Of human bondage is a 1934 Cinema of the United States drama film directed by John Cromwell (director) and is widely regarded by critics as the film that made Bette Davis a star. which finally was being enforced four years after it was adopted. "I made it very clear that Mildred was not going to die of a dread disease looking as if a Debutante had missed her noon nap. The last stages of tuberculosis, poverty and neglect are not pretty and I intended to be convincing-looking. We pulled no punches and Mildred emerged . . . as starkly real as a pestilence.