[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/now_voyager_1942.jpg]]

->''"My mother didn't think that Leslie was suitable for a Vale of Boston. What man is suitable, Doctor? She's never found one. What man would ever look at me and say, 'I want you'? I'm fat. My mother doesn't approve of dieting. Look at my shoes. My mother approves of sensible shoes. Look at the books on my shelves. My mother approves of good, solid books. I'm my mother's well-loved daughter. I'm her companion. I'm my mother's servant. My mother says. My mother! My mother! MY MOTHER!"''
-->-- '''Charlotte Vale'''

An UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning 1942 film directed by Irving Rapper, starring Creator/BetteDavis, Creator/PaulHenreid, and Creator/ClaudeRains. A romantic weepie, ''Now, Voyager'' is probably a perfect example of the "woman's film" of the '40s.

The story centers around Charlotte Vale (Davis), a repressed Boston {{spinster}} whose tyrannical mother (Gladys Cooper) has driven her to the edge of a nervous breakdown. Lisa, Charlotte's well-intentioned sister-in-law, feels something must be done. Enter the renowned Dr. Jaquith (Rains), who takes her to his sanitarium to begin her transformation. Part of her healing involves a South American cruise, where she meets the charming Jerry (Henreid)...

This classic Hollywood melodrama was well-received at the time and is seen as one of Davis' definitive films. The scene where Jerry lights two cigarettes and hands one to Charlotte became famous as a subtle way of implying an intimate relationship. The three stars reunited later for ''Deception''.

