Cinema: Back in Bondage

Of Human Bondage. When a Hollywood actress begins to hunger for juicier roles, she often ends up playing a tart. Sadie Thompson or maybe Nana. Or sometimes Mildred, the strumpet waitress who dishes out the spice and spite in Somerset Maugham's classic autobiographical novel of the torments of young manhood. Bette Davis flashed on-screen as the first movie Mildred, in 1934. Eleanor Parker entered a low bid in 1946. Now, all Mildred's beads, feather boas, and skin-tight finery bedizen the substantial person of Kim Novak. Though the film will give ordinary moviegoers little pleasure, it may well set Bette Davis to...