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Amazon.com's Price: $7.98 as of 11/22/2009 17:52 EST details
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Alpha Video
EAN: 0089218307699
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Label: Alpha Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal Language
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
MPN: 3076
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Alpha Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 22, 2002
Running Time: 83 minutes
Studio: Alpha Video
Theatrical Release Date: July 20, 1934
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com: The interior life of a natural-born introvert is a tricky thing to convey in any story medium, but perhaps nowhere more than in feature films. Fortunately for this 1934 version of Of Human Bondage (the first of three), the introverted young doctor at the center of the story is played by Leslie Howard, who makes a slack spirit and puppet-of-destiny ennui look like a GQ ad from the age of Romanticism. Howard's character, well liked by peers and facing a promising future, becomes a slave to self-destructive impulse when he grows obsessed with a mercurial, promiscuous waitress (Bette Davis). She stands him up, she lets him down, she sleeps around--basically doing anything she can think of to humiliate the plaintive, puppyish Howard. The good doctor's prospects soon sink... and then sink again and again every time she reappears, usually in dire circumstances, after prolonged absences. Much of Howard's performance borders on monotony, but how many ways can an actor show what it's like to lean against desks and ponder the enigma of himself? At least he looks classy while doing so. Meanwhile, Davis's electric performance, one of her best, gives director John Cromwell's slow pacing a shot in the arm. The supporting cast is very good: Alan Hale, Frances Dee, and Cromwell's then-wife, Kay Johnson, do a fine job helping to fill in the silences. Adapted from the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. --Tom Keogh
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
This version of "Of Human Bondage" is hampered by the early 1930's puritanical production code.
Nevertheless, Bette Davis turns in a fantastic performance as the sluttish Mildred.
Leslie Howard is also effective as the masochistic Philip.
All in all this is a 5 "star" film.
So why did I only give it 4 "stars"?
The quality of the video is mediocre, the digital transfer is not good, the print used was scratched and the sound at times muddy.
Rating: -
That was her trademark: portraying women who were down right rotten to the core, grotesque, ill-mannered, bad-tempered, far to powerful for their era, over-powering of men, smarter than men, and highly seductive without being overtly sexual. Only Bette Davis was willing to become these kinds of characters at the very beginning when motion pictures first became talkies.
Bette Davis was in "Of Human Bondage" for the script. Warner Brothers owned her as a contract actor and wasn't giving ... Read More
Rating: -
I read the book, which awesome. An intimidating novel because of it's size, but the story pulls you in. When I heard there was a film of the story I researched it out. I did read all the comments and the common theme was "bad quality." I found this to be true. Filmed many years ago the technology just isn't what we are used to today. Scratchy film, poor sound and a constant line through the screen made it difficult to watch. My opinion, be satisfied with the novel.
Rating: -
Dear buyers and movie fans...there is a reason why this particular DVD is so cheap. The quality is just awful, as if someone had snuck a handheld camcorder into a movie theater. The scenes are jumpy, the picture is grainy and the sound reminds me of old turn of the century wax cylinder recordings, only slightly more coherant. Alpha Video sometimes has some fair transfers of classic films, but not this one. Until someone eventually comes out with an actual full restoration of this wonderful movie, ... Read More
Rating: -
Acknowledging that the product was a reproduction of a very old (1934) movie, we were nonetheless disappointed in the quality of the picture, given current technology.
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