“Darling! Just one thing more.” “Yes?” Tina murmured through her dream. “I want you to promise me—” “Everything, everything, you darling mother!” “Well, then, that when you go away tomorrow—at the very last moment, you understand—” “Yes?” “After you’ve said goodbye to me, and to everybody else—just as Lanning helps you into the carriage—” “Yes?” “That you’ll give your last kiss to Aunt Charlotte. Don’t forget—the very last.”

"From the moment I read Dark Victory I wanted to play Judith Traherne. Jack Warner felt that a picture about death would be too depressing, but I convinced him that this was a story of life, not death, because Judith learns that it isn’t how long we live that’s important, but how we live.

The most beautiful scene was the one where Judith, in the garden planting flowers that will bloom for the man she loves, suddenly realizes that the sunlight is not so brilliant as it should be, that she is going blind: and she quietly draws on a great courage to face the end. We had to do the scene again and again.

I knew there must be no tears, for Judith wouldn’t have cried, but time after time I could not help crying. It was an unforgettable experience, portraying Judith’s victory over the dark."

— Bette Davis for The Saturday Evening Post (1946)