Now, Voyager

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Now, Voyager
Now, Voyager promotional poster
Directed by	Irving Rapper
Produced by	Hal B. Wallis
Written by	Olive Higgins Prouty (novel) Casey Robinson
Starring	Bette Davis Paul Henreid Janis Wilson
Music by	Max Steiner
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 22, 1942 (USA)
Running time	117 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Now, Voyager is a 1942 film which tells the story of a middle-aged spinster who, repressed by the domination of her mother, winds up in a sanatorium, where her self-confidence is boosted by an understanding psychiatrist. After a brief love affair during a cruise, she determines to help her lover's equally depressed daughter (Janis Wilson). It stars Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, John Loder, Ilka Chase, Lee Patrick, Franklin Pangborn and Mary Wickes.

The movie was adapted by Casey Robinson from the 1941 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. It was directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay follows the novel very closely, except that in the book the cruise Charlotte takes is a Mediterranean, not a South American one.

It won the Academy Award for Original Music Score, and was nominated for Best Actress (Bette Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper).

The title comes 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.

Although not an original idea, the movie's most famous "bit" is having Paul Henreid put two cigarettes in his mouth, light both of them and hand one to Bette Davis.

The most famous line from this movie was said by the character Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) to Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid): "Oh, Jerry don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars."

[edit] Trivia

In the UK science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf, Kristine Kochanski says that when she watched this film, she was so choked up she couldn't speak for twenty minutes, to which Kryten mutters that the film is "worth keeping on stand-by."
The role of Charlotte Vale was originally assigned to Norma Shearer (on loan out from MGM), who turned it down. By 1942 Shearer was still one of the most popular stars in Hollywood, but later in the year she left Hollywood to live a private life.