Dark Victory

Originally there was to have been a final scene where Judith Traherne's horse wins the Grand National, reducing Michael O'Leary (Humphrey Bogart) to tears. Preview audiences found it anticlimactic and it was cut.

Based on a play that opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York on Nov. 9, 1934 and ran for 51 performances.

Bette Davis said that this was her favorite role to play.

Offscreen, Bette Davis suffered a nervous breakdown during filming as a result of her crumbling marriage to Harmon Nelson. This didn't prevent her from embarking on an affair with co-star George Brent.

On Broadway, Tallulah Bankhead originated the role of Judith Traherne.

Bette Davis pestered Warner Brothers to buy the rights to the story, thinking it a great vehicle for her. WB studio chief Jack L. Warner fought against it, arguing that no one wanted to see someone go blind. Of course, the film went on to become one of the studio's biggest successes of that year.

David O. Selznick had originally purchased the screen rights but gave up production plans so he could concentrate all his energies on Gone With The Wind (1939).

This was Bette Davis' third Oscar nomination in five years, and her second of five consecutive nominations.

The second of Bette Davis collaborations with director Edmund Goulding. They had previously worked together on That Certain Woman (1937) and would do so again on The Old Maid (1939) and The Great Lie (1941).

Gloria Swanson had tried and failed to get the movie made a few years earlier.

This was Bette Davis' biggest moneymaker up to that point in her career.

Bette Davis claims that Edmund Goulding worked on the script and added the character of Judith's best friend Ann so that Judith would never have to complain about her tragedy.

In 1938, Barbara Stanwyck and Melvyn Douglas starred in a Lux Radio Theatre version of the play, and in 1939 Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy starred in another radio version of the story.

In an interview with Dick Cavett in 1971, Bette Davis said that the movie took four weeks to shoot.

Greta Garbo was the original choice for Judith Traherne.

Cast of Dark Victory:

Bette Davis as Judith Traherne
George Brent as Dr. Frederick Steele
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King
Humphrey Bogart as Michael O'Leary
Henry Travers as Dr. Parsons
Ronald Reagan as Alec Hamm
Cora Witherspoon as Carrie