Not being into bondage myself, this did less than nothing for me. It was one of the least enjoyable films I've ever watched. Bette Davis is nasty in many of the films I've seen her in, and here she evidently finds her true metier, which will furnish her with roles for the rest of her career. The part was memorably unpleasant.
Some films date, others don't. This does. It's like looking into a vanished world. People like Mildred Rogers and Philip Carey don't exist any more, if they ever did. Mildred did have a forerunner, however, in the person of Moll Hackabout, who features in Hogarth's series of ostensibly moral engravings, The Harlot's Progress. Their fates are similar, although Mildred's terminal illness, for the purposes of the film, has been changed from syphilis to tuberculosis.
More excruciating than Mildred's fate was Philip's insatiable, obsessive and inexplicable desire for humiliation. Was this in some way autobiographical ? Even more astounding was Life Magazine's opinion that Davis gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress". In one of her multiple divorces Bette's husband cited her "cruel and inhuman manner". Her daughter described her as an "overbearing alcoholic". I'm not surprised.
Some films date, others don't. This does. It's like looking into a vanished world. People like Mildred Rogers and Philip Carey don't exist any more, if they ever did. Mildred did have a forerunner, however, in the person of Moll Hackabout, who features in Hogarth's series of ostensibly moral engravings, The Harlot's Progress. Their fates are similar, although Mildred's terminal illness, for the purposes of the film, has been changed from syphilis to tuberculosis.
More excruciating than Mildred's fate was Philip's insatiable, obsessive and inexplicable desire for humiliation. Was this in some way autobiographical ? Even more astounding was Life Magazine's opinion that Davis gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress". In one of her multiple divorces Bette's husband cited her "cruel and inhuman manner". Her daughter described her as an "overbearing alcoholic". I'm not surprised.