to his club foot seems horribly unenlightened in an era where we say 'disabled', not 'cripple'; and Mildred's 'shocking' behaviour and ultimate fate seem laughable and judgemental. Bette Davis's Cockney accent is dreadful, poor lass, but having said that, her acting is the only good thing in this film: Leslie Howerd is dire and the only bit-parter worth his salt is Alan Hale: the characters of Harry, Sally, Sally's father and Norah are all poorly drawn and the film attempts to cover far too long a time span. Although I am a huge fan of vintage movies, including silents, I was able to watch this particular film only as a curiosity piece. Worth watching perhaps once for the costumes, furniture and Bette Davis's eyes.