OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1946)

The story OF HUMAN BONDAGE has become like A STAR IS BORN, that is, being filmed many times with different effects on the audience and box office.  Studios loved to put actors into roles that are ‘star making,’ hoping the magic will occur again.  Such  would be the case with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the Edmund Goulding version of the  Somerset Maugham  story.    Directors, particularly in theater, believe that some roles are “bulletproof.”  Actors simply have to make their entrance, say their lines and not hit the furniture and all will be good.  This is not the case here.

Edmund Goulding tested Eleanor Parker twice for the role of Mildred in the picture and  was convinced she could handle it. Parker was known for ‘sweet roles’. The studio wanted to launch another star the same way this 1934 version did  for Bette Davis. However,  watching the picture one wonders what  Goulding saw in Parker and how much pressure he felt from the  studio to cast her.     She  doesn’t get much help from her  on screen partner,Paul Henreid, who does his level best with wordy dialogue and an over the top limp.  Parker  gets  saddled with a Ingrid Bergman look, complete with exaggerated  eyebrows.  One of the  few times that Hollywood overdid trying to make someone look dowdy or  trashy.

 

The story  of  one sided  passion by a medical student who has a limp  is a story we know.  It was previously made in 1934 with Bette Davis, teaming up with Leslie Howard and  again in  1964 with Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey.  Bondage takes on a different meaning in today’s world; however, power, control, jealousy, self-abasement—these are characteristics of the love that Maugham identifies as bondage. The kind of love based on these qualities produces pain, shrinking of one’s heart, a lack of freedom and happiness.   The love becomes a curse for one, while the other is  content to sit. This desire to have  fun and to simply dance is difficult for Paul Henreid’s Phillip Carey, so Mildred  flirts with close friend Harry Griffiths, played  by Patric Knowles.

These bits of dialogue, looks, and  hand holding in secret give Parker some of her best moments of the picture as she plays off of Griffiths very  well  and  Goulding photographs them in closeup effectively.  Where the character of Mildred loses her effectiveness is when Parker begins  yelling and other histrionics.  The result is for my ears  what came to sound later like a ‘Eliza Doolittle’ accent in all its  cliche beauty, much the same as  the dreaded ‘Lucky Charms’ Irish accent.

 

Eleanor Parker apparently worked hard on the accent,  learning from English actress Doris Lloyd, who had  a small role as  a land lady in the picture.  Lloyd had a  huge career in film and other work, so she did the thing that  most good actors do:  support your fellow actors by helping them. An accent, in this case.  Interesting to note that Lloyd was born in Liverpool and the accent that Parker gives is  pretty much cockney minus the  rhythm and the little rhymes.  It is said that Parker learned the accent so well the English in the cast thought she was one of them.  I find that optimistic, designed to give her confidence and good press.

Paul Henreid  has his accent explained as having an Austrian mother. He does his best with wordy dialogue, especially in the beginning of the picture  with Alexis  Smith (Norah Nesbitt) in her too brief  screen time.

Henreid matches the wardrobe he is given, that is, a stiff performance that is almost mechanical  in body language, except for his  face. It light ups when he is happy and he purses his eyebrows when not.  Where you really see it is in the scenes between Carey and Athelny (Edmund Gwenn).

Athelny is everything that Carey is not:  happy, has a loving family and a marriageable  daughter  Sally  (Janis Page) that he fondly reminds  everyone.  The two meet in a hospital and  strike up a  friendship in a delightfully light  fast moment which changes  the tone of the picture.   The mood  drops when Mildred  enters the film,  if intentional, it is  quite effective.  One can really seen the chops of the acting between Edmund Gwenn and Eleanor Parker.

Gwenn is fluid in his movement, speech and mannerisms with the words just flowing musically from his mouth even in the tense moments. Gwenn does a wonderful drop in volume when in a  tender moment between father and  his daughter Sally, who finally tells him that she is in love with Carey. Gwenn simply asks her in the most sincere three words in the film,’Tell your Father,” which comforts her.  The  slightly tipsy Harry Griffiths’ (Patric Knowles) moment is on the  rooming house stairs when he looks Carey in the eye and tells him that he will not do anything to hurt  him and Mildred. He, of course,  doesn’t follow through, as Mildred  wants  a bit of fun.

Writer Catherine Turney, who gave us the wordy screenplay, is  said to have been a champion for larger women’s  roles  in pictures. She did previous  work for  Barbara Stanwyck,  Anne Sheridan, Ida Lupino, Bette Davis  and others.  She also did uncredited  writing work on MILDRED PIERCE (1946), that was nominated for an Academy Award.  Parker’s  first entrance  as the Tea Room waitress and all her  moments  like that seem filled with gyrations, and the voice of an actor  trying too hard.  Parker has a final scene  edited  out of the picture as it was deemed  too bleak for audiences at the time.

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1946) suffers from poor casting and sluggish direction of actors in spite of the production values of sets and camera work. This version of the story is not  shown much as  apparently  the  film was completed in 1944  and shelved for two years as the result of a disastrous opening.   With the exception of the supporting people like Edmund Gwenn, Janis Page  and  the always wonderful  Una O Conner (Check the brilliant, subtle look out she gives Mildred when giving her a package) the picture is still worth a look to see actors  trying hard to work without much support.