Now, Voyager (film)

• Release Date: 1942
• Director(s): Irving Rapper
• Writer(s): Casey Robinson
• Principal Actors and Roles: Bette Davis (Charlotte Vale); Paul Henreid (Jerry Durrance); Ilka Chase (Lisa Vale); Gladys Cooper (Mrs. Henry Windle Vale); Bonita Granville (June Vale); Claude Rains (Dr. Jaquith); Janis Wilson (Tina Durrance)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty

Now, Voyager is an American romantic drama in which an inhibited spinster finds love. Filmed in black and white, the movie was a big box office hit and was nominated for several awards. It is considered to be the high point of Bette Davis’ career with Warner Brothers and to be one of her finest performances.

The title is from "The Untold Want," a poem in American poet Walt Whitman’s collection, Leaves of Grass: "The untold want, by life and land ne’er granted/Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find." In the movie, Charlotte’s psychiatrist sends her the lines, saying the poet probably was thinking of people like her when he wrote them.

Bette Davis was not the first choice for the starring role of Charlotte. Norma Shearer, Irene Dunne, and Ginger Rogers were considered first. Although Davis had already starred in such classics as Jezebel, Dark Victory, and All This and Heaven, Too, she actually had to fight to get the role because the head of the studio did not think it was believable for her to change into a glamorous woman. The makeup artist gave her thick eyebrows and padded her figure to make the transformation more dramatic. She ended up being nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

Many actors were considered for the part of the male love interest, Jerry. Some of those considered were Ronald Colman, Henry Fonda, Fredric March, Joel McCrea, and Walter Pidgeon. Paul Henreid won the role after Davis insisted he have a second screen test without the heavy makeup and costume the studio had him use for the first test.

Irving Rapper was the third director for the film. The first director became ill and Davis did not like the second. Davis and Rapper went on to make three more films together.

Plot

Frumpy, repressed Charlotte Vale lives with her domineering mother in a luxurious Boston mansion. Her mother treats her like a child, allows her to make no decisions of her own, and calls her an ugly duckling. Her sister-in-law fears Charlotte is having a nervous breakdown and introduces her to Dr. Jaquith, a famous psychiatrist. Over her mother’s strong objections, Charlotte goes to his facility and then, after developing coping skills, losing weight, and having a makeover, Charlotte embarks on a cruise ship voyage to South America.

Charlotte meets married architect, Jerry Durrance, and they strike up a friendship. Jerry shows her a photograph of his family, saying that his wife is ill and treats his youngest daughter badly. When Jerry sees a photograph of Charlotte’s family, he does not recognize the overweight, dowdy Charlotte as the glamorous woman before him. She explains how Dr. Jaquith has helped her.

Charlotte and Jerry have a car accident while sightseeing and they miss the departure of their ship. They confess their love and spend five days together, but acknowledge their love is hopeless. They will not contact each other again.

Charlotte returns home a changed woman, strong enough to stand up to her mother, and outgoing enough to make many new friends. As the months go by, she becomes engaged but breaks it off when she accidentally meets Jerry again. She is resigned to never marrying or having children of her own. When her mother has a heart attack and dies, Charlotte blames herself and returns to Dr. Jaquith’s sanitarium.

She discovers Jerry’s young daughter, Tina, is there and befriends her, eventually taking Tina home with her. When Jerry visits, he is amazed at Tina’s transformation but plans to take her home because he feels they are taking advantage of Charlotte’s generosity. Charlotte says that Tina is like his gift to her. When he asks if she is happy, she says, "Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars."

Significance

Now, Voyager received awards and recognition from several places. Bette Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress, her fifth nomination in a row. Gladys Cooper was nominated for best supporting actress for her role as Charlotte’s domineering mother.

Max Steiner’s musical score won an Oscar. Steiner’s original soundtrack for the film included his song "It Can’t Be Wrong." He also used pieces of the popular song "Night and Day" by Cole Porter.

Now, Voyager was selected for the National Film Registry in 2007. The National Film Registry chooses films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to be preserved in the Library of Congress.

Now, Voyager is included on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) "100 Years . . . 100 Passions" list. It is ranked twenty-third on this list of the one hundred greatest love stories of all time. The last line of the film is ranked forty-sixth in AFI’s list of greatest movie quotes and Bette Davis is ranked second on their list of greatest American screen legends.

Now, Voyager had a budget of $761,000 and made a profit of more than two million dollars. It was Bette Davis’s biggest hit of the decade. A classic romantic moment in the film happens when Jerry puts two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them, and gives one to Charlotte. The act was frequently copied and parodied in later films and television shows.

Some modern critics offer the opinion that the film gave women audiences of World War II, not only a romance, but the knowledge that a woman can change the path she is on and find fulfillment without a man of her own. The theme of the movie is transformation, and although the first transformation is physical, Charlotte’s lasting transformation is psychological, moving her toward independence and a life that she shapes for herself.

The American film censor, whose job it was to make sure films adhered to the moral guidelines of the Motion Picture Production Code, did not approve of the idea that Charlotte might have an affair with a married man. The movie was deemed acceptable when no clear statement was made about an affair.

Bette Davis also starred in the one-hour radio version of Now, Voyager, with Gregory Peck as her costar. It was broadcast on The Lux Radio Theatre in 1946 and in 1955.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1942) Best Score: Max Steiner

Nominated

• Academy Award (1942) Best Actress: Bette Davis
• Academy Award (1942) Best Supporting Actress: Gladys Cooper

Bibliography

Dixon, Wheeler W. American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2006. Print.

Greven, David. Representations of Femininity in American Genre Cinema: The Woman’s Film, Film Noir, and Modern Horror. New York: Palgrave, 2011. Print.

Prouty, Olive Higgins, and Judith Mayne. Now, Voyager. New York: Feminist, 2004. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Rev. ed. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.

Sikov, Ed. Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis. New York: Holt, 2007. Print.

Wolf, Susan R., and Christopher Grau. Understanding Love: Philosophy, Film, and Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.