Now, Voyager (1942)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Now, Voyager There is no doubt this is a wonderful movie, if only for Bette Davis and her transformations as Charlotte so vivid in that classic Hollywood way. For me the movie has always been hobbled by Paul Henreid, who I suppose was once the admirable handsome guy his character is painted to be here. He is the chink in "Casablanca's" greatness and he's a bigger flaw here, since so much of the movie depends on him, both as love interest and father. The story is melodrama, and it's crazy improbable and simplified, so you have to see it as a kind of fairy tale with caricatures and motives very archetypal. The evil seeming mom, the sudden (and total) change in Charlotte, the absent other woman (who in this case is the wife) and the too perfectly hurting child, who brings tears to the jerker ending. It's all great, and it's all a bit much to swallow if you really want to take these things to heart. Irving Rapper is one of those mysterious Hollywood directors who made a number of classic films but never rose out of the system to be seen as having a vision of his own. The photography by the great Sol Polito is professional and unremarkable (proof, maybe, that it takes a director-cinematographer pair to make a movie rise up visually). Music by Max Steiner is unusually key and wonderful, as usual. So why is this movie so highly regarded? In part because it lacks obvious flaws (leaving my opinion of Henreid out of it). Claude Rains is a huge asset but has an intermittent role. Davis is stellar, and that holds up a lot. But overall, this is a great example of a Hollywood collaborative effort, with the well-oiled machinery of the system putting out movies that can still hold together as minor masterpieces-editing, music, visuals, and acting all pushing a hyper-dramatic story along quickly and with an involving sense of place. Yes, see it. It does in fact feel good.

I'm not going to be repetitive here. If you want to know about the plot, there is a summary on the first screen.What's amazing about this film is the chemistry between Paul Henreid and Bette Davis, and the sexual sparks fly off the screen.Davis, a unique-looking actress, looked sleek as a cat in this film. No actress ever had such a feline way of walking as Davis did. Her wardrobe was designed by the legendary Orry Kelly, who won an Oscar for the exquisite gowns Davis wore in the film.Henreid was never so smoulderingly sexy as he was in this film. The classic cigarette-lighting scenes set the screen on fire.A story of love, passion and self discovery, this is a classic film and a must-see. Now go do it.

It seems like over the past 20 years, every time I have seen a documentary on the golden age of Hollywood, they play the last scene from this movie where Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes at once and hands one to Bette Davis.I have always wanted to see the movie and recently I watched it. Bette Davis is superb in the role of Charlotte Vale, a woman under the thumb of an overbearing mother. Equally impressive are Claude Rains, as her doctor, Dr. Jaquith and Paul Henreid, as Jerry Durrance, a man who befriends her on an ocean voyage.The movie takes you along on her journey from an insecure spinster to that of a woman who has everything.If you are a fan of film, this is an essential.

Well-made but dull."Now, Voyager" is essentially a movie-length soap opera. Has all the ingredients: over-stated melodrama, complex relationships, high society and their weird mores, idyllic settings, forbidden romances and a nagging, fascist mother. From the outset the movie just feels stuffy, and superficial.Good production though, despite the dialogue feeling so much like a play. Max Steiner won an Oscar for his musical score.The acting goes with the play/soap opera feel: over-stated emotions, exaggerated portrayals.