SUSAN HAYWARD

The Revengers (1972) as Elizabeth [Reilly] .

Rancher John Benedict's wife and four children are killed one day by Comanche Indians.He needs to revenge for their deaths.He gathers up a posse formed of six prisoners.Their job is to find a man named Tarp, who led the slaughter.The Revengers (1972) is directed by Daniel Mann.There's a great ensemble in this movie.The legendary William Holden plays John Benedict.A legend is also Ernest Borgnine, a living legend, I might add.He plays Hoop.Today this man celebrates his 95th birthday.That's quite an achievement.And he's done about 200 movies in his career.And he's still not thinking of retirement.Way to go, Ernie! The terrific Woody Strode portrays Job.Roger Hanin plays the part of Quiberon.Susan Hayward returned from her voluntary retirement to play Elizabeth Reilly.Arthur Hunnicutt is Free State.Warren Vanders plays Tarp.Larry Pennell is Arny.James Daughton is Morgan.Holden's late son, Scott Holden, plays Lieutenant.I'd say as a western this is underrated.It may not reach the level of The Wild Bunch, but there still are some likable qualities in this movie.It's a manly movie, but those moments between Bill Holden and Susan Hayward are filled with sweetness and tenderness.And those manly scenes also work, the bloody battle scenes.Watch this movie and have your own opinion of it.But I liked it pretty much.

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Valley of the Dolls (1967) as Helen Lawson .

This is it, kiddies, the Grande Dame of camp classics. The sheer ineptitude of everyone involved is staggering. Mark Robson directs without a trace of nuance or subtlety; Patty Duke and Susan Hayward come off as boozy drag queens; Sharon Tate and Barbara Parkins look and act as if they had taken one downer too many; Dory and Andre Previn's musical numbers are as funny as those in "The Operetta"--the "I Love Lucy" episode which parodied musical theater; Billy Travilla concocts some of the most glamorously god-awful gowns ever seen; and Kenneth (of Hairstyles by Kenneth, of course) must be personally responsible for the hole in the ozone layer, so lacquered, teased and towering are his creations. But, you know what? IT ALL WORKS. The source material--Jacqueline Susann's groundbreaking, scandalous novel--begs for sledgehammer direction, overripe acting and eyepopping fashions. Certainly, subtlety was not a hallmark of Jackie's work. If anything, VOTD should have been even MORE over-the-top. Due to restrictions of the time, the film is sadly devoid of such juicy plotlines as Jennifer's lesbian affair, Tony's preference for - ahem - rear-entry intercourse, and Neely walking in on Ted Casablanca's tryst with another man. What we have, instead, is an endlessly entertaining piece of cinematic trash that is nowhere near as racy as it would like us to believe; and that's part of its twisted charm. Because it fails on so many levels--as true art, as explicitly sexual titillation, or as a faithful adaptation of a popular book--it's downright inspiring that it comes together so brilliantly. VOTD's ultimate triumph is that, despite its incredible waste of talent, time and money, 30 years later, we're still watching.

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The Honey Pot (1967) as Mrs. Lone-Star Crockett Sheridan .

This is a very good film adaptation of a story that has had a number of permutations. The original source of the story dates to British poet and playwright Ben Jonson's (1572-1637) satirical play, "Volpone." Thomas Sterling's "Evil of the Day" was a 1955 novel, and playwright Frederick Knott then adapted that source into the play, "Mr. Fox of Venice."

The theme of the original work is carried through all the renditions of the story. It's a biting satire on greed, with a complex staged practical joke as the main plot. The comedy isn't of the rollicking laughter type, but in the exaggerations with the drama and the characters themselves. Most of the characters of the Ben Jonson play are carried through all renditions, except that in the 20th century story the three characters of avarice are women instead of men.

Director Joseph Mankiewicz does a masterly job of adapting and then directing the story, with an introduction and closing comments in voice over by the main character, Cecil Fox. He uses this technique very subtly for one other character toward the end. Another reviewer delighted in what he called the "Maltese Falcon" ending. It is fantastic in itself.

The film was made mostly in Rome, with some canal scenes shot in Venice. The producers assembled a first-rate cast to play the diverse roles. All give performances worthy of academy award nominations. Rex Harrison is superb as Cecil Fox, and Susan Hayward dominates her scenes as Mrs. Sheridan - Fox's "Lone Star" mistress from the past. Cliff Robertson adds enough mystery to his dutiful and slyly charming role as William McFly. A nearly 40 Capucine still radiates the sophisticated beauty for which she was known, here playing Princess Dominique. And Maggie Smith shows for the first time on film her deftness for deadpan humor. Her nurse Sarah Watkins is both demure, suspicious and slightly sly.

