Of Human Bondage (1934)

I can tell when I am engaged with a film if I want to get off the chair and strangle one of the cast... Well Leslie Howard engenders exactly that feeling as he plays the hapless, lovestruck "Philip" who has fallen in love with the nasty, scheming "Mildred" - Bette Davis (with a rather dodgy English agent). The chemistry between the two of them is great. She treats him appallingly, yet like a doting puppy he comes back for more each time. John Cromwell keeps this going deftly; we see the characterisations from W. Somerset Maugham's novel unfold before us and I felt genuinely invested.