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I can’t help but think of Now, Voyager as one of the original chick flicks. It has all the components that make Lifetime movies so popular: forbidden romance, an ugly duckling who turns into an elegant swan, an oppressive mother who is eventually put in her place and a backdrop of the high-class world of wealth.

But Now, Voyager is a world apart from the chick flicks of today. It set the bar high when it came out in 1942. Part of the reason for that was its star, Bette Davis. Never better, she fully embodied the character of the bespectacled, caterpillar-browed Charlotte Vale who appeared early in the film. Many beautiful actresses have allowed themselves to be made ugly for movie roles, but few have achieved the transformation as well as Bette Davis did in this movie.

But looks are only part of the story. Our ugly duckling is so oppressed, you can’t help but squirm a little as you watch her. This causes you to root for her right from the start. Her transformation is amazing to watch, because she changes more than just her external appearance — that’s the easy part. You actually watch her become a full person as the film moves on. As is often the case in real life, that doesn’t come easily. And when a man and his troubled child come along who are struggling, too, their effort to preserve the strip of territory that belongs just to them is believable and compelling. The realistic way this mutual effort survives against all obstacles is what keeps the movie from sinking into being maudlin. You don’t actually stand up and cheer at the end; the experience is more low-key and satisfying than that. Instead, you’re left with the quiet feeling that with determination, strength and love; anything is possible.

Movie trivia from Now, Voyager

• Max Steiner and Now, Voyager won the 1943 Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Bette Davis was nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar, but lost to Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver. Gladys Cooper was nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role but lost to Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver.

• The movie title is based on these two lines from the Walt Whitman poem, “The Untold Want” from Songs of Parting: “The untold want, by life and land ne’er granted. Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

• Claude Rains turned down the role of Dr. Jaquith because he said it was too small. So, the part was increased to lure him and he was paid the princely sum of $5,000 a week for six weeks’ work.

• When Voyager was released in October 1942, the critics’ movie reviews were mixed but the public loved it. In fact, it was the biggest box office hit of Bette Davis’s career.

• The movie was based on the book by Olive Higgins Prouty, which was the third of four books about the wealthy Vale family. The screenplay stuck pretty close to the story in the novel, except that in the book Charlotte goes to the Mediterranean on her cruise, not to South America.

• Director Hall B. Wallis made five other films besides Now, Voyager in 1942:
  • Casablanca
  • Air Force
  • Desperate Journey
  • Princess O’Rourke
  • Watch on the Rhine.

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More Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• My Man Godfrey
• The Enchanted Cottage
• All About Eve
• Born Yesterday

You might also be interested in our trivia quiz about famous movie quotes from Bette Davis movies.

See the My Man Godfrey trailer and view Carole Lombard home movies. They’re free!

Leave it to Carol Lombard to make the Great Depression so funny. Set in 1936, My Man Godfrey contrasts the hard times most Americans were experiencing with the wealthy and privileged world of socialite dingbat Irene Bullock, played to perfection by Lombard.

Irene happens upon Godfrey, played by William Powell, in the city dump, when she and her too-rich friends are in the midst of finding a forgotten man as one of the items in a scavenger hunt. Seeing that her rude and hateful sister Cornelia, played by Gail Patrick, also wants to bring Godfrey back only makes Irene more determined to have him as her prize.

Once Irene spends a little time with Godfrey, she decides she wants him to be her protege. There’s precedent for this, as her mother also has a protege — the useless but hilarious musician Carlo, played by Mischa Auer. (His imitation of a gorilla alone is worth watching the movie for.) So she makes Godfrey the family’s butler, because the last butler in a long line had just quit the day before. It seems no one wants to live with the nutty Bullock family.

But Godfrey is unphased by the lunacy that surrounds him, even though Irene and Cornelia fight over him, the family matriarch sees pixies, the father is a gruff but ultimately reasonable man who often yells with a booming voice, and police officers have come to find out which one of the crazy family members stole a policeman’s horse and rode it up the front steps of the Bullock mansion.

The more sturdy Godfrey behaves, the more the women fall in love with him. Not only is Irene smitten but the maid falls hard for him too. Hilarity ensues as they — especially Irene — fall all over themselves to be with him. Little do they know that Godfrey is hiding a secret, one that will change everything when revealed.

Movie trivia and goofs from My Man Godfrey

• My Man Godfrey is the only film to ever win Oscar nominations for directing, writing and all four acting awards without also being nominated for Best Picture. It’s also the only film to get those six nominations and lose them all.

• This was the first movie to receive four acting Oscar nominations. It did so in the year that supporting categories were introduced.

• William Powell and Carol Lombard had been married and divorced before this movie was shot. Powell, however, insisted that Lombard play Irene, knowing she would be the best person for the part. He was right. I can’t imagine anyone else playing that role but her.

• My Man Godfrey was voted one of “The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time” in 2006 by Premiere.

• When Irene first goes into Godfrey’s room, the door opens in the direction of the kitchen, where we see Molly in the background. In the next shot, the door opens in the direction of the bedroom.

