Of Human Bondage (1946)

A medical student with a club foot falls for a beautiful but ambitious waitress. She soon leaves him, but gets pregnant and comes back to him for help.

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

W. Somerset Maugham (novel), Catherine Turney

Stars:

Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Paul Henreid	...	Philip Carey
Eleanor Parker	...	Mildred Rogers
Alexis Smith	...	Nora Nesbitt
Edmund Gwenn	...	Athelny
Patric Knowles	...	Harry Griffiths
Janis Paige	...	Sally Athelny
Henry Stephenson	...	Dr. Tyrell
Marten Lamont	...	Dunsford
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Betty Athelny
Una O'Connor	...	Mrs. Foreman
Eva Moore	...	Mrs. Gray
Richard Aherne	...	Emil Miller (as Richard Nugent)
Doris Lloyd	...	Landlady
Bill Kennedy	...	Flanagan

Storyline

A medical student with a club foot falls for a beautiful but ambitious waitress. She soon leaves him, but gets pregnant and comes back to him for help.

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Plot Keywords:

medical student | waitress | victorian era | femme fatale | waiting table | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ida Lupino was initially considered for the role of Mildred.

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Connections

Referenced in The Majestic (2001)

User Reviews

In the end True Love conquers all

***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.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anthropini douleia

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1