Fluffytoo ***slight spoiler*****I just finished watching Of Human Bondage on TCM. I kept thinking throughout as Paul Henried limped around how that man can wear the hell out of a suit. To add to what others have said, I was surprised by this version of the film. I was expecting a dull rendition, especially after the tours de force by Davis and Howard in an earlier rendition. Despite lukewarm reviews, I loved it! An elegant film overall and well crafted, beautifully decorated and photographed in high contrast black and white, full of angled looming shadows, almost oppressively so, and small pools of light, sometimes unkind light, a manifest expression of Philip Carey's inner life. Gestures and movement are also important, often more so than words.I thought Paul Henreid was fantastic in it as well as Eleanor Parker; I think he gets short shrift relative to the star power of the female role. He seemed like a man trapped, who knew he was trapped and was helpless to do anything about it except to careen between cruelty and kindness. His experience has a compelling immediacy, of the moment and so does his story. I never had seen Paul Henreid in such a different role, where he lacked confidence and could be awkward and despairing, coarse and primal in a way that made me uncomfortable to see such naked need and helplessness. And still, the character had a grace, a redemptive quality that would peek out in spare, quiet moments.I especially loved the simplicity of his wordless visit to Mildred at the end; it was as if he were carressing a dying animal. And then he was quietly, without fanfare, released. His obsession is never explained because it doesn't really matter. His experience matters. The director captures this beautifully.This film and the crafting of its themes reminds me very much of the 40's version of A Razor's Edge with Tyrone Power. It turns out Edmund Goulding directed both.8.5 stars out of 10

gamay9 What I find fascinating is that two of my 12 favorite (most alluring) actresses starred in different versions of the same film: Eleanor Parker and Kim Novak.In an era where lousy remakes of good films are made once a month, 'Of Human Bondage' improves with time. Kim Carnes might have idolized 'Bette Davis' Eyes' but I think Bette was homely. Eleanor Parker was (and still is, at 90) a scintillating, wholesome looking beauty, as I also rate Cathy O'Donnell ('Best Years of Our Lives') and Margaret Sullivan ('Shop on the Corner,' amongst others). Problem is, they all were divorced several times, so they may not have been as wholesome and charming as they appeared on-screen. Then, again, they may have been 'unlucky' in love; perhaps they had cheating husbands. I can't imagine Cathy O'Donnell being anything but the eternal virgin.Kim Novak was (is?) sexy and flaunted it. That's why she was best cast in 'Of Human Bondage.' I have always been a fan of Laurence Harvey (my middle name is 'Harvey').I would recommend watching all three versions of 'Of Human Bondage' and judge for yourself.

marbleann A lot of people must not have read the book. None of the versions of this movie is close to the book simply because Mildred does not even show up in the book until the middle. She is a important character but not the main character. I believe people misread the Philip character because they leave so much out about his life before he met met Mildred. And there is the flaw of all of the versions. Someone mentioned that Bette Davis was not pretty enough for Philip to be obsessed with. Well in the book it mentions she was not pretty. Actually Davis is the one character out of all of the versions that comes close to the character in the book. The way he describes Mildred is the way Davis looks to a tee.In the book Philip was not a nice guy. He had a chip on his shoulder because of his foot and he treated people badly. He treated the family with contempt who took him in as a child. He would make nasty remarks about people who wanted to befriend him. One woman even commits suicide over him. We see none of this in the movie. So I see Mildred differently. And his obsession makes sense because of the book. He is not the sympathetic man we see in the movie.I believe Henried is better in the role then Howard. Parker is way too pretty for the Mildred part. Even though she is a good actress here her good looks get in the way. Henreid is age appropriate for the film because in the book he took a lot of years off discovering what he wanted to do. He even spent time in Germany. Sally is the character that betrays the book the most. In the book she much more outgoing and she sleeps with Philip even though were just good friends. She was the only woman in the book that Philip had a relationship with that he did not destroy even though he almost did. I like Janis Paige in the role. I believe this is a better version then the 34 version, even though Davis is better in the Mildred role. But once again I must mention if people are looking for something that is close to the book none of the versions are.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Decent re-make of the 1934 film classic that stared Leslie Howard and Bettie Davis about a young man enslaved by the love that he has for a women who has nothing but contempt for him and uses him for her own greedy and selfish purposes.Paul Henreid seems a bit too old as the young artist Philip Cary who gives up art after struggling two years in Paris without being able to sell a single painting. Philip goes back to his native England to take up medicine and become a doctor like his late father. Eleanor Parker does a fine job of acting as the cold and unfeeling young waitress Mildred Rogers who rebuffs poor Philip and then uses him to help herself in the string of tragedies she gets herself into in the course of the movie. Seeing Mildred at a local tea room in London Philip becomes infatuated with her even though she want nothing to do with him. Getting Mildred to go to the theater with him one Satuerday night Philip falls so madly in love with her. Philip is so crazily in love with Mildred that she tells him, just to get him out of her life, one evening thats she's getting married to one of the patrons at the tea room that she's been flirting with; Emil Miller, Richard Nugent. Hurt and dejected Philip starts to overcome his fascination with Mildred and later meets Nora Nesbitt, Alexis Smith, a writer that he knew as a young art student in Paris and develops a loving relationship with her. With everything going fine for the two young lovers all of a sudden Mildred steps right back into Philip's life. Having been thrown out of the house by Mr. Miller and left pregnant by him Mildred wan't Philip back and would do anything to have him accept her back as his lover. Which she never was in the first place. Philip takes Mildred back at the expense of the shocked and hurt Nora who he leaves out in the cold. As the days go by and Philip asks Mildred for her hand in matrimony she go back to her old ways. Mildred starts to abuse him so much that she flirts and snuggles up to his best friend Griffiths, Patric Knowles, right in front of the hurt and humiliated Philip at a neighborhood restaurant.With all the abuse he takes from Mildred and the insecure feelings he has about himself Philips suffer every insult and put-down Mildred throws at him to the point where he at last loses the love that he had for her all this time. One cold and rainy Christmas Eve Philip leaves his apartment, as Mildred in an insane rage totally wrecks it, and goes to see the only people who showed any love or kindness towards him the Athenlys. Who's father Mr. Athenly he treated in the local hospital that he work at.Invited to come back the next day for a Christmas Dinner Philip, broke and homeless, falls victim to pneumonia and almost dies. Later with the help of his friend and fellow doctor Griffiths Philip is brought back to health. Back on his feet and with Mildred out of his life Philip finds the true love that he searched for all of his life but never realized Mr. Athelny's young and beautiful daughter Sally, Jans Paige,who was always in love with him. Later together with Sally and her family Philip puts the broken pieces of his life, and heart, back together. Mildred is later found by Philip at the very hospital that he's a doctor in dying from the lifestyle that she choose to live. Having already having lost her young daughter Mildred dies knowing that the person who could have saved her from this tragedy was the one that she treated like dirt all the time that he loved her. Powerful drama by writer W. Somerset Maugham thats as moving and touching now as it was when it was first published back in 1915 that proves the old saying: "He has the strength of ten because his heart is pure" and thats exactly what Philip Cary had.