Now, Voyager

UPC: 012569675391

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations]

Summary: Olive Higgins Prouty's popular novel was transformed into nearly two hours of high-grade soap opera by several masters of the trade: Warner Bros., Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, director Irving Rapper, and screenwriter Casey Robinson. Davis plays repressed Charlotte Vale, dying on the vine thanks to her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper). All-knowing psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains) urges Charlotte to make several radical changes in her life, quoting Walt Whitman: "Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." Slowly, Charlotte emerges from her cocoon of tight hairdos and severe clothing to blossom into a gorgeous fashion plate. While on a long ocean voyage, she falls in love with Jerry Durrance (Henreid), who is trapped in a loveless marriage. After kicking over the last of her traces at home, Charlotte selflessly becomes a surrogate mother to Jerry's emotionally disturbed daughter (a curiously uncredited Janis Wilson), who is on the verge of becoming the hysterical wallflower that Charlotte once was. An interim romance with another man (John Loder) fails to drive Jerry from Charlotte's mind. The film ends ambiguously; Jerry is still married, without much chance of being divorced from his troublesome wife, but the newly self-confident Charlotte is willing to wait forever if need be. "Don't ask for the moon," murmurs Charlotte as Max Steiner's romantic music reaches a crescendo, "we have the stars." In addition to this famous line, Now, Voyager also features the legendary "two cigarettes" bit, in which Jerry places two symbolic cigarettes between his lips, lights them both, and hands one to Charlotte. The routine would be endlessly lampooned in subsequent films, once by Henreid himself in the satirical sword-and-sandal epic Siren of Baghdad (1953). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Romance

Awards: Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Score - Drama or Comedy – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Features: ccScoring session music cues
Cast career highlights
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Fran?ais
Subtitles: English, Fran?ais, Espa?ol & Portugu?s

Now, Voyager

Format: DVD

Release Date: 06/14/2005

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 118 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Credits [1:06]
2. Dr. Jaquith [2:48]
3. About Charlotte [3:11]
4. Charlotte's Room [3:35]
5. Shipboard Romance [4:36]
6. Mother Dread [1:54]
7. Breaking Point [2:14]
8. Now, Voyager [3:21]
9. Typical Tourists [2:27]
10. True Identities [2:54]
11. Gifts All Around [2:00]
12. Borrowed Wings [3:24]
13. Together and Alone [3:30]
14. About Jerry [3:12]
15. Wrong-way Ride [4:42]
16. The Cabin; Jerry's... [2:21]
17. Immune to Happiness [3:32]
18. Airport Farewell [1:54]
19. Girl Most Popular [2:53]
20. Mother's Welcome [4:54]
21. New Ground Rules [3:40]
22. Mother's Tumble [1:03]
23. Lighting a Fire [2:57]
24. Not Afraid [3:58]
25. Elliot's Courtship [3:28]
26. Encountering Jerry [3:27]
27. Back Bay Station [4:21]
28. Broken Engagement [2:51]
29. "I Did It!" [3:05]
30. A Girl Like Herself [4:24]
31. Call Me Tina [4:00]
32. Jerry's Child in My Arms [3:04]
33. Her New Friend [4:24]
34. Camping with Charlotte [2:15]
35. Party Guests [2:33]
36. Like Our Child [4:01]
37. A Cigarette On It [1:51]
38. The Stars [1:23]

Lucia Bozzola

Adapted by Casey Robinson from the Olive Higgins Prouty best-seller, complete with large chunks of the novel's dialogue, Now, Voyager (1942) became one of Bette Davis's most adored women's pictures. With skilled Warner Bros. talent Irving Rapper directing, and Davis surrounded by an excellent cast, including Gladys Cooper as the stony matriarch, Claude Rains as the sensitive psychiatrist, and double-cigarette-lighting Paul Henreid as the romantic lead, Now, Voyager's potentially soapy story became a superior melodrama about one woman's self-actualization from put-upon spinster to stylish philanthropist. With Warner Bros. designer Orry-Kelly's costumes and Max Steiner's Oscar-winning score playing key supporting roles, Charlotte's transformation from a dowdy, neurotic wallflower into a beautiful, elegant woman is matched by her discovery of inner strength through love. With Davis' masterful performance showcasing her signature forcefulness as well as her capacity for romantic gentleness, Now, Voyager became a considerable hit. Henreid's neatly suggestive means for lighting cigarettes became one of the high points of Hollywood romance, and Now, Voyager's final moment of resignation and self-sacrifice has entered the pantheon of great closing lines. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Katherine Alexander  Actor 
Donald Douglas  Actor 
Mary Field  Actor 
Frank Dae  Actor 
Bill Kennedy  Actor 
Isabel Withers  Actor 
Claire Du Brey  Actor 
Corbet Morris  Actor 
Tempe Piggott  Actor 
Janis Wilson  Actor 
George Lessey  Actor 
Constance Purdy  Actor 
Ian Wolfe  Actor 
Yola D'Avril  Actor 
Reed Hadley  Actor 
Hilda Plowright  Actor 
Dorothy Vaughan  Actor 
Bill Edwards  Actor 
Tod Andrews  Actor 
Lester Matthews  Actor 
Georges Renavent  Actor 
Charlotte Wynters  Actor 
Elspeth Dudgeon  Actor 
Irving Rapper  Director 
Casey Robinson  Screenwriter 
Max Steiner  Composer (Music Score) 
Hal B. Wallis  Producer 
Bette Davis  Actor 
Paul Henreid  Actor 
Claude Rains  Actor 
Bonita Granville  Actor 
Gladys Cooper  Actor 
Ilka Chase  Actor 
John Loder  Actor 
Lee Patrick  Actor 
Franklin Pangborn  Actor 
Charles Drake  Actor 
Mary Wickes  Actor 
James Rennie  Actor 
David Clyde  Actor 
Frank Puglia  Actor 

Country: USA