Now, Voyager

Charlotte Vale is a drab, quiet, overweight, neurotic woman whose life is brutally dominated by her mother, an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to Charlotte's complete lack of self-confidence. Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing that Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith, who recommends that Charlotte spend time in his sanitarium. She reveals to him an early romance she enjoyed with a ship's radio officer, which her mother discovered and thwarted, describing her own defiance at the time as the proudest moment of her life. Away from her mother's control, Charlotte blossoms, and at Lisa's urging, the now-slim, transformed woman with a chic borrowed wardrobe—encouraged by Jaquith—goes on a cruise arranged by Lisa instead of going home immediately. Initially, Charlotte is too shy to mix with the other passengers on the ship. On an excursion, Charlotte is asked to share a carriage ride with Jeremiah Duvaux Durrance, a married man traveling on business, who asks Charlotte to help select presents for his female relatives. She obliges, and they become friendly, with Jerry discussing his young daughter Tina's shyness. Charlotte shows him a picture of her family, with herself appearing as “the fat lady with the heavy brows and all the hair” before her transformation. Jerry is sympathetic to her fledgling and frail confidence, expressing his admiration for her. Jerry runs into his friends, Deb and Frank McIntyre, and introduces Charlotte to them. From them, Charlotte learns how Jerry's devotion to his young daughter Tina keeps him from divorcing his wife, a manipulative, jealous woman who does not love Tina and hinders Jerry's chosen career of architecture. On an excursion from the ship in Rio de Janeiro, Charlotte and Jerry are stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain when their car crashes. Spending the night together while their driver goes for help, Jerry and Charlotte cuddle together for warmth. They miss the ship and spend five days together before Charlotte flies to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they decide it would be best not to see each other again. When she disembarks from the ship, Charlotte's family is stunned by the dramatic changes in her appearance and demeanor. The formerly awkward and shy Charlotte has become popular among the passengers, with many making fond farewells. At home, her mother is determined to subjugate her daughter once again, but Charlotte is resolved to remain independent. The memory of Jerry's love and devotion — as evidenced in the timely arrival of a corsage of camellias — helps give her the strength she needs to remain resolute. Charlotte becomes engaged to wealthy, well-connected widower Elliot Livingston, but by chance she again encounters Jerry at a party for an acquaintance, who is his client. Though Jerry congratulates her, Charlotte realizes she does not love Elliot enough and subsequently breaks the engagement. During a quarrel with her mother over the broken engagement, Charlotte says she did not ask to be born, that her mother never wanted her, and it has "been a calamity on both sides." Mrs. Vale has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium. Charlotte is immediately diverted from her problems when she meets Jerry's 12-year-old daughter, Tina, who has been sent to Dr. Jaquith by her father on Charlotte's recommendation. Tina greatly reminds Charlotte of herself – both were unwanted and unloved by their mothers. Shaken from her depression, Charlotte becomes interested in Tina's welfare, and with Dr. Jaquith's permission, Charlotte takes her under her wing. When the girl improves, Charlotte takes her home to Boston. Jerry and Dr. Jaquith visit the Vale home to discuss a project — a new psychiatric wing donated by Charlotte, for which Jerry will be the architect. He is delighted to see the change in his daughter. Dr. Jaquith has allowed Charlotte to keep Tina there, provided her relationship with Jerry remains platonic. Charlotte tells Jerry she sees Tina as his gift to her and her way of being close to him. When Jerry asks her if she is happy, she replies: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." ==Cast==

• Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale • Paul Henreid as Jeremiah "Jerry" Duvaux Durrance • Claude Rains as Dr. Jaquith • Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Henry Windle Vale • Bonita Granville as June Vale • John Loder as Elliot Livingston • Ilka Chase as Lisa Vale • Lee Patrick as "Deb" McIntyre • Franklin Pangborn as Mr. Thompson • Katharine Alexander as Miss Trask (as Katherine Alexander) • James Rennie as Frank McIntyre • Mary Wickes as Nurse Dora Pickford • Janis Wilson as Tina Durrance (uncredited) ==Production==

