Howard Meets Davis - Part Three

After months away from his children and his home, both in England, and the purchase of five polo ponies to alleviate his boredom and irritation, Leslie Howard finally began filming for Of Human Bondage (1934) in February, 1934.

The entire cast was English except for Bette Davis and Howard thought an English actress should have been cast as Mildred Rogers. Even though Davis had hired a British maid in an effort to learn the accent, Howard was not impressed. Davis was aware of Howard's feelings that she was ridiculous for the part. To observers Howard was polite but to Davis Howard was unsupportive, reading a book off stage while throwing her
lines during her close ups. However, Davis persevered through her fear and it was finally after her now iconic scene in which she screams "cripple" at Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) that Howard's agent, Mike Levee, took Howard aside and told him that if he wasn't careful Davis would steal the picture. Leslie looked at Levee, smiled and said, "Do you know something, Mike? If I am very careful, she will steal the picture."

Leslie Ruth Howard in her book, A Quite Remarkable Father, states that her dad saw the error of his thinking and because he "relished a good performance and respected a performer as good as Bette Davis" admitted he was wrong and began to be a lot less disinterested. According to Davis Howard "became a little less detached." Howard was acclaimed for his performance, a role he always thought was one of the best of his career, but it was Davis who scored the big success. There were no hard feelings between the two, however, and Howard and Davis went on to make two more pictures together.

Have a great weekend everyone and be sure to set up your DVR to catch It's Love I'm After (1937) with Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland on TCM this Saturday at 3:15am PST.

[Leslie Howard and Bette Davis
in Of Human Bondage, 1934]

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