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Charlotte Vale lives in a wealthy Boston household under a controlling mother, has a breakdown and is treated at a sanatorium. She comes back a different person in dress, in speech and in appetite. On a cruise she meets a married man, and from there the film becomes a story about love and about independence at once. Bette Davis gives one of her most controlled performances, conveying the transformation through bearing rather than emphasis. Max Steiner's score won an Oscar and carries the emotional line almost single-handedly. The business of lighting two cigarettes at once entered film history. The choice made at the end is surprisingly independent for a melodrama of its moment. Who it is for: viewers who love classic Hollywood melodrama and Bette Davis. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace, since the film gives its time to an interior change.