• In one scene, Godfrey is placing roses in a vase while ignoring Irene. In one shot we see that there are already five stems in the vase. When the camera cuts away to the rest of the cast and Godfrey is seen again, there is only one rose in the vase.
• While Irene is talking to Charlie Van Rumple at the tea party, you see Godfrey in the background serving Cornelia with a tray, and she takes one item in each hand. A few seconds later, we see Cornelia close up as Godfrey serves her and she takes the same two items again.

Versions

My Man Godfrey is available on DVD in the original black and white form, as well as in a computer colorized version.

I hope you enjoyed this movie review! To be updated whenever there’s a new movie review or movie trivia quiz, please subscribe using the free subscription options in the sidebar.

More Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Enchanted Cottage
• Now, Voyager
• All About Eve
• 
• Born Yesterday

Posted January 18, 2008 Comments(1)

It’s hard to summon enough superlatives to describe To Kill a Mockingbird, which I consider one of Hollywood’s greatest classic movies. I suppose it would have been difficult to go wrong, considering the book it came from continues to be a huge success. In my opinion, though, the movie transcended the book. The timeless story of a good man standing up for what is right is dynamic on the page, but it becomes even larger on film.

Artfully directed by Robert Mulligan, the movie was filmed on the Universal Studios backlot. Due to set decorator Henry Bumstead’s efforts, the set didn’t look like yet another Hollywood creation. It was made to look like Macomb County, Alabama, with the help of houses scheduled to be destroyed to make way for the Pasadena Freeway. Bumstead found the Craftsman-style houses just in time and moved them to the Universal lot to recreate the specific world that was the South in the 1930s.

The perfect set is in keeping with the exemplary cast. Gregory Peck, who embodied the part of dignified Southern lawyer and father Atticus Finch as if he were born to play him, was joined by unknowns Mary Badham and Phillip Althorp as his children Scout and Jem. Also in the mix was Macomb visitor Dill, an odd-looking little boy based on author Harper Lee’s childhood friend, Truman Capote. John Megna’s Dill visits Macomb County during the summer and it’s through his, Scout and Jem’s perspectives that the story unfolds. It’s also through their eyes that we’re introduced to the town boogeyman, played by Robert Duvall in his first film role. But Duvall’s Boo Radley isn’t the only supposed monster in town. Robert E. Lee “Bob” Ewell and his daughter Mayella Ewell (played by James Anderson and Collin Wilcox), who wrongly accuse black man Tom Robinson (played by Brock Peters) of rape, are frightening in a much more substantial way.

I know most people wouldn’t consider this a Halloween movie, but for me, the final moments of the film invoke that spirit. I won’t ruin the ending; I’ll just say that it’s scary in the way that only old-fashioned story-telling can be. There are no special effects; the characters have just been so well developed by the end, you feel like you’re right there with them in Macomb County. You can’t help but sit on the edge of your seat as they move through harrowing circumstances. In the end, however, you find safe haven along with them on their faded but cozy Alabama front porch.

Movie trivia and goofs from To Kill a Mockingbird

• Alice Ghostley also made her movie debut in Mockingbird.

• Rock Hudson was Universal’s first choice for the role of Atticus Finch. Jimmy Stewart also was offered the part, but believed the script was “too liberal” and feared the film would be controversial.

• Mockingbird writer Harper Lee picked the name Finch because it was her mother’s maiden name.
• Mary Badham ruined almost every take when the family was eating at the table. Phillip Alford didn’t like eating the same meal repeatedly, and thought Mary was a brat in general, so when he rolled her in the tire down the street, he intentionally aimed it at an equipment truck to try to hurt her.
• The American Film Institute voted Atticus Finch the top screen hero of the last 100 years. They also ranked Mockingbird as #2 on their list of the 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time and as the #25 Greatest Movie of All Time.

• The pennies in the cigar box in the film’s opening are dated 1962, but the story is set in 1932.

• When the marble rolls during the opening credits, several members of the camera crew can be seen reflected in it.

• When Old Man Radley startles the children when he comes to put cement in the tree, Jem and Scout suddenly appear a few feet farther back than they were just a second before.

• The defense table is set next to the jury box during the trial. In real life, the jury always sits on the prosecution’s side of the courtroom.

DVD extras from the collector’s edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (on two discs)

• Scene access
• Interactive menus
• Cast and crew interview
• Movie trivia
• Featurette: Movie by Gregory Peck’s daughter Cecilia that chronicles both her father’s speaking engagements and his later years
• Featurette: Fearful Symmetry: The Making of To Kill a Mockingbird
• Audio commentary by director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan Pakula
• Original trailer
• Subtitles

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If you enjoyed this movie review, check out our movie trivia quiz about the star of To Kill a Mockingbird, Gregory Peck.

More Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• The Enchanted Cottage
• My Man Godfrey
• Now, Voyager
• All About Eve
• Born Yesterday