Dark Victory
Starring Bette Davis
With Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan
1939
1939 was a great year for film - it gave us Gone with the Wind and the Wizard of Oz, and Bette Davis at her prime in this chick flick, with horses. 'Dark Victory' may well also be the inspiration for the Kim
Carne's pop song, 'Bette Davis Eyes'.
Davis, like Bacall and Hepburn was a model of a strong woman before the age of feminism. This role was one of her more positive, as a character that is. She plays a spirited heiress equestrienne who develops a brain cancer at 23.
Both Bogart and Reagan were supporting characters at this time - Bogart is okay as the horse trainer and Reagan is likeable as a playboy type, seemingly always with a drink in hand. As they say in the movie 'PROGNOSIS NEGATIVE' - even after brain surgery....but of course, not for the career, or power, of Ms. Davis.
