It’s startling how much of “Baby Jane” Hudson—Bette Davis’ notoriously unhinged former child star in 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?—is already present in Of Human Bondage. In one of her first notable roles, Davis plays Mildred Rogers, a London waitress who becomes an object of romantic fascination for medical student Philip Carey (Leslie Howard, who would later appear with Davis in The Petrified Forest). The story, taken from a W. Somerset Maugham novel, is clearly more concerned with Philip’s narrative arc, but despite Howard’s usual agreeability, it’s hard to connect with Philip and his obsession with Mildred—especially the more she returns his affections with coy insults, indifference, and even betrayal. (Of course, there’s also a reading of this story in which Philip is something of a stalker.) What makes Of Human Bondage interesting, however, is how unapologetic Davis is. There’s no concern for earning sympathy, either from Philip or the audience; when those big eyes go wild, nothing is held back. There’s an admirable honesty and commitment to Davis’ approach, one the movie doesn’t entirely honor considering what it does with Mildred in the end. Director John Cromwell and cinematographer Henry W. Gerrard enliven things with a number of dissolves and superimposed images—including a dream sequence in which a sleeping Philip reimagines a date with Mildred that had gone badly, and the scene plays out in the upper left corner of the frame—but the pounding heartbeat of the movie belongs to Davis. Dripping with disinterest—her reticent body language is crucial to this—Mildred keeps you at a distance until she turns those lighthouse beams your way, and all you can do is shield yourself from the glare.
