Of Human Bondage - DVD

Considered to be the best filming of M. Somerset Maugham's poignant novel, the film tells of the ill-fated romance between a well-to-do club-footed medical student and a vulgar waitress. Bette Davis' performance as the lower-class waitress with a Cockney accent is magnificent.

Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) is a sensitive but unsuccessful artist living in Paris who abandons his fanciful ambitions and enrolls in a London medical school. Despite a slight physical deformity he overcomes his awkwardness and falls in love with a low-class, money-hungry waitress, Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis). Philip is obsessed with the callous woman, but when he discovers Mildred has been dating other men, he finally realizes the relationship is over and finds a new love. Although Mildred runs off with another medical student, Philip takes her back when she returns with news that she is pregnant. Mildred continues to treat him badly, and Philip's devotion to her threatens his career and his chance for future happiness.

Kim Novak, who rose to fame in the 1955 classic Picnic, gives one of the finest performances of her career in Of Human Bondage, a passion-charged drama costarring Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate). Philip Carey (Harvey) is a medical student whose one real obsession is Mildred Rogers (Novak). Though Mildred is nothing more than a cockney waitress with high aspirations, he becomes totally besotted with her tawdry charms. She lead