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!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlyElderlyMother: Lampshaded. Charlotte's mother had three boys in her youth but gave birth to her daughter when she was already in her forties - which is rare but possible depending on what age specifically she was. Her actress Gladys Cooper was only fifty-six, but Charlotte is said to be over twenty.
* AbusiveParents: Both Tina and Charlotte's respective mothers are abusive. This helps Charlotte understand and help Tina.
* AffectionateNickname: Camille becomes an endearing nickname for Charlotte.
* AmicableExes: Late in the film, Charlotte chooses to break her engagement to Elliot Livingston. They do so amicably and acknowledge that they'll probably still see each other regularly in high society.
* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: How Charlotte tells Tina about her difficult past.
* AnimalMotifs: Charlotte is compared to a butterfly, as she wears a cape with one embroidered on it - fittingly in one of the first post-makeover scenes.
* BeautifulAllAlong:
** One of the earliest examples. Bette Davis is first dressed down with glasses, frumpy hair, bushy eyebrows, and an unflattering dress - only to get a glamorous makeover early on. However, the physical makeover doesn't automatically make her life better; it's just one of the steps. It's also worth noting that the twenty-year-old Charlotte is shown to be quite pretty as well, meaning the makeover is bringing out the beauty she already had that had just been lost over the years.
** Tina as well, who's introduced with messy hair, thick glasses, and braces on her teeth. For her party towards the end, the glasses and braces are gone and her hair is done in an updo.
* BigOlEyebrows: Pre-makeover Charlotte has very thick eyebrows. She gets them plucked, naturally.
* BittersweetEnding: Leading to one of the most famous lines in film history.
-->'''Charlotte:''' Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.
* {{Bowdlerization}}: The novel made it clear that Jerry had a nervous breakdown similar to Charlotte's thanks to his wife's abusive nature. It isn't mentioned in the film, because of course, the romantic male lead can't have mental health problems - but the subtext is still quite obvious to a modern audience.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Tina from her mother's point of view. But Charlotte has been there and knows the brattiness is because the girl is hurting deep down.
* ButtMonkey: Charlotte's status at the beginning of the film. Her niece's teasing leads to this outburst:
-->'''Charlotte:''' Go on, torture me. Go on, torture me. You like making fun of me, don't you? You think it's fun making fun of me, don't you?
* CallBack: When we're introduced to Charlotte, Lisa holds her arms open for a hug that the former slowly and awkwardly walks into. After she returns from the cruise, this time Charlotte throws her arms open and hugs her just as tenderly.
* ChickFlick: One of the most famous woman-oriented films of TheForties.
* ChildrenRaiseYou: Downplayed. [[spoiler: Caring for Tina does help Charlotte find her calling in life; although she's best suited to raising Tina because she's experienced similar problems and can relate to her]].
* CoolAunt: June comes to see Charlotte as such after she returns from her cruise a new woman.
* CostumePorn: Charlotte's makeover allows her to be dressed in lots of 1940s high fashion.
* CrazyCatLady: Charlotte jokes that she'll become a crazy cat lady after she decides she won't marry anyone.
* CryIntoChest:
** Charlotte collapses crying into Jerry's arms when she realises that he does indeed love her.
** This is echoed in Cascade later when this time it's Charlotte comforting the crying Tina.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler: Jerry and Charlotte realise that they can't act on their feelings and they must put Tina first]].
* DisappearedDad: Charlotte's father died shortly after she was born, with the result that she never knew him.
* DisposableFiance: Charlotte gets engaged to a handsome suitor after coming back to Boston, but she doesn't love him, so she calls it quits.
* DistractedFromDeath: [[spoiler: Charlotte turns away from her mother for a few seconds, and she appears to have a heart attack]].
* DrivenToMadness: Charlotte is here when the film begins. Her mother might not have done this deliberately, but as Dr. Jaquith tells her
-->'''Jaquith:''' My dear Mrs. Vale, if you had deliberately and maliciously planned to destroy your daughter's life, you couldn't have done it more completely.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Jerry kisses Charlotte while she's asleep. It's unknown if she knew about it and was just pretending to sleep.
* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: A good portion of Charlotte's post-makeover outfits are dresses with sequins or glitter on them.
* EvilMatriarch: Mrs. Windle Vale is a cruel old lady who is openly abusive to her youngest daughter. She isn't much kinder to her other relatives, either.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Tina is introduced with her hair completely down and messy, symbolising her antisocial nature. After being given a pep talk by Charlotte, she's wearing it in GirlishPigtails. By the final sequence of the film, when she's doing much better, it's in a glamorous updo.
* ExtremeDoormat: Jerry is a pawn of his wife Isabelle, and is constantly apologising and putting HonorBeforeReason - in fact wanting to stop Tina's therapy because he feels guilty for Charlotte having responsibility of it.
* FlowerMotifs: Charlotte is associated with camellias. White camellias specifically - which symbolise adoration.
* FunnyForeigner: Giuseppe, the chauffeur of Charlotte and Jerry's touring car in Rio.
* TheGhost: We never meet or see Jerry's wife Isabelle, except for a picture. Most of the information about her we get from other characters.
* TheGlassesGottaGo: Dr. Jaquith takes Charlotte's glasses off her nose and snaps them in two. Of course in this case it's implied that Charlotte has never needed them - or else they corrected her vision long ago - and her mother insisted on her wearing them to look more demure.
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Jerry's wife Isabelle is abusive in the same way Charlotte's mother is to her. This allows their affair to be treated sympathetically by the narrative, even if they don't end up together at the end.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Played subtly. It's said that Jerry's wife Isabelle went to a doctor to try and have him say she wasn't medically safe to have another child (allowing her to abort Tina). Of course she didn't, but the fact that she wanted to is to foreshadow what an abuser she is.
* GrandStaircaseEntrance:
** Played with once, when Charlotte is dowdy and overweight, played straight the second time, after TheMakeover.
** Tina gets one too towards the end.
* InnocentlyInsensitive:
** June, unfortunately, pushes a lot of Charlotte's {{Berserk Button}}s early on, resulting in an outburst.
** Jerry likewise insults Charlotte's pre-makeover appearance when looking at a photo and assuming the "fat lady with the heavy brows and all the hair" is another relative.
* {{Irony}}: Charlotte previously fell in love with a man aboard a cruise ship. He would have married her, but her mother put a stop to it. She meets another man on a cruise ship, this time away from her mother's influence...and she can't be with him for different reasons.
* ItsAllAboutMe: According to Jerry's friend Deb, Isabelle likes to go on about what a "self-sacrificing mother she's been" - ignoring that she made Jerry give up the work that made him happy to provide for her and their children, which ended up causing a nervous breakdown (in the book anyway).
