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Dark Victory, American dramatic film, released in 1939, that was notable for Bette Davis’s performance as a young woman coming to terms with her impending death. Davis portrayed Judith Traherne, a spirited heiress suffering from a malignant brain tumour. Traherne undergoes surgery, but Dr. Frederick Steele (played by George Brent) is unable to completely remove the tumour. Rather than deliver the grim diagnosis, he tells her that the surgery was a success, and the two...