Early in Of Human Bondage, Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) receives the assessment “You will never be anything but mediocre.” Shortly after, Mildred Rogers is described as “anemic … ill-natured and contemptible.” Neither character does anything to challenge these evaluations. Carey, particularly, seems unable to rise above his failings; he was born with a physical disability—a clubfoot—but his real issue appears to be a lack of inner strength. The film concludes with the feeling that, if Mildred hadn’t died, Carey would have continued returning to her, at the expense of women who deserved better – women superior to Mildred, certainly, but also superior to him. Despite how unremarkable and unpleasant Carey and Mildred are—and they achieve levels of mediocrity and unpleasantness that may be difficult to surpass even a century later—there’s a certain captivating quality in observing their predetermined paths; they resemble celestial objects locked into their orbits, she a star exploding outward and he an empty planet consumed by the resulting blast. Bondage presents mixed results for Howard, though Philip Carey isn't the most unrewarding role of his career – although he doesn’t fare much better. Five years later, he would portray the equally bland Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, alongside two other performers of similar stature to Davis. I will concede a couple of points regarding the Carey character; first, he's entertaining to watch, not because of Howard’s performance—which is, as it turns out, understated—but due to what transpires within his troubled mind – namely, his fixation on Mildred, whom he perceives everywhere when conscious and dreams about while asleep. The film illustrates this through some clever visual techniques (my favorite being a classroom skeleton that briefly resembles Mildred, perhaps hinting at something to come). And second, Howard’s faint representation of a man makes Davis appear even more impressive than she already is—which is considerable—though she hardly needs the boost. As beautiful as she was, Davis consistently possessed an ability to portray the grotesque (reaching its peak in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and with Mildred, she effortlessly conveys the character’s underlying moral corruption and physical deterioration; her climactic speech directed at Carey – "The Reason You Suck Speech" – is particularly striking, though even then it's difficult to feel any sympathy for him, as most of what she says is undeniably accurate.

Source on TMDB