Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34714 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
In this 1942 melodrama, founded on the novel by Olivia Higgins Prouty (who also wrote the novel on which Stella Dallas was based), Bette Davis stars as Charlotte Vale, a dowdy, repressed woman who, overwhelmed by her domineering mother, is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She finds help at a sanitarium from a kind psychiatrist (Claude Rains), who turns her into a beautiful, confident woman. As a new person, she takes a pleasure cruise, where she meets Jerry (Paul Henreid), an architect trapped in an unhappy marriage, saddled with a troubled daughter. The two fall in love, but, of course, the romance is doomed. Yet their paths cross on occasion, and, despite their feelings, Charlotte finds satisfaction in helping Jerry's depressed child. The film will seem familiar to new viewers--the campy style was the pattern for many tearjerkers to come, and its most famous line has been oft repeated ("Don't ask for the moon--we have the stars"). But the heartstrings are tugged, and as Paul Henreid chivalrously lights two cigarettes and hands one over to the doleful-eyed Davis, pull out the box of tissues--you're gonna need 'em. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

VINTAGE DAVIS CLASSIC.....
There's nothing campy about "Now,Voyager", style or otherwise. Some people obviously don't understand the difference between classic and camp. This is a wonderful 40's film and one of Bette Davis' most memorable. Based on Olive Higgens Prouty's chronicles of the Bostonion Vale family, it tells of repressed spinster Charlotte Vale breaking free from the mother-from-hell (a marvelous Gladys Cooper) and emerging into an independant modern woman through the help of sympathetic psychiatrist Dr.Jacquith (Claude Rains). When a frustrating relationship with unhappily married Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) and the death of her mother (after a heated argument) almost derails her, she finds purpose and meaning in helping Durrance's emotionally disturbed and neglected daughter Tina (Janis Wilson---overacting just a tad). Henreid's cigarette lighting ceremony with Davis became film legend as did the splendid music score by Max Steiner. There's nothing campy about the screenplay by Casey Robinson either. In fact, it offers one of the loveliest lines ever heard on screen. Spoken by Davis, it's the closing line: "Let's not ask for the moon...we have the stars." What words could be more perfect while gazing up at a nightime sky with your lover? A top notch cast puts this over in divine style. Both Davis and Cooper were nominated for Oscars. Watch for Mary Wickes as Dora the nurse to Mrs.Vale. And please, don't view this lovely film as camp. It's a true classic and a vintage example of good filmmaking. Essential viewing for the film lover. Just enjoy it.

May Be Bette's Best
Some movies simply get better with age, much like fine red wine. This is certainly true of "Now Voyager." It is an "ugly duckling" to "beautiful swan" tale--hardly a cutting edge concept--but it works impressively here. Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) seems doomed to a life of dull spinsterhood under the thumb of her domineering mother, the outstanding Gladys Cooper. But a kindly psychiatrist comes along (Claude Rains) who sees potential worth tapping under nervous Charlotte's dumpy exterior. And the transformation is filmed superbly;Bette Davis never looked more glamorous. The first shot of the "new" Charlotte--now traveling under an assumed name on a cruise ship--as she makes her entrance is a moment of monumental film making. Aboard the cruise, Charlotte meets and falls in love with a married man (Paul Henried), and she manages to stay connected to him through his troubled daughter that she finds and helps at Cascade, the very institution that helped bring forth the new Charlotte Vale. There are moments of joy, moments of humor, moments of sadness in this movie. Max Steiner's score is top notch, and Orry-Kelly's costumes could not be better. This film has frequently been singled out as perhaps the best representation of the trends in moviemaking in the 1940's. After viewing it, you will understand why.

Now, Voyager
With the help of her psychologist, Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) breaks lose from the iron grip of her stern and domineering mother (Gladys Cooper). Charlotte loses weight, trims her eyebrows, and finds love with the handsome Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) while on a cruise to Rio.
NOW, VOYAGER is full of that thick, gooey stuff of which impossible melodramas are made - the cruel parent, the ugly duckling child who must wrest herself out from under the suffocating maternal wing so she may blossom into a beautiful swan, etc., etc., etc. Tear-jerking muck is a toxin to my system, and my thumb hung heavy over the `eject' button, ready to zap this one into oblivion.
But Davis, who must be the greatest movie star ever, plays her character free of artifice and false sentimentality. By the time she meets (unhappily) married Henreid on the cruise ship I was totally involved in her story. By the time they parted at the railroad station and she asked "Shall I tell you what you've given me...?" I was reaching for the hankies.
What a remarkable actress was Bette Davis.