Of Human Bondage

Abandoning artistic ambitions, sensitive and club-footed Philip Carey enrolls in medical school and..

• Director:John Cromwell
• Genre:Drama / Romance
• Runtime:83 minutes

Cast

Leslie Howard : Philip Carey
Bette Davis : Mildred Rogers
Frances Dee : Sally Athelny
Kay Johnson : Norah
Reginald Denny : Harry Griffiths

Sensitive, club-footed artist Philip Carey is an Englishman who has been studying painting in Paris for four years. His art teacher tells him his work lacks promise, so he returns to London to become a medical doctor, but his moodiness and chronic self-doubt make it difficult for him to keep up in his schoolwork.

Philip falls passionately in love with vulgar, illiterate tearoom waitress Mildred Rogers, even though she is disdainful of his club-foot and his obvious interest in her. Although he is attracted to the anemic and pale-faced woman, she is manipulative and cruel toward him when he asks her out. Her constant response to his romantic invitations is “I don’t mind,” an expression so disinterested that it infuriates him – which only causes her to use it all the more. His daydreams about her (her image appears over an illustration in his medical school anatomy textbook, and a skeleton in the classroom is transformed into Mildred) cause him to be distracted from his studies, and he fails his medical examinations.

When Philip proposes to her, Mildred declines, telling him she will be marrying a loutish salesman Emil Miller instead. The self-centered Mildred vindictively berates Philip with nasty insults for becoming romantically-interested in her. Read more