# Of Human Bondage (1934 film)
**Of Human Bondage** is a 1934 American drama directed by John Cromwell and produced by Pandro S. Berman at RKO Radio Pictures, adapting [W. Somerset Maugham](https://www.edgepedia.org/w-somerset-maugham)'s 1915 novel about a club-footed medical student's destructive obsession with a Cockney waitress. It stars [Leslie Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-howard) as [Philip Carey](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-carey) and Bette Davis as Mildred Rogers, in the performance that made Davis a star.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 20 July 1934; 83 minutes; drama; RKO Radio Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) |
| Source | W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel, adapted for the screen by Lester Cohen[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) |
| Key cast | Leslie Howard (Philip Carey), Bette Davis (Mildred Rogers), Frances Dee (Sally Athelny), Kay Johnson (Norah)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) |
| Davis's casting | On loan from Warner Bros. after six months of pleading with Jack L. Warner; she studied a Cockney accent for two months[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) |
| Oscar history | Davis received no nomination but was an unofficial write-in candidate; she won Best Actress the next year for Dangerous (1935), widely seen as compensation[3](https://www.filmsite.org/ofhu.html) |
| Censorship | Joseph Breen objected to completed scenes, and the Catholic Church placed the film on its "condemned" list in August 1934[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335) |
| Remakes | 1946 with Eleanor Parker and Paul Henreid; 1964 with Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey[3](https://www.filmsite.org/ofhu.html) |
| Survival | The negative was destroyed; the film was long believed lost until prints were discovered[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) |
## Spoilers
### Story and adaptation
The film follows Philip Carey, a club-footed Englishman who has spent four years studying painting in Paris, is told by his teacher that he lacks talent, and returns to London to study medicine. There he becomes infatuated with, and then obsessed by, Mildred Rogers, a callous, manipulative tearoom waitress who treats him with contempt, repeatedly walks out of his life, and is repeatedly taken back by him, even when she returns pregnant with another man's baby.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015393-of_human_bondage) In TIME's 1934 review, Mildred is the waitress "who turns prostitute before her death from tuberculosis."[6](https://time.com/archive/6767387/cinema-the-new-pictures-jul-9-1934/)
**Fidelity to the novel.** Director Cromwell and screenwriter Lester Cohen, TIME wrote, took "the intelligent course of deviating as little as possible from Somerset Maugham's narrative," keeping Philip's attachment to Mildred as the film's central element and ending, as the novel does, with Philip becoming engaged to a decent woman. TIME's verdict: "Of Human Bondage is a good picture taken from a great book."[6](https://time.com/archive/6767387/cinema-the-new-pictures-jul-9-1934/) A few subplots from the book were cut.[7](https://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2024/07/30/essential-of-human-bondage-1934-2/) [Censorship](https://www.edgepedia.org/censorship) nonetheless shaped the adaptation: according to the AFI Catalog's entry for the 1946 remake, in the 1934 version Mildred was not allowed to be depicted as a prostitute, and Philip's clubfoot was surgically repaired on screen before Mildred fell ill.[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24903-OF-HUMANBONDAGE?cp=1&pos=0&sid=9d013f83-c95c-4511-bb81-90053bb54e79&sr=0.14159971)
## Casting and production
The part of Mildred had been turned down by the RKO stars [Katharine Hepburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/katharine-hepburn), Irene Dunne, and Ann Harding, who feared the unglamorous role would ruin their images.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) According to a pre-production news item, [Irene Dunne](https://www.edgepedia.org/irene-dunne) was originally announced as the film's star; RKO instead borrowed Davis from Warner Bros., and, by Davis's own account, Cromwell decided to cast her after seeing her in two 1932 Warner films, *Cabin in the Cotton* and *The Rich Are Always with Us*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE)
**The loan-out.** Davis was under contract to Warner Bros., and [Jack L. Warner](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-l-warner) hated loaning out his stars; he initially refused, telling her the part would ruin her image. Davis "spent six months in supplication" until Warner agreed, helped by his wish to use RKO's Irene Dunne in his [Jerome Kern](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerome-kern) musical *Sweet Adeline* (1934); Cromwell urged producer Pandro Berman to work out the trade of Dunne for Davis.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) Warner loaned Davis out only once more in her 18 years at the studio, for [Samuel Goldwyn](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-goldwyn)'s *The Little Foxes* (1941).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934)
**Preparation.** Davis hired a Cockney woman to work in her home and studied the accent for two months. On set, Leslie Howard and his English colleagues initially excluded the American actress, and Howard read a book offstage while feeding her lines during her close-ups; he warmed up when told that "the kid is walking away with the picture." For the scenes of Mildred's decline, Davis asked Cromwell to let her apply her own makeup.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) Maugham approved the casting, thanks to the actor George Arliss, who had worked with Davis twice before and arranged screenings of her films for the novelist in England; the endorsement mattered because Maugham had poured much of himself into the story.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934)
## Reception and the Oscar controversy
Davis's performance drew consistently high praise.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) Yet when the Academy Awards nominations for 1934 were announced, she was not among them, although she was an unofficial write-in candidate and the eventual Best Actress winner was [Claudette Colbert](https://www.edgepedia.org/claudette-colbert) for *It Happened One Night*.[3](https://www.filmsite.org/ofhu.html) When she was not nominated, Warner Bros. demanded that all its organization members with votes submit Davis's name to the Academy, according to the New York Times; the Academy's own awards database records the entry with the note "THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL NOMINATION."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE) • [9](https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/Search/GetResults?query=%7B%22Nominee%22%3A%22Bette+Davis%22%2C%22Sort%22%3A%221-Nominee-Alpha%22%2C%22Search%22%3A%22Basic%22%7D)
