The first 85% of this film was as great a film as I have seen. Bette Davis' transformation from the browbeaten woman to a whole person was marvelous and beautifully done--thanks to her performance, exquisite music and deliberately paced direction. It worked so well and really captured my heart. The illicit romance that ensued also worked,...up to a point. When she wisely breaks off the budding romance, instead of going out and creating a healthy life for herself, she stupidly decides to become a teacher and work at the school where her ex-boyfriend's shy daughter resides in order to help her, too, come out of her shell. Huh? This seemed really convoluted and silly but despite this, the excellence of the first portion of the film is so glaring that you should still give it a look.

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

Now Voyager is always cited as one of the best romantic dramas ever done on the screen. That it is, but I think the reason for its continuing popularity and that it's almost always listed in Bette Davis's top five by any of her fans is that it shows her growth as a human being over the course of the film.

It's not that they ugly Davis up in makeup when we first meet her as spinster Charlotte Vale. Some costuming and maybe some padding, but the rest is her ability as a performer. She was a daughter born late in life to mother Gladys Cooper who hadn't expected, hadn't wanted her. My guess is that she felt after having three sons, Cooper expected to be a full time society grand dame and the new baby cramped her style. In any event Davis grows up totally under Cooper's thumb as an unloved spinster.

A wise and perceptive sister-in-law in the person of Ilka Chase has her meet psychiatrist Claude Rains who sees a breakdown coming. She spends some time in his sanitarium and under his tutelage, Davis emerges from her shell. She even takes an ocean cruise where the new and attractive Davis meets the unhappily married Paul Henreid and they have an affair.

It's unfortunate that war time restrictions being what they were that the only recreation of Brazil, specifically Rio De Janeiro is on the Warner Brothers back lot. Still with newsreel establishing shots, director Irving Rapper does bring it off.

When she returns home Davis is in a whole new dimension of a relationship with Cooper and the rest of her family and friends. She even meets Henreid's daughter whose own mother has turned her into a creature like Davis used to be.

My favorite part of Now Voyager has always been Bette's scenes with young Janis Wilson. They are beautifully played the new swan trying to bring another ugly duckling to crack the shell. I think more than the romance they were responsible for getting Bette an Oscar nomination.

Gladys Cooper got one also in the Supporting Actress category. Unfortunately both Davis and Cooper ran into actresses from Mrs. Miniver that year who won in the persons of Greer Garson and Teresa Wright. However Max Steiner's musical score, one of his best, took home Now Voyager's only Oscar.

Other people to note in the cast are John Loder as a man entranced by Bette's blossoming who offers to marry her and Mary Wickes who plays a most practical nurse for Gladys Cooper. After dealing with Monty Woolley in The Man Who Came To Dinner, I think Wickes was ready for anything.

I also think that Now Voyager's message of how love can come to anyone has made this film a timeless classic. In fact that same moon and stars are still there that Davis and Henreid talked about. And the film will be as popular as long as they are there.