“ No One Ever Called Me Darling”

 

That gown ! 

I’ve never reviewed Now Voyager.

Having said that, I’ve never seen it on the big screen as it was meant to be seen.

And so nearly 80 years since it was made, I thought it time for my Going Gently review.

Now Voyager is a melodrama to cap all melodramas. 

It is pure nectar to a middle aged gay man’s sensibilities for everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown into the mix .

In two hours we are witness to the transformation of Bette Davis’ neurotic, monobrowed spinster into an assertive , shoulder padded, coiffured  woman about town through some unseen but obviously highly effective psychotherapy .

What a bitch Gladys  Cooper

Throw into the mix a harridan mother ( A gloriously hateful Gladys Cooper), a handsome married Austrian (Paul Henreid), a voyage to South America, a benign psychiatrist ( Claude Rains) a wise cracking nurse (Mary Wilks),  oodles of pop psychology, a dozen gowns to die for and more cigarettes than one set of lungs can cope with.

I loved almost every minute of it.

On the big screen, Henreid is quite beautiful

Ok I could have lived without the snivelling Tina and the “ hilarious “ comic aside in the mountains of Rio  but the rest, with the eye rolling Davis in full gallop, was a camp lesson in emotional romping.

Having said this, Bette Davis is still incredibly moving as Charlotte Vale, and I found myself tearing up at the quiet, understated moment Henreid’s character shows his affection and thanks to her,  the first time anyone had done so in her life. Her expression when she received his gift of perfume , literally  breaks your heart.

In 80 years, the movie has lost none of its power