At the end of the day, it is rather difficult to make a defense for the film itself. It’s a poor rip-off of a Garbo vehicle and Garbo’s films were nothing to write home about in the first place.

| Feb 1, 2023

The themes tend to be more powerful than the individual events, as tinier episodes populate a tale in need of more significant happenings.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 7, 2020

[A] dramatic triumph.

| Jun 24, 2020

Judith frequently grasps onto objects, her clothes or a chair... Davis has so much energy and life force flowing through her that she has to direct it somewhere.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 24, 2020

It's hard to watch Bette Davis admit defeat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 11, 2020

One of the finest weepies ever made by Hollywood. Davis is nothing short of magnificent.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 11, 2015

Bette Davis loses her sight, and we gain a classic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 22, 2010

Bette Davis's frisky sprint sets the pace

| Sep 6, 2009

Naught but a torrid melodrama, but oh! what a humdinger of a melodrama it is! It's films like this that give trash a good name.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 27, 2009

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

A classic women's pic that strings together a collection of syrupy clichés that can make a real man double up in pain.

| Original Score: C | Apr 9, 2008

Guilty pleasure: One of Warner's best acted melodramas and Bette Davis's all-time favorite, in which she lives hard but dies in dignity as an heiress gone blind. Also Davis revenge as Tallulah Bankhead failed to bring the role to life in the 1934 play.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 30, 2007

It's horribly dated, playing today like some weird, contrived burlesque of common sense.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 21, 2006

One of Bette Davis' best acted, most enjoyable melodrama, in which she gloriously plays a dying blind woman.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 7, 2005

Even by the standards of a typical Bette Davis melodrama Dark Victory is an embarrassment of riches.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 28, 2005

What happens when a three-hankie picture just isn't that sad? You get Dark Victory.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 1, 2005

Of interest to both Goulding and Davis fans...Dark Victory catches both of them operating at their best while also learning new tricks from each other.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 12, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 2, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 74/100 | Mar 16, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2003