Filming ran from April 7 to June 23 of 1942 as producer Hal B. Wallis made Now, Voyager his first independent production at Warner Bros. under a new arrangement with the studio. He took an active role in the production, including casting decisions. The initial choices for Charlotte were Irene Dunne, Norma Shearer, and Ginger Rogers. When Bette Davis learned about the project, she campaigned for and won the role. More than any other of her previous films, Davis became absorbed in the role, not only reading the original novel, but also becoming involved in details such as choosing her wardrobe personally. Consulting with designer Orry-Kelly, she suggested a drab outfit, including an ugly foulard dress for Charlotte initially, to contrast with the stylish, "timeless" creations that mark her later appearance on the cruise ship. made him look "just like Valentino." Henreid was similarly uncomfortable with the brilliantine image, and when Davis insisted on another screen test with a more natural hairstyle, he was finally accepted as the choice for her screen lover. In her 1987 memoir, ''This 'N That, Davis revealed that co-star Claude Rains (with whom she also shared the screen in Juarez, Mr. Skeffington, and Deception'') was her favorite co-star. She remained close friends with both Henreid and Rains for the rest of her life. Initial production of the Prouty novel had to take into account that European locales would not be possible in the midst of World War II, despite the novelist's insistence on using Italy as the main setting. Prouty's quirky demands for vibrant colors and flashbacks shot in black and white with subtitles were similarly disregarded. The scene remained an indelible trademark that Davis would later exploit as "hers". The scene has a similar precedent ten years earlier, between Davis herself and George Brent in The Rich Are Always with Us. ==Box office==

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $2,130,000 domestically and $2,047,000 foreign. ==Critical reception==

Theodore Strauss, a critic for The New York Times, observed: David Lardner of The New Yorker offered a similar opinion, writing that for most of the film, Davis "just plods along with the plot, which is longish and a little out of proportion to its intellectual content." Variety, however, wrote a more positive review, calling it the kind of drama that maintains Warner's pattern for box-office success ... Hal Wallis hasn't spared the purse-strings on this production. It has all the earmarks of money spent wisely. Irving Rapper's direction has made the picture move along briskly, and the cast, down to the most remote performer, has contributed grade A portrayals. ''Harrison's Reports'' called the film "intelligently directed" and praised Davis' performance as "outstanding", but warned that the film's "slow-paced action and its none-too-cheerful atmosphere make it hardly suitable entertainment for the masses." Leslie Halliwell wrote in ''Halliwell's Film Guide'': "A basically soggy script gets by, and how, through the romantic magic of its stars, who were all at their best; and suffering in mink went over very big in wartime." ==Awards and nominations==

Olive Higgins Prouty's novel, written in 1941, served as the basis for the film, and other than certain limitations imposed by World War II on the locations for filming, the movie remains fairly true to the novel. The novel is considered to be one of the first, if not the first, fictional depictions of psychotherapy, which is depicted fairly realistically for the time, as Prouty herself spent time in a sanitarium following a mental breakdown in 1925. This was caused by the death of one of her daughters and proved to be a defining period in her professional life as a writer, as the experience she gained from this episode helped her write not only Now, Voyager, but also her 1927 novel Conflict, both of which have similar themes of recovery following a breakdown. Prouty also used this experience to help others in her life who were experiencing mental health issues, including her close friend Sylvia Plath, who was supported both financially and emotionally by Prouty following a suicide attempt in 1953. The novel is the third in a pentalogy centered on the fictional Vale family, and by far the most popular. The other titles are The White Fawn (1931), Lisa Vale (1938), Home Port (1947), and Fabia (1951). The other novels in the series do not feature mental health as centrally as Now, Voyager, but themes and certain elements appear throughout. Many characters appear in multiple novels. ==Home video==

Now, Voyager was released on DVD and Blu-Ray November 26, 2019 (under license from Warner Bros.) by the Criterion Collection, with a previous DVD release from Warner Bros on August 29, 2006. ==References==