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John Cromwell, 1934, from Maugham: Leslie Howard as the medical student who ruins himself for a waitress who does not love him, and Bette Davis as the waitress, Mildred, who does not have to try. RKO. Davis, on loan from Warner, ate the picture. The laugh, the accent, the death scene the censors tried to soften. Pre-Code enough that Mildred is allowed to be cruel without a sermon. Howard is the bondage. Davis is the fact.