Now, Voyager is a brilliant film in every area, one where I am still trying to figure out why it took me so long to see it as a fan of classic film and as someone who considers All About Eve as one of her all-time favourites and Bette Davis' performance in it one of the all-time greats. Now, Voyager is beautifully produced, with each scene lushly photographed and with the costumes and sets very sumptuous, particularly striking at the end which has a real magical touch. There is also Irving Rapper's grand direction, which shows a director in command of what he wants, and an intelligent script that is sharp and provides a good amount of emotional impact(Davis' final line really resonated with me) without resorting to soap-opera-quality. The story is never dull and very poignant with a subtly gritty edge, the ending being romance at its absolute finest, with two scenes that have rightly gone down in cinematic history. One being Paul Henreid's lighting of two cigarettes and the other being Davis' speech which is a genuine tear-jerker. The ugly-duckling-turned-into-a-swan theme is a potentially hackneyed one but Now, Voyager is one of those rarities that does something truly special with it. Henreid is the personification of suave, Gladys Cooper is outstandingly formidable as the annoying over-bearing mother figure and Claude Rains, one of those rare actors who I've never seen a bad performance from, is beautifully sympathetic. The two best things about Now, Voyager are Bette Davis and Max Steiner's score. Davis is just fantastic in one of her greatest performances, a very close second to her iconic performance in All About Eve, she's never looked lovelier too. And Steiner's score is haunting, swells with emotion and romance and sounds in places almost symphonic, it's quite possibly his best score and Steiner penned some great ones. To conclude, a brilliant classic film that has nothing ugly about it, not even Janis Wilson's oft-criticised performance as Tina(which while she does overdo it a little I didn't have a problem with personally, there was a lot of heart to her role). 10/10 Bethany Cox
Review of Now, Voyager
