Of Human Bondage (1934): watch the full film free, legally

Philip Carey and an unwanted attachment

John Cromwell directed Of Human Bondage, a 1934 American drama adapted by Lester Cohen from W. Somerset Maugham’s 1915 novel. Leslie Howard plays Philip Carey, a sensitive British artist with a club foot who has spent four years studying painting in Paris. When his teacher tells him he lacks talent, Philip returns to London and enters medical school. His moodiness and chronic self-doubt make the work difficult.

Philip becomes consumed by Mildred Rogers, a tearoom waitress played by Bette Davis. Mildred is disdainful of his club foot and his interest in her, yet she exploits his attraction. Her repeated answer to his invitations, “I don’t mind,” enrages him. Preoccupied with thoughts of Mildred, Philip fails his medical examinations. When he proposes, she refuses him and announces that she will marry salesman Emil Miller, played by Alan Hale.

Philip begins to recover through Norah, a considerate romance writer who works under a male pseudonym. Kay Johnson plays Norah, whose relationship with Philip helps him confront his attachment to Mildred. Mildred then returns pregnant, saying Emil has abandoned her. Philip gives her a flat, supports her financially, and ends his relationship with Norah. Their parting acknowledges the different forms of bondage between Philip, Mildred, Norah, and Emil.

At an engagement dinner, Philip’s fellow medical student Harry Griffiths, played by Reginald Denny, flirts with Mildred. After Philip confronts her, she leaves with Harry for Paris. Philip again turns to his studies and finds kindness with Sally Athelny, played by Frances Dee, daughter of one of his elderly charity-hospital patients. The affectionate Athelny family takes him into its home.

Bette Davis wins the role

Cromwell’s interest in Davis began in 1932, when Michael Curtiz showed him The Cabin in the Cotton. Cromwell had been considering Richard Barthelmess for another project, but Davis’s femme fatale performance instead suggested Mildred to him. Producer Pandro S. Berman had acquired Maugham’s story for Howard, agreed that Davis would suit the co-starring role, and Maugham supported the casting.

Davis read Maugham’s novel while making 20,000 Years in Sing Sing and pressed Jack L. Warner to lend her to RKO. Warner objected because he believed Mildred would damage her glamorous image. Davis later said that Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, and Ann Harding reportedly declined for the same reason. Warner agreed after a deal in which RKO’s Irene Dunne was wanted for Sweet Adeline.

To prepare, Davis hired an English housekeeper to absorb the Cockney speech needed for Mildred. Howard and other British cast members were unhappy that an American had been cast. Davis recalled that Howard read a book off-stage while giving her lines during close-ups. Film historian Kingley Canham wrote that Howard’s understated performance counterbalanced Davis’s frequent domination of less-talented male co-stars. Davis designed her own make-up for Mildred’s final illness scenes. The illness was changed from syphilis to tuberculosis to meet the expanding Production Code.

Premiere, reviews and an Oscar dispute

The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall on June 28, 1934, before entering general release on July 20. Davis avoided a Santa Barbara preview because she was nervous about audience reaction. Her mother, Ruth, described the screening as “one hour and a half of horrible realism,” while Davis’s husband, Harmon O. Nelson, called the performance “painfully sincere” and worried it might harm her career. RKO executives were surprised by laughter at previews and asked Max Steiner to write a new score with motifs for the principal characters.

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times wrote that the novel reached the screen in “unexpectedly healthy fashion,” praising its lifelike quality and authentic atmosphere. He called Howard’s work his best screen performance and found Davis “enormously effective.” In 2017, The Radio Times Guide to Films awarded the film four out of five stars, praised Howard, Davis, the supporting cast, and Cromwell’s direction. The film recorded a loss of $45,000.

Critics regarded the film as the one that made Davis a star. Many expected her to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, but she was not an official nominee. A faction supporting her performance led the academy to permit write-in votes that year. Davis placed third behind Claudette Colbert and Norma Shearer. Price Waterhouse was hired to count the votes and began keeping results secret the following year. Davis won Best Actress for Dangerous.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Of Human Bondage (1934 film)”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.