Dark Victory

Possibly the best terminal illness movie prior to Love Story, and easily surpassing that tear-jerker in style, this Bette Davis vehicle boasts one of her best performances as heiress Judith Traherne, tragically stricken with a brain tumour. The condition means that she will go blind before dying, and so paves the way for a death scene so memorably heart-rending (aided by a knockout Max Steiner score which the star understandably loathed) that it took Davis to the number one female movie star slot in the States. All of those classy Warner Bros production values are well in evidence, hiding the fact that this is really a load of old codswallop. Humphrey Bogart performs as though he knows he's been miscast - it's hard to imagine watching this that Casablanca was only three years away.