I had only seen the Bette Davis, Ashley Wilkes version before and it struck me as over the top. Ashley, er.. I mean Howard was so wimpy and Davis so over the top. I love Bette but this was not her best effort. I never saw them as people, only archetypes in a cold exploration of the ironies in human relationships.
This version is the complete opposite. Novak's Mildred really surprised me with her depth. She was completely believable, and all her actions were in character. She was no one-dimensional harridan but a real woman. We could see the qualities that attracted Harvey's Dr. Carey to her. There is true tragedy in her demise, in that she did not realize that she had lost what she truly wanted until it was too late.
Lawrence Harvey was even better. I thought he was great in Room at the Top but this performance might have surpassed that in subtlety. His actions are completely believable and one understands and feels his pain, not for himself, but for the woman that he is bound to, yet helpless to save.
As for the IMDb preference for the 1934 version - well, maybe some of the young film students need to get out of the lecture hall and into the real world a bit more. This film is real, intense and so beautifully sad...
This version is the complete opposite. Novak's Mildred really surprised me with her depth. She was completely believable, and all her actions were in character. She was no one-dimensional harridan but a real woman. We could see the qualities that attracted Harvey's Dr. Carey to her. There is true tragedy in her demise, in that she did not realize that she had lost what she truly wanted until it was too late.
Lawrence Harvey was even better. I thought he was great in Room at the Top but this performance might have surpassed that in subtlety. His actions are completely believable and one understands and feels his pain, not for himself, but for the woman that he is bound to, yet helpless to save.
As for the IMDb preference for the 1934 version - well, maybe some of the young film students need to get out of the lecture hall and into the real world a bit more. This film is real, intense and so beautifully sad...