Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Now, Voyager

Steve Hayes reviews one of your Head Trucker's all-time faves, and one of Bette's most famous roles. When you see Bette at her most glamorous in this picture, that's what my mama looked like when she was young in the forties - only a bit prettier. Indeed, she was sometimes mistaken for Bette by strangers when traveling. So of course Bette was her favorite actress - and mine too, natch.

Bette Davis and Paul Henried plumb the depths of emotion in Irving Rapper's tender and romantic adaptation of Now, Voyager. Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, Davis plays Charlotte Vale, a lonely spinster driven to distraction by her domineering mother, brilliantly played by Gladys Cooper. Thanks to the kindly intervention of psychiatrist Claude Rains, she goes on a cruise to recuperate and falls in love with a handsome and unhappily married man, Paul Henried. The trials and tribulations of this affair, accompanied by a gorgeous Oscar-winning score by Max Steiner, lay the foundation for one of the greatest love stories ever filmed and give Bette Davis one of her most memorable roles.