Adolfo Celi is very good as Inspector Rizzi, who plays some scenarios superbly for comedy. The scenes in his home are hilarious where his family members are glued to the TV watching a Perry Mason mystery show. The Italian voice-over for Raymond Burr's Mason is hilarious - a high-pitched male voice coming out of the tube when Perry speaks.

But the star who provides most of the laughter in "The Honey Pot" is Edie Adams. She plays Merle McGill, an otherwise attractive movie star who, underneath, is little more than a ditzy blonde and opportunist. She was someone Fox picked up off the street years before and turned into a movie icon.

Here are some favorite lines form this film.

Inspector Rizzi, "Miss McGill, I understand the necessity of you to arrive in Venice incognito." Merle McGill, "I wouldn't go anywhere (sic) uninvited." Inspector Rizzi, "I must have used the wrong word. My English is uh...." Merle McGill, "It must be hard for you to imagine, inspector - a man like Cecil Fox and I." Inspector Rizzi, "Not hard at all." McGill, "How can I say it, inspector? He was my first... man. Somehow, you just never forget your first man." Rizzi, "I remember mine, vividly. He also got away."

Merle McGill, "OK, shamus, so what's on your mind? Or, to be exact, on both your minds?" Inspector Rizzi, "Shamus? You use too many American idioms I do not know."

Merle McGill, "When you do talk to Princess Dominique, you know what she's gonna tell ya?" Inspector Rizzi, "If I had such capability, I would never get out of bed." McGill, "She's gonna say that she and I were here, in my room, all night, playing gin rummy together. That'll be a lie. For one thing, she can't even play gin rummy." Rizzi, "Fascinating! Now why would she choose a game she could not play?" McGill, with a "caught" look on her face, "Yeah, that was stupid of her, but the name of the game isn't important."

Princess Dominique, "I have no need for Mr. Fox's money." Inspector Rizzi, "That is what truly baffles me. This incredible wealth which nobody needs and everybody wants."

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 Where Love Has Gone (1964) as Valerie Hayden Miller .

Fans of great "bad movies" should lap this up like a bowl of frosting. Loosely based on the Lana Turner-Johnny Stompanato-Cheryl Crane murder incident, Harold Robbins fashioned a novel to cash in on and exploit the gossipy tale. This resultant film carries on the tradition in high, campy style complete with hilarious "racy" dialogue, glamorously sanitized sexual shenanigans, concerned social workers, over the top sets and decor and signature Edith Head costumes. Velvet-voiced crooner Jack Jones (later to be immortalized as the pipes heard in "The Love Boat" theme song) kicks off the film with a yummy title song against dreamy shots of San Francisco. Hayward stars as a socialite sculptress who finds herself paired with WWII hero Conners. Her gorgon-like mother (Davis) steers them toward marriage, yet, when Conners doesn't do her bidding, pulls out all the stops to destroy the union and press for a divorce. The marriage does produce a daughter (Heatherton) who, years later, finds herself in juvenile hall after filleting one of Hayward's live-in lovers. Though the tale spans twenty years, Conners and Hayward (and Davis!) look exactly the same throughout. The hair, clothes and furnishings show no evolution, nor any feel for the period. (Hayward has her customary bouffant bubble 'do which she wore in virtually every film from the '50's on, no matter what the time, place or character!) Hayward frets and yells and suffers while draped in fur accented suits (or sometimes in her uproarious sculpting scarves) with her bizarre accent fully in place. Somewhat paunchy Davis sashays around in her pretty concoctions, wearing an intriguing grey wig and doling out orders. At times she resembles her old nemesis Joan Crawford and one could easily picture her in the part as well. Conners does all right, though no matter what histrionics he could come up with, there's no room for him in this film. The battle royale is between Hayward and Davis. Davis was already miffed at Hayward for just having remade "Dark Victory" as "The Stolen Hours". Then there were differences over the script with Davis reworking scenes until finally Hayward pulled her weight and demanded that the script be shot as originally written (which was no Pulitzer Prize winner.) Later, Davis had yet another battle (which she won) over how her character's fate should be played out. The animosity between these two women is palpable. Amid all the soapy trappings and turgid dramatics, there is some really hateful fire and some awesomely bitter moments between them, which are fun to behold. Anyone wanting to get plastered should do a shot every time one note Heatherton whines the word "Daddy". Nearly twenty belts of booze ought to do anyone in! She is hilariously bratty and annoying, though she does get some decent licks in, notably in a scene with Seymour. Greer shows up as a sympathetic and concerned case worker. She holds her own with dignity against the fire-breathing Hayward. The dialogue is riotous throughout with some lines actually eliciting guffaws. The lawyer has a great one about the deceased and his relationships with the mother-daughter team, "He wasn't any good at double entry bookkeeping, but he was great at double entry housekeeping". "Star Trek" fans will be startled to see Kelley in a film like this, referring to the bedroom habits of Hayward. In the source novel, Davis' character comes across far more sympathetically, though that may not have been as interesting for the cinema. Also, Conners' character had a devoted second wife who was carrying his child. Most of the novel's plot line made it to the screen, however, though the film's ending is far less happy. There's very little resembling reality in this movie, but thank God for it. It's a glossy, pseudo-sordid potpourri of theatrics and glitz with occasional verbal fireworks.