**Why she was passed over.** TIME reported rumors that Warner Brothers executives told Academy members from their studio not to vote to nominate Davis, since the acclaimed film was made by rival studio RKO rather than Warners; the episode helped prompt the Academy to adopt write-in voting and later to have its ballots counted by an outside accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.[10](https://time.com/5182902/pwc-academy-awards-oscars-snub/) The next year Davis won Best Actress for *Dangerous* (1935), and many believed she won because she had been denied the award for *Of Human Bondage*.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934)
Contemporary and later critics were favorable. Otis Ferguson, writing in [The New Republic](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-republic), called it "one of the best examples of pure directing craft to be found," while noting the film was "a little happier and (more regrettably) cleaner" than the book.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015393-of_human_bondage) By critic Dennis Schwartz's account, however, the film bombed at the box office.[11](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/of-human-bondage/) On aggregated scores it holds 87% on the Tomatometer from 15 reviews.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015393-of_human_bondage)
## Censorship
The film appeared in the year the Production Code Administration began strictly enforcing the [Hays Code](https://www.edgepedia.org/hays-code), on 15 July 1934.[12](https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2014/07/when-pre-met-code-eighty-years-ago-today/) As a pre-Code romantic drama it carried material the Code would soon forbid: promiscuity, adultery, a birth out of wedlock, nude drawings, and a mutually destructive relationship.[3](https://www.filmsite.org/ofhu.html) A memo from Joseph Breen to RKO records his objections to the completed film: shots of Carey's nude sketches that "emphasized" the figure's breasts, Mildred's line about the drawings, "All of it going on in your head," and the scene in which Mildred picks up a man in front of a shop window.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335) Earlier, Breen had written that while the story was "very dangerous...from a number of angles," it was also "something of a classic" and "so regarded by modern readers of fiction."[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335) The film was placed on the [Catholic Church](https://www.edgepedia.org/catholic-church)'s "condemned" list in August 1934,[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335) and it was labeled indecent by local authorities in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.[13](https://sites.ualberta.ca/~vruetalo/Sarli-Bo%20Research/Silencing%20Cinema%20Book.pdf)
## Later history
**Remakes.** Warner Bros., which had purchased the screen rights to Maugham's novel from RKO, released a second version in 1946 with [Paul Henreid](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-henreid) and [Eleanor Parker](https://www.edgepedia.org/eleanor-parker), directed by Edmund Goulding; a Mexican version was directed in 1955; and Ken Hughes directed Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey in a Seven Arts/MGM version in 1964.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335) The 1946 film sat on the shelf for two years because of a wartime glut of product.[14](https://www.tcm.com/articles/60077/of-human-bondage-1946) Most film scholars cite the Bette Davis version as the best adaptation of the novel; the 1964 version holds 50% on the Tomatometer from 6 reviews.[15](https://www.tcm.com/articles/91153/of-human-bondage-1964) • [16](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015394-of_human_bondage)
**Preservation.** When Kim Novak tried to see the original before playing Mildred in 1964, it was discovered that the negative had been destroyed, and for years the film was believed lost until prints were found.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934) The restored film is now widely available on streaming and home video, with a runtime listed at 83 minutes.[17](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/of-human-bondage-1934)
## References
1. [Of Human Bondage (1934), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5335-OF-HUMAN-BONDAGE)
2. [Of Human Bondage (1934), Turner Classic Movies, by Jeremy Arnold](https://www.tcm.com/articles/31567/of-human-bondage-1934)
3. [Of Human Bondage (1934), Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/ofhu.html)
4. [Of Human Bondage (1934), AFI Catalog, history page](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/5335)
5. [Of Human Bondage (1934), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015393-of_human_bondage)
6. [Cinema: The New Pictures: Jul. 9, 1934, TIME](https://time.com/archive/6767387/cinema-the-new-pictures-jul-9-1934/)
7. [Essential: Of Human Bondage (1934), Of or Involving Motion Pictures](https://oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com/2024/07/30/essential-of-human-bondage-1934-2/)
8. [Of Human Bondage (1946), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24903-OF-HUMANBONDAGE?cp=1&pos=0&sid=9d013f83-c95c-4511-bb81-90053bb54e79&sr=0.14159971)
9. [Academy Awards Search: Bette Davis](https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/Search/GetResults?query=%7B%22Nominee%22%3A%22Bette+Davis%22%2C%22Sort%22%3A%221-Nominee-Alpha%22%2C%22Search%22%3A%22Basic%22%7D)
10. [The Academy Awards Scandal That First Got PwC Its Job Counting Oscars Votes, TIME](https://time.com/5182902/pwc-academy-awards-oscars-snub/)
11. [Of Human Bondage, Dennis Schwartz Reviews](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/of-human-bondage/)
12. [When "Pre-" Met "Code" \u2014 Eighty Years Ago Today, Library of Congress Now See Hear! blog](https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2014/07/when-pre-met-code-eighty-years-ago-today/)
13. [Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World](https://sites.ualberta.ca/~vruetalo/Sarli-Bo%20Research/Silencing%20Cinema%20Book.pdf)
14. [Of Human Bondage (1946), Turner Classic Movies, by Frank Miller](https://www.tcm.com/articles/60077/of-human-bondage-1946)
15. [Of Human Bondage (1964), Turner Classic Movies, by Jeff Stafford](https://www.tcm.com/articles/91153/of-human-bondage-1964)
16. [Of Human Bondage (1964), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015394-of_human_bondage)
17. [Of Human Bondage streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/of-human-bondage-1934)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction › Films based on early 20th-century literature*
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