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is a quote from a Creator/WaltWhitman poem, which Dr. Jacquith reads and then gives to Charlotte.
* LittleBlackDress: A more modest one than most examples, but Charlotte dons a nice one for dinner after arriving home - against her mother's wishes. It's plain, and the only ornament she wears are the camellias Jerry sent her.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: Charlotte could be seen as a deconstruction. As the OldMaid of the family with mental health problems, she's kept in a room on the highest floor of the family's mansion. Instead of this being to keep her safe from the cruel world, it's instead conditioning brought on because of her mother's wishes. By letting Charlotte out into the world - and giving her the right therapy - she's able to blossom as a person.
* MaidenAunt: Charlotte is this, and she's the protagonist! She's vaguely late twenties or early thirties (her actress Bette Davis was 33 at the time of filming) and is unmarried and reclusive. She cynically says to Jerry that every family has one like her.
* TheMakeover: Charlotte is first introduced to us feet-first, walking down the stairs. The camera pans up. We see sensible shoes, fat ankles, thick tights and a dowdy dress. After her makeover, she is re-introduced to us in the same way. This time, we see fashionable high-heels, trim ankles, stockings, and a tailored suit. It is played with a little, though, as Charlotte is still shown to be mentally fragile under her sophisticated new look.
* MentalHealthRecoveryArc: For both Charlotte and Tina, in a very ahead-of-the-time depiction for the 1940s.
* TheMistress: Charlotte is Jerry's mistress. Treating adultery as sympathetic was unusual for a movie made in TheForties.
* MotorMouth: June doesn't know the art of short and snappy sentences.
* MyBelovedSmother: A particularly malign example. Charlotte's domineering mother seems to take pleasure in tormenting her.
* NiceToTheWaiter: A contrast is drawn between Charlotte and her mother in this regard; Charlotte treats all the servants nicely, even giving some of her old clothes to one of them. Her mother orders them about like dogs.
* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Charlotte says this to her mother after coming home from her cruise and her romance with Jerry.
* PanUpToTheSkyEnding: After Charlotte's "we have the stars" closing line, the camera pans up to show those stars as the movie ends.
* ParentalSubstitute: Charlotte takes on this role for Tina. It fulfills a lot of psychological needs for all parties concerned.
* ParentsAreWrong: The plot revolves almost entirely around the fact that Charlotte's mother is wrong about everything and has inflicted some serious psychological damage as a result. Charlotte's character arc is all about finding herself and learning to stand up to her mother, including one case where she turns down a marriage proposal despite her mother's wishes.
* PartingWordsRegret: [[spoiler: Charlotte's mother dies during an argument with her, literally right before Charlotte apologises.]]
* PetTheDog: [[spoiler: Charlotte's mother leaves the majority of wealth to her, even calling her "my beloved daughter" in the will.]]
* PrettyInMink: Charlotte's new glamorous wardrobe includes a mink coat.
* PurelyAestheticGlasses: Part of Mom's attempt to make Charlotte as frumpy as possible is forcing her to wear glasses she doesn't really need.
* TheRemake: It's subtle, but the telenovela Series/LaOtra takes a lot of background and plot points from the movie: [[spoiler: the mistreated daughter of an abusive female patrician who did not wish for her to be born develops mental health issues as a result of her mother's constant emotional and financial abuse. She briefly finds love but her mother takes it from her because of her need for control and she becomes a recluse and an "old maid". Later, she has a full mental health breakdown but a kind friend and a nice doctor bring her to a sanatorium and she recovers. She goes on a cruise, gets a makeover, and has an affair (briefly under an assumed identity) with a man who is abused by his manipulative wife and tries to protect his daughter, whose experience of abuse echoes the heroine's. The heroine ends up developing maternal feelings for the child, whom she supports and loves, fulfilling her longstanding desire for a child. Other similiarities include a short-lived attempt to get over the man she loves through a more reasonable engagement and her finally standing up to her mother, who proceeds to fake a fall down a flight of stairs. Besides, the protagonist briefly considers the nickname ''Carlota'' (as a secret nickname that her surrogate daughter might use).]]
* RuleOfSymbolism: Charlotte's outfit when she first has dinner with Jerry has a cape embroidered with butterflies - showing how she herself is a butterfly that has finally blossomed.
* ServileSnarker: Dora, the nurse who tends to Charlotte's mother. She's more than a match for the old battleax (as Charlotte puts it: "Dora, I suspect you're a treasure.").
--> '''Mrs. Vale:''' Dora, I want my head rubbed, my pillows fluffed and another of those hot toddies.
--> '''Dora:''' (''completely deadpan'') Which would you like first?
* SheCleansUpNicely: Charlotte after she gets rid of the frumpy look. Tina as well when Jerry arrives at the house for her party.
* TheShrink: Dr. Jaquith, who runs a retreat for rich people suffering from depression.
* SmokingIsCool: The movie's most famous scene features Jerry and Charlotte lighting each other's cigarettes.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B67HE6TxAJs Better With Bob]]'' views the book and film as ''Literature/JaneEyre'' for the 20th century - as a story about a woman transcending her abusive childhood and fighting for independence in her own life. Conversely, Charlotte could be the SpiritualAntithesis to Bertha Mason; rather than being the MadwomanInTheAttic and an obstacle in a LoveTriangle, she's the protagonist who overcomes her mental illness and breaks out of her prison (metaphorical in this case) to live a full life.
* StaircaseTumble: The malevolent Mrs. Vale pulls a tumble down the stairs deliberately to guilt Charlotte.
* StepfordSmiler: Jerry is hurting deep down because of his unhappy marriage, but he does take ThePollyanna route most of the time.
* SweetAndSourGrapes: Charlotte can rely on getting a nice inheritance if she complies with her mother's wishes, so she's not written out of the will (though she says she isn't afraid to try making it on her own). Part of something mother approves of is an engagement to Elliot Livingston. [[spoiler: Charlotte doesn't go through with the marriage, which her mother disapproves of, but her mother dies shortly after. So Charlotte gets the inheritance after all]].
* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: Jerry and Charlotte end up in a variation of this situation in Rio when they get put in the same cabin of a cruise ship.
* TrainStationGoodbye: Jerry and Charlotte have one after their reunion in Boston.
* TroubledChild: Tina, who has similar neuroses to Charlotte due to being raised in a similar household.
* UnexplainedAccent: Jerry speaks with Paul Henreid's Austrian accent, and his daughter Tina speaks with an American one. We can only assume that the unseen wife and mother Isabelle is American, and Tina's speech patterns came from her.
* YoungestChildWins:
** Charlotte is the youngest of four, and she's the protagonist. [[spoiler: She's also the one who inherits her family's wealth when her mother dies.]]
** Tina is likewise the youngest in her family.
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