Dark Victory (1939)

Dark Victory movie storyline. Warner Bros. studios’ sentimental, tragic and moving melodrama (a “weepie” or “woman’s picture”) – made in Hollywood’s most famous and competitive year. The adult drama contains an electrifying, compelling, tour de force, tear-jerking performance from its major star — Bette Davis. It was a bit of a risk for the movie studio to make and publicize an intense film about a terminally-ill patient with “prognosis negative.”

The protagonist is a young socialite-heiress named Judith Traherne (Bette Davis), who suffers from a brain tumor and ultimately falls in love with her supportive and dedicated doctor Frederick Steele (Brent). In the midst of her deadly illness, she comforts her best friend Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald), and courageously meets her fate when her eyesight dims. She climbs her stairs for the last time – accompanied by Max Steiner’s swelling score in the film’s finale.

Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, starring Bette Davis and featuring George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers and Cora Witherspoon. The screenplay by Casey Robinson was based on the 1934 play of the same title by George Brewer and Bertram Bloch, starring Tallulah Bankhead.

Directed by: Edmund Goulding
Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Peterson, Virginia Brissac, Charles Richman, Herbert Rawlinson
Screenplay by: Casey Robinson
Cinematography by: Ernest Haller
Film Editing by: William Holmes
Costume Design by: Orry-Kelly
Art Direction by: Robert M. Haas
Music by: Max Steiner
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: April 22, 1939