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Of Human Bondage (B&W) |  | Director: John Cromwell
Actor: Bette Davis;Leslie Howard
Studio: Westlake
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $1.98
as of 11/27/2009 20:47 CST details
You Save: $8.00 (80%)
New (13) Used (6) Collectible (1) from $1.97
Seller: purposphere
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 67180
Format: Black & White, Color, Digital Sound, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 83 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WLV3118
UPC: 798622311825
EAN: 0798622311825
ASIN: B0009JQ376
Theatrical Release Date: 1934
Publication Date: 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Special Features-Biographies, filmographics-Photo Gallery-Interactive menus-Jump to Scene-Dolby Digital
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| Customer Reviews:
 Of Human Bondage June 1, 2009
Sean T. Donohue
The story is not the problem. Davis and Howard are not the problem. That is not why I gave it 4 stars. The problem is that the film is badly in need of proper restoration. Poor sound and picture quality gives it 1 star in that category. Hasn't someone produced a better restored version yet after all these years and how many DVD reproductions later!!??
 Classic film, mistreated by distributor. July 1, 2008
J. Robbins (Orlando, FL)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Shame, shame on Alpha Video. This is a truly horrible DVD, and there are no subtitles, so it is next to impossible to decipher a large portion of the dialoge. Bette Davis and Leslie Howard are giving magnetic performances, and deserve much better. If Warner Bros. had control of this property, it would have been released with style.
 Great movie, but loses a star or two due to the shabby DVD June 12, 2007
Joseph P. Menta, Jr. (Philadelphia, PA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you take into account when this film was made and that the film medium was still developing its language, you'll likely enjoy "Of Human Bondage". It's well acted and- with its wide array of "let's see what we can do" directorial tricks and flourishes- entertainingly told.
Leslie Howard gives a low-key, effective performance, but it's Bette Davis who really shines. Ms. Davis realized correctly that it should be somewhat confusing to the other characters- and to us- why Leslie Howard's Philip character is so taken with her character, so she grounds her character with a kind of plainness and commonality. But she also realizes that there should be SOMETHING that we as viewers can touch on, so we can at least somewhat understand what is going on inside Philip. So Ms. Davis peppers the plainness of her character with occasional glints of edge, ice, passion, etc., things that a man would notice and be moved by, both in a positive and negative manner. These little glints of uniqueness nicely build to an emotional explosion at the end, so the quiet waitress and schemer doesn't all of a sudden become the bitter harpy who is so memorable at the end. It's a really effective performance, taking into account the future progression of the character right from the beginning.
Now the bad news. This particular DVD of the Bette Davis/Leslie Howard "Of Human Bondage" (the DVD company is called "Westlake") delivers a truly sub-par copy of this historic movie. It's watchable, but- with its faded print and scratchy soundtrack- barely so. There are also several close-ups of written letters in the film, and good luck trying to read them off the faded image.
So that's it in a nutshell. Great movie, lousy DVD. If there's any justice, a better DVD of this movie exists somewhere out there, or at least is on the way.
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