Now, Voyager
| Now, Voyager | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Irving Rapper |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Screenplay by | Casey Robinson |
| Based on |
Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty |
| Starring |
Bette Davis Paul Henreid Claude Rains Gladys Cooper |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Sol Polito |
| Edited by | Warren Low |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $761,000 |
| Box office | $2.2 million (USA) |
Now, Voyager is a 1942 American drama film starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, and directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty.
Prouty borrowed her title from the Walt Whitman poem "The Untold Want", which reads in its entirety,
The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
In 2007, Now, Voyager was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film ranks #23 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions, a list of the top love stories in American cinema. Film critic Steven Jay Schneider suggests the film continues to be popular due not only to its star power but also the "emotional crescendos" engendered in the storyline. The film had a cameo appearance during the theatre scene in the movie Summer of '42.
Drab Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her dictatorial mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman's complete lack of self-confidence. It is revealed that Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends she spend time in his sanitarium.
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