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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 sanitarium, where her self-confidence in boosted by an understanding psychiatrist. After a brief love affair during a cruise, she determines to help her lover's equally depressed daughter. 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 Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Bette Davis) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Gladys Cooper).
The title comes from the Walt Whitman poem "The Untold Want", which says: 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 Henried put two cigarettes in his mouth, light both of them and hand one to Bette Davis.
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