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 Stolen Hours (1963) as Laura Pember .

Susan Hayward, at the height of her beauty, gives a stunning performance here as an American farm girl turned jet setter due to family wealth in the oil business, who is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now living in England, the film concentrates on how she adapts to her reality and finally accepts it with courage and grace, never forgetting the humble roots from which she came. Hayward's performance here ranks second to her Oscar winning role in "I Want To Live," but it is a terrific one. She is totally believable and manages to make the viewer sympathize with her without being overdramatic and sensational. Although wealthy and a member of the social elite, she developes a character that you can identify and sympathize with no matter what you own social standing is. You just like this woman no matter what. The ending is quite beautiful and very memorable in its sincerity and grace. Comparisons to Bette Davis' also great performance in "Dark Victory" are unfair. This was a different era with more modern circumstances and relationships.

Filmed in England, the outdoor settings are exquisite, captured quite stunningly by director Daniel Petrie. The sets and costumes are rich looking and very well done even by 2021 standards. Even the opening credits designed by Maurice Binder (famous for the Bond film credits) are special and when they are combined with the theme song by Mort Lindsey and Marilyn and Alan Bergman, it lets you know that you are in for a special story and an extremely lovely, complicated performance by Hayward.

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 I Thank a Fool (1962) as Christine Allison .

 Audrey Erskine-Lindop wrote in a variety of genres and has proved popular with film makers. Although having seen all of them I must confess to having read none of the originals but judging by a synopsis of her 1958 novel 'I thank a Fool', this film adaptation is quite another story!

Unusually for the time it introduces the emotive and controversial issue of 'mercy killing' and the film is topped and tailed by a trial and an inquest. One would hazard a guess that these were inserted by uncredited contributor John Mortimer. The leading female character has been considerably changed to accommodate the age and persona of the customary American import but as she is played by the splendid Susan Hayward, who's complaining? The always-good-value Peter Finch plays the barrister whose prosecution puts her behind bars for manslaughter and who later proceeds to hire her to look after his schizophrenic wife! Yes, it's that sort of movie. The wife is played by Diane Cilento and although her Irish accent is rather in-and-out, she engages our sympathy and acquits herself well in a very demanding role. Playing her drunken, despicable father is Cyril Cusack who succeeds once again in stealing all of his scenes. Both Athene Seyler and Richard Wattis impress and there are brief but brilliant cameos by Miriam Karlin as a tart and Peter Sallis as a lecherous doctor. Even cigar store Indian Kieron Moore shows signs of life.

Superlative camerawork by Harry Waxman and what is for him an unusual score by Ron Goodwin which includes the tried and trusted Theramin for 'atmospheric' purposes.

There are a few plotholes along the way whilst the ending is somewhat contrived but very much in keeping with the melodramatic mood of the piece. Rather like the curate's egg, it is not all bad but is particularly good in parts.

Whatever its weaknesses it is infinitely preferable to director Robert Stevens' next collaboration with Peter Finch, 'In the cool of the Day' but that quite frankly would not be difficult.

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Back Street (1961) as Rae Smith .

Watching this film is like having only cookies and ice cream for dinner. One feels guilt-ridden and knows he shouldn't have done it, but it was so good he's almost ready to do it again...and probably will! Producer Ross Hunter was at the helm so there aren't going to be any grey settings, uncombed hair or even a dirt smudge throughout. The film is a masterwork of overproduction and color coordination...the type of film that credits the furs and the oil paintings (!) in the titles. Hayward plays a single career woman in the mid-1940's who dreams of being a successful clothing designer. These early scenes have all the period detail of the 1940's as say...1958. On one eventful meeting with a potential backer, she collides with and instantaneously falls in love with Gavin, a marine just home from WWII. Who can blame her? He's a hunky dream come true and, for a certain amount of the film, he even has facial expression. His mating ritual includes bullying Hayward across a park lawn until she falls face first into a flower patch. From then on, she's hooked. Unfortunately, they are separated by a misunderstanding or two. Cut to years later (where Hayward, 11 years older than Gavin, looks younger and he now has grey in his hair!) which sees Hayward as a designer of dresses with "line" and style. Amusing support is provided by acerbic Gardiner as her mentor and Schafer (Mrs. Howell of "Gilligan's Island") as a gossipy client. The film globe trots to Paris, London, Rome (though, for some reason, a horrific Hayward body double does all the real travelling.) In one of the films many, MANY clichés and contrivances (Hayward even states at one point that, "All the clichés are true."), the former lovebirds are reunited over the fallen-down body of Gavin's wife Miles. Here, the film takes a powerful turn into the camp stratosphere as shrewy, boozy, slutty Miles (in a stunningly vivid performance) makes the pair's lives miserable. Miles is so intensely evil and vengeful that she becomes a sort of hilarious supervillain when compared with the rather saintly, drab lovers. Her histrionics are like manna from Heaven, no more so than when she makes a triumphant and highly memorable appearance at one of Hayward's fashion shows. Gavin also has two kids. One (Marihugh) is a pretty silent Shirley Temple wannabee. The other (Eyer) is a snotty, annoying child who was scarcely ever heard from again, he so irritated filmgoers. The "Back Street" of the title is SUPPOSED to refer to a secretive, undesirable place for the mistress to be kept away on. In Hunter's version, it's a completely charming cottage in the country! Gavin provides Hayward with the cottage's first piece of decor, but note how she moves it from it's original spot so that we can have a special fade out at the end. The comic book-level melodramatics of the film are emphasized right away by titles that show Lichtenstein-esque pictures of the star trio accompanied by a typically heart-tugging Frank Skinner score. In a spiteful move against the audience, Gavin is shown in clingy swim trunks, but only briefly, from the waist up and in a dimly lit scene! Hayward shows a lot of energy and conviction in her role. Her best scenes involve several pivotal telephone calls. Another note: Grey (a charming actress who plays Hayward's sister) is the same age in real life, yet looks like she could play Hayward's mother! Did she live hard or was she denied the star lighting that Hayward got?? Hunter considered her his good luck charm and cast her in nearly everything until "Lost Horizon". Big mistake to leave her out! That was a notorious flop.

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 Ada (1961) as Ada .

If you're a fan of Susan Hayward this film has everything you need.

An old-fashioned melodrama with all the trimmings Susan rules over this with a velvet glove. She's a girl from "the wrong side of the tracks", a prostitute in a roadside honky tonk who makes the acquaintance of a dim hayseed one night. He has a way with a song and isn't clever enough to see that he is being used as a dim bulb stooge by a political machine to take him to the governor's mansion. The film offers nothing new on this age old chestnut but the presentation is what counts here.

A star vehicle to be sure slanted Susan's way much more than Dean's even though he gets a moment here and there. Spotlighted in a way stars never are today Susan commands the screen. Notice that she is surrounded only by colors that flatter her, the rooms she finds herself in are almost exclusively white or a soft green to highlight her flame colored tresses. Even the roadhouse where she starts the story has that high class sheen that is a hallmark of the studio era.

The performances are excellent. Dean ambles through without too much to do but handles his one big scene well. Martin Balsam and Ralph Meeker are solid as Dean's trusted friend and a slimy cop respectively but it's Wilfred Hyde-White who stands out as the reptilian political operator who crosses swords with Susan. Therein lies the meat of the story and the basic enjoyment of the film. When these two old pros square off the fireworks are a treat, although Susan gets a couple of other chances on her own to rip apart the unsuspecting when she discovers malfeasance.

A few interesting side notes. The actress playing Susan's madam, Connie Sawyer known as the oldest working actress in Hollywood, is still alive and appearing in small parts at 102 as of November 2014.

The other note is a bit more somber, as she entered the end of her cancer struggle Susan Hayward's friends told her they had arranged for her to see any of her films that she wanted and she selected this film much to their surprise. In hindsight though it's easy to see why, every effort is made to make her look her best, its set in the south which had been her home for many years during her happy second marriage and her part is tailor made to many of her strengths.

If you love Susan Hayward or old time studio made melodramas don't miss this!

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 The Marriage-Go-Round (1960) as Content Delville .

In The Marriage-Go-Round, a Swedish exchange student comes to stay in the home of a happily married couple. The wife welcomes her with open arms, but she really shouldn't. We find out pretty early on she has designs on the husband; she wants him to father her child! Told in a funny he-said-she-said format, James Mason and Susan Hayward tell the audience about the time in their lives when their marriage was tested by the ridiculously attractive Julie Newmar.

While it's totally believable that James Mason would be propositioned in such a way, it isn't quite believable that he would be tempted to stray with Susan Hayward at home. She's far too strong and independent to portray a housewife who's let herself go. There are several jokes about her putting on weight and not being alluring enough for her husband. But it's Susan Hayward! Onstage, Claudette Colbert originated the role. She's a beautiful woman, too, but she would have been middle-aged at that time, still retaining the vulnerability of her youth, and far more convincing. Julie Newmar is wonderful, though; and she also played the role on Broadway. Hilarious, physically perfect, a flawless Swedish accent (patterned after her mother), and a master of intellect and sportsmanship, she fits the description of every man's fantasy and every woman's nightmare.

The fun part of the movie is, of course, James Mason. His delighted grin is hilarious, and you can clearly see him having a ball during the filming. It's no stretch to see why he was asked to play Hubert Humphrey in Lolita after being paired with a young girl in this movie. As this is a comedy, and he's the pursued not the pursuer, we can all have a good laugh.

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Thunder in the Sun (1959) as Gabrielle Dauphin 
 

This meaty Western contains interesting plot , intrigue , thrills , shootouts and results to be quite entertaining . A stirring movie set in the turbulent 19th century , this is a colossal western with top-drawer cast . Stars the early deceased Jeff Chandler and Susan Hayward that starred such important films as ¨I Want to live¨ , ¨Untamed¨, ¨The Snows of Kilimanjaro¨; both of whom caused sensation , here in their most exciting roles . The story of a love that was greater than honor and race and a courage that stood alone against the fury of the savage native Indians . While happening some clashes between traditional Basque habits and the necessity of survival . A 1850 adventure story of the Basque immigrants on their trek to California , their struggle with the Indians, and the development of a twisted love triangle . Set in 1847, a group of fifty-two French Basques, including women and children, sets-out from Independence, Missouri to the far California. These settlers left Europe behind to escape the starvation , unrest and aftermaths of the Napoleonic Wars. They have wagons , horses , mules and supplies throughout the risked way . They also hire a local trail master for a fee . As the tough guidance is called Lon Bennett (Jeff Chandler) , he leads a wagon train of pioneers through perilous landscapes , Indian attacks , storms , deserts , swollen rivers , down cliffs and so on while and falling in love with Gabrielle . He is skilled but he loves women as well as booze too much, and eventually falls in love for an indomit pioneer . As Bennett becomes obsessed with Gabrielle Dauphin (Susan Hayward) , the beautiful lover of the Basque leader (Carl Esmond). He repeatedly forces his attentions on her but she rejects him every time . Due to an unfortunate accident Gabrielle stands alone , but two suitors emerge , the valiant journey guidance (Jeff Chandler) and the jealous Basque/French Pepe Dauphin (Jacques Bergerac) . The Sun Never Blazed On A More Savage Saga!. The sun never blazed on a more savage saga !

An overwhelming period adventure set in 19th century with a decent cast , thrilling scenes and breathtaking battles . It is a rousing , moving , romantic tale , including a complicated love story , but rough-edged fare in Western treatment . There are spectacular outdoors scenes , packing a colorful photography in Technicolor , in color de Luxe , nevertheless the lead actors were filmed in the studio with projected backgrounds . Dealing with interesting issues , such as emigration to the dangerous California , colonialism , racism and a loving triangle among an intimate trio : Jeff Chandler/SusanHayward/Jacques Bergerac . There's a detail studio about old customs , superstitions and Basque morality and their crashes with the violent Wild West in which safety is more essential than ancient traditions . In a way , the flick is similar in vein to a frontier Western in the wake of The Big Trail (1930) , The Oregon Trail (1957) and The Way West (1969) . Susan Hayward stands out , as usual, as the brave Basque leader ; she excelled herself in all kinds of melodrama , here is outrageously superb as what one critic wrote : a kind of Scarlett O'Hara on the Far West . Her partenaire results to be Jeff Chandler who's pretty well as the two-fisted wagon master . He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cochise in Broken arrow (1950) . He followed this by playing the role of Cochise in two sequel s: Battle of Apache Pass (1952) and Taza (1954). While his premature gray hair and tanned features served him well in his westerns and action pictures, the studio also put him into soap-operas and costume movies. In his films, his leading ladies included Maureen O'Hara, Rhonda Fleming, Jane Russell, Joan Crawford, June Allyson and Susan Hayward . Shortly after his last film Merrill's Marauders (1962), Jeff died, at 42, from blood poisoning after an operation for a slipped disc. Being assisted by a good secondary cast , such as : Jacques Bergerac , Blanche Yurka , Carl Esmond and the Spanish Fortunio Bonanova.

Lavishly produced by Seven Arts Productions, enhanced by brilliant and glimmering cinematography , superbly caught by cameraman by Stanley Cortez , though a perfect remastering being necessary because of the film-copy is washed-out. Thrilling as well as sensitive musical score by maestro composer Cryl Mockridge . This is another acceptable and powerful Western being compellingly directed by Russell Rouse , though contains some flaws and shortfalls . He was an expert screenwriter as the classic ¨D. O. A¨. Filmmaking occasionally for cinema all kind of genres as Caper films such as ¨The Caper of the Golden Bulls¨, Dramas as ¨The Oscar¨, Noir cinema such as ¨Wicked Woman¨, ¨New York Confidential¨ , ¨The Well¨ , ¨The thief¨ and another Western titled ¨Thunder in the sun¨. Well worth watching and it will appeal to Susan Hayward and Jeff Chandler fans .

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Woman Obsessed (1959) as Mary Sharron .

Susan Hayward's excellence never comes as any surprise, because she could do anything. From a country preacher's wife in 'I'd Climb the Highest Mountain', to the executed (probable) murderess in 'I Want to Live', the pushy garment district broad in 'I Can Get It For You Wholesale', she also did comedy in 'The Marriage Go-Round' and played Bette Davis's nympho daughter in 'Where Love Has Gone'. These off-the-top-of-my-head roles barely scratch the surface, of course, of her peerless range.

Stephen Boyd is the rustic who comes to help out on the farm after Hayward is left with her son--played by an excellent, most sensitive child actor, Dennis Holmes--after her husband is killed fighting a fire. And Boyd is marvelous: strapping, rangy and handsome, crude and violent, and the plot twists around nicely on the refinements of life versus the necessities: During the first half, it seems as if Boyd's uncouthness is the only real urgency to be dissolved or removed; toward the end it seems as if Hayward has not been understanding enough. She would have been had he not been so inarticulate, of course. Nevertheless, this film is complex enough in terms of relationships and matters of making judgments and searching for compromises that are tolerable for different kinds of sensibilities--there are intelligent moments in which the local doctor seems to serve as psychoanalyst for both husband and wife.

It is a shame that these two weren't also paired as Oliver Mellors and Constance Chatterley: they look the parts (and could have certainly done them well) far more than any versions thus far made (and it's hard to imagine any more will be needed.)

Another recapturing of something I missed 45 years ago, when one Sunday afternoon I couldn't "go to the show" and had to go to my aunt's far older husband's birthday party, or it was their anniversary in their house in Ozark, Alabama...I hated it, but seeing this finally after all these years--and the nature of the film itself has something to do with this too--has made me happy I saw my ancient old uncle, who had once been a probate judge--and I saw him but one more time. I'd been unkind. And only now can I remember how important I know it was for him that I be there.

This was one of the most worthwhile of my childhood/teenage movie deprivations. The scene toward the end in which Robbie (Holmes) tries to kill Frank (Boyd) by leading him into the quagmire (advertised so many times previously in the film I thought the title of the film was going to be about how Robbie fell into the quicksand and Sharron (Hayward) actually became OBSESSED! since her grief for her first husband's death and her disgust at her new husband's crudeness would have been just cause if then combined with the death of her son, too; she does have a miscarriage, but that is not quite the same)and then helps him pull himself out with a tree limb--this is a truly touching and tender moment.

The only really unconvincing thing about this movie is the title: Hayward's character is under great hardship, but her reactions to the rough nature of Boyd's character are normal to say the least. She makes some mistakes, but she is just NOT a WOMAN OBSESSED. This ranks as perhaps the most misleading title I have yet encountered.

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 I Want to Live! (1958) as Barbara [Ward] Graham .

Barbara Graham was a known prostitute with criminal associates. In the early 1950s, Graham and two men were accused of and arrested for the brutal murder of elderly Mable Monahan during the course of a robbery. Convicted and sentenced to death in California's gas chamber, Graham protested her innocence to the end--and many considered that she was less a criminal than a victim of circumstance and that she had been railroaded to conviction and execution. The celebrated 1958 film I WANT TO LIVE follows this point of view, presenting Graham as a thoroughly tough gal who in spite of her background was essentially more sinned against than sinner, and the result is an extremely intense, gripping film that shakes its viewers to the core.

The film has a stark, realistic look, an excellent script, a pounding jazz score, and a strong supporting cast--but it is Susan Hayward's legendary performance that makes the film work. She gives us a Graham who is half gun moll, half good time girl, and tough as nails all the way through--but who is nonetheless likable, perhaps even admirable in her flat rebellion against a sickeningly hypocritical and repulsively white-bread society. Although Hayward seems slightly artificial in the film's opening scenes, she quickly rises to the challenge of the role and gives an explosive performance as notable for its emotional hysteria as for its touching humanity.

As the story moves toward its climax, the detail with which director Wise shows preparations for execution in the gas chamber and the intensity of Hayward's performance add up to one of the most powerful sequences in film history. Ironically, Hayward privately stated that her own research led her to believe that Graham was guilty as sin--and today most people who have studied the case tend to believe that Graham was guilty indeed. But whether the real-life Barbara Graham was innocent or guilty, this is a film that delivers one memorable, jolting, and very, very disturbing ride. Strongly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.

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Top Secret Affair (1957) as Dorothy "Dottie" Peale .

With the powerful energy and sex appeal present in both Kirk Douglas and Susan Hayward, isn't it strange that when they finally made a movie together, it was a comedy? It's an oddball comedy, a supposed battle of the sexes that doesn't really hit the mark of any target, but if you want to see both their energies up on the silver screen together, you've got to rent it.

Kirk is a war hero, a general up for a big promotion. Suzy is a journalist, in charge of a great deal of publicity (good or bad) in the country. She doesn't know him and doesn't like him, and she plans to turn a seemingly harmless interview into a damning reputation crusher. Kirk arrives at her house with his faithful sidekicks, Paul Stewart and Jim Backus, and his precise regime of eating, exercise, bedtime, and moral etiquette immediately irritate Suzy. What does she do when she realizes there's no legitimate dirt to find? She forgets she's a journalist and remembers she's a woman; in other words, she fights dirty.

Even though this is far from a romantic comedy, some naughty bits made it through the censors and amused audiences. In order to be alone with him, Suzy says she gets "inhibited with more than one man in the bedroom," effectively sending Jim and Paul away. When she's particularly mad, Kirk reminds her she can't yet make good on her threat to kill him, because "generals die in bed," and in that scene they're nowhere near a bedroom. There were some funny moments, and some more dramatic moments, but all in all it felt like a waste of their talents. Since we all know they're capable of making better movies, have one of your favorites on hand for next weekend.

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The Conqueror (1956) as Bortai .

In the film , there is epic , mammoth spectacle , hokey historical events , a love story , camp dialog to spare , wonderful landscapes and results to be a failed as well a little boring film . At the time , 1956 , surpassed anything ever filmed before , including all-star-cast who were later stricken by cancer . Set during the 13th century in which the brutal warrior Mongol chief Temujin conquers most of Asia , Europe and the Middle-East . As Temujin (John Wayne , considered to be the silliest character of his long career) battles against Tartar armies led by Kumlek and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai (Susan Hayward) . Temujin was taken prisoner by the rival warlord , a fearless leader called Kumlek (Ted De Corsia) and as punishment was forced to wear a large round wooden stock that severely restricted his movements but with the help of Bortai he manages to getaway . He overcomes all of his hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known and now starts his quest to unify all of the Mongol tribes . Gengis gets big hits , but his old nemesis keeps appearing at various times in his life leader to a final battle between the two . As Genghis Khan, ruthless leader of the Mongols and sovereign over the vastest empire ever ruled by a single man, was both god and devil , not just in the Middle Ages , but for centuries to come . Temujin becomes the emperor of Mongols , the great Gengis Khan .

This expensive epic film in familiar drawling fashion contains clichéd barbarian dialogue , noisy action , great production design , impressive battles and a cast of thousands . It was filmed near a nuclear test site, and the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout , in the Yucca Flats area . Over the next 20 years, many actors and crew members developed cancer . By the time 91 of the 220 cast and crew members had developed cancer . Forty-six had died, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz , Agnes Moorehead, John Hoyt and director Dick Powell . The count did not include several hundred local Native Americans who played extras , or relatives of the cast and crew who visited the set, including John Wayne's son Michael Wayne . Many of the Mongol extras were played by local Navajo Indians , they did not wear any makeup . Miscasting by John Wayne and the results are unintentionally hilarious . But John Wayne took his role very seriously, went on a crash diet , however he regretted playing Temujin so much that he visibly shuddered whenever anyone mentioned the film's name as he once remarked that the moral of the film was "not to make an ass of yourself trying to play parts you're not suited for" . Colorful cinematography by four of the best Hollywood cameramen : Joseph LaShelle , William E. Snyder , Leo Tover and Harry J. Wild . Although the movie takes place in Asia, photography in Cinemascope was shot in California Snow Canyon, Utah, Hurricane, St. George, Utah, USA Escalante Desert, St. George, Utah .

This sweeping oriental drama was backed by financially eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and regularly directed by former movie star Dick Powell . However ; the box office failure of this movie was believed to be ultimately responsible for the demise of RKO Pictures studios . Dick Powell directed a few films such as : 1953 Split Second , 1956 You Can't Run Away from It , 1958 The hunters and his best film was : ¨The enemy below¨ . This was one of the final theatrically released movies of director Dick Powell who soon after worked exclusively in television such as Woman on the Run (TV ,1959) . Other films dealing with this historical figure are the followings : ¨Genghis Khan¨ (1965) by Henry Levin with Omar Shariff , Stephen Boyd , Telly Savallas , James Mason ; ¨Gengis Khan¨ (2005) by Edward Bazalgette and the best : ¨Mongol¨(2007) by Sergey Bodrov.

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 Soldier of Fortune (1955) as Jane Hoyt .

This is one of those early Twentieth Century Fox CinemaScope potboilers where the studio sent (most of) the cast and crew to actual locations and took full DeLuxe Color advantage of places that most of the potential audience would never visit in real life. So, the bustling and already festooned-with-highrises city of Hong Kong is the principal setting for the jumping-off point of the plot. It's pretty obvious that Gable is actually there in Hong Kong for a few of the shots but Susan Hayward, embroiled in a custody battle after her divorce from Lex Barker, didn't dare leave the U.S., or her chances of caring for her children by that marriage might have been scotched. Therefore long shots and a few medium ones of her were cleverly arranged with a double and she performs all of her closeups, et cetera, safely ensconced on the Fox soundstages in West Los Angeles and against some rather good back projections.

Gable and Hayward are a pretty good team and Michael Rennie lends his usual elegant support. Gene Barry has a rather thankless role as Susan's eventually rejected husband, and the supporting cast, including the Asians appearing as various Chinese, are all convincing under Edward Dmytryk's workmanlike direction.

For me the real stars, however, are Leo Tover's excellent use of the CinemaScope lenses and, once again, Hugo Friedhofer's atmospheric score. In my opinion, no other Hollywood master of the full orchestral enhancement was able to cue the audience and call up some real emotion with so few bars of music. This film is a sterling example of his art. Just check out the closing few moments of the film. He could send you out of the theater convinced you'd seen something even better than what you had actually viewed!

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 Untamed (1955) as Katie O'Neill Kildare .
 

I was struck by the contrast between the many negative comments herein and the mostly very positive comments at the DVD release site at Amazon.com. Although I appreciate some of the criticisms, on the whole, I will agree with the positive reviews. YES. SEE IT!, either at YouTube or rent or buy the DVD(expensive).

As several reviewers observed, it's easy to see some parallels with "Gone With the Wind". But, it also reminds us of a wagon train western, in which Zulus replace the usual hostile Native Americans. The Zulus put on quite a show, both before and during their attack, with lethal throwing spears. Much of the film was shot on location in Zululand. However, I'm very surprised that we didn't see one untamed animal in the African portion! Despite this, the film is not deficient in action, as one claimed, unless you need action 90% of the time.

Susan Hayward, at Katie, certainly used men to get what she wanted. But, often, she was just trying to survive with a modicum of comfort, security and dignity. She shamelessly used surrogate husband Shawn as an aid in her ambition to reconnect with adventurer Paul(Tyrone Power), in emigrating from Ireland to South Africa. If Shawn hadn't been conveniently killed in the Zulu raid, I wouldn't be surprised if she found another way for him to die, so that she could hopefully reconnect with Paul. She exploited Kurt's(Richard Egan)infatuation with her, to help her run her homestead while Paul was off with his commandos. But she refused him the physical love he craved, and he lost a leg cutting down a big tree that he knew Katie cherished.(Served him right). While he might have been a first rate farmer in the veld before he donned his peg leg, judging by the way he slapped mistress Julia(Rita Moreno) around, I'm sure Katie was hesitant to marry him, even when he had 2 legs.

The plot is driven by the conflict Paul faced, in returning to lead his wandering commandos fighting for a Dutch Free State, or staying home, helping Katie work their homestead. For him, there was no question which took priority until the cause was finished. I lost count of the times Katie told him to buzz off with his buddies and never return. But, he always eventually returned and she always accepted him back.

Katie had a lot of spunk in improving her life when the opportunity presented itself. She lucked out trading some trifles to a native for a probable huge diamond in the rough. After cashing in, she bought the house that Paul had spent his childhood in. She lived lavishly there for several years, until her money ran out, with Paul a sometimes visitor, and discovering that he had fathered a son with Katie. Happily, her money ran out about the time Paul was finishing up his political obsession. Initially, she headed off to hopