Now, Voyager (1942) tells the tale of Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), a repressed, unmarried woman from a wealthy Boston family, who has a nervous breakdown following years of emotional abuse from her domineering mother. Benefiting from therapy and the experience of true love, Charlotte is transformed. She goes on to create her own life, made of her own choices and her own sacrifices.
Sounds like a great classic film, doesn’t it? It is! But why do I feel Now, Voyager, with its theme of feeling unwanted, is the perfect St. Valentine’s Day film? Because the reality is that at some point in our lives we’ve all felt that way: unwanted. And it hurts. Maybe like Charlotte you felt unwanted by a parent. Maybe by someone you thought was a friend or by a community or, most hurtful of all, by someone you loved, and thought, loved you in return. And so you may find yourself alone on this holiday meant to celebrate togetherness and therefore find comfort in watching this film. It’s like having your own private therapist gently telling you that its best to know and honor yourself – whether you’re wanted by someone else or not. And that this process is an ongoing one. No quick fixes here.
But I feel Now, Voyager, in particular, speaks to those of us from Worcester, Massachusetts. Because, as all of us from the city know, teasing is our one, true, language. We tease if we like you. We tease if we hate you. We tease to show our affection, anger, or mere annoyance. But, always? We tease.
Charlotte’s nervous breakdown is illustrated in a scene where she can no longer take being teased by her niece. Later, to illustrate her improved mental health, she not only knows how to take it, she knows how to dish it out, too! Add an icy layer of practicality, formed as if Charlotte had spent years navigating steep hills in never-ending winters, and you feel as though you might have gone to grade school with this woman.
So, just how did Hollywood get ‘us’ so right? Perhaps, because the best-selling book that the film is based upon was written by Worcester’s own Olive Higgins Prouty.
Who?
Olive Higgins Prouty (1882 -1974) was the youngest child of Worcester’s industrial-rich Higgins family (grandfather Milton founded the once mighty industrial behemoth, Norton Company; brother John amassed the Higgins Armory Collection; a family endowment helped build WAM’s Higgins Education Wing, there’s the Higgins University Center at Clark University; Higgins Laboratories at WPI…it goes on and on). After graduating from Smith College, Olive married into another prominent Worcester family when she wed Lewis Prouty in 1907. The young couple relocated to Brookline and there, started a family. Prouty supported, or what passed as support in the early 1900’s, his wife’s ambitions as a writer. That is as long as Olive presented them to her husband as nothing more than a hobby, which she dutifully did. And, it was on those terms, that her husband encouraged her throughout their marriage. Despite this ‘support’ on the home front, Olive was still vulnerable to society’s expectations of her. She was to be wife, mother, and for her class, participate in bridge games and charity work (which is exactly what Charlotte does in Now, Voyager), leaving her little-to-no time to write. As a result, Olive was in a state of constant inner turmoil trying to find a balance between her need to create and her sensitivity to the responsibilities of family along with the expectations of society. Sadly, in 1925, when she was 43 years-old, it culminated in a nervous breakdown.
It was Olive’s own experiences at a sanitarium and subsequent recovery, guided by her psychiatrist Dr. Austen Fox Riggs, that served as inspiration for the enduring characters of Charlotte Vale and Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains). And, we can thank the literary-minded Dr. Riggs for quoting Walt Whitman’s The Untold Want to Olive (The untold want by life and land ne’er granted, Now, voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find), which inspired the book, and subsequently, the film’s, iconic title.
“Oh Jerry, don’t let ask for the moon. We have the stars.” – Charlotte Vale, Now, Voyager (1942)
So perfectly delivered by Bette Davis, this memorable line of dialogue, in a film that has so many memorable moments, is Charlotte’s response, when asked by Jerry (Paul Henreid), the man she loves but cannot be with, if she’ll be happy. The words are Olive’s, straight from page to screen. They’ve been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes Of All Time (#46).
In addition, in 2007 Now, Voyager was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, recognized as being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.
Not bad for a Worcester girl who grew up around West Street and thought it might be a good idea for us all to get a bit more realistic about this thing called love.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Loved the blog and especially the Worcester connection with the Higgins family and Norton. I will definitely watch the film as cultural norms and human interactions are so interesting to me, and as you say, “the reality is that at some point in our lives we’ve all felt that way: unwanted. And it hurts.” Thanks for the recommendation and Happy Valentine’s Day!
So glad you enjoyed reading about NOW, VOYAGER & its Worcester, MA connection. When you watch the movie, be sensitive to the fact that the ‘cultural norms’ are the ‘norms’ of the 1940s not from our own era. What seemed enlightened then, may not be so impressive now. IRL, Olive Higgins Prouty was invited to attend the Academy Awards in 1943, she was 61 years-old and NOW, VOYAGER (1942) had earned 3 Academy Award nominations: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress & Best Musical Score (Max Steiner, for Best Musical Score, would ultimately be the only winner). Exciting right? Olive wanted to go. But, her husband refused to go with her, claiming he didn’t like show people. That if she wanted to go she’d have to go on her own. OHP might have been considered a feminist in her day, but at heart, she was a very shy person. And, sadly, she opted not to attend the ceremony. When you watch NOW, VOYAGER, there’ll be a character introduced halfway through named Elliott. I think Olive married an “Elliott.” Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, Susan!
You always shed fascinating light on these art pieces that many of us assume we already fully see!! Such a pleasure to read your words and hear your perspective!
Thank you so much. I hope that’s always the case! I find such beauty and inspiration in the films of the Golden Age of Hollywood (1930-1959) that I love to pass that passion on. A crew of imperfect people, all joining together in a mad-dash factory type-of-working atmosphere truly created an incredible amount of great films. So much so that subsequent generations of filmmakers still find it helpful to stand upon their shoulders as they struggle to create their own 21st century visions.
Another excellent post, JoAnn. I greatly enjoyed reading about this film that I enjoy so much — but even more than that, I appreciated learning about Olive Prouty! Really good stuff.
Karen
Thank you, Karen! I’ve always been fascinated by how much of a writer’s life becomes source material for their fiction and how much is pure imagination. That so much of the book “Now, Voyager” ended up in the film version, I think we would have to thank that other creative artist from Massachusetts, Bette Davis. She greatly admired the book. And as you and I know, in the early 1940s, whatever Bette wanted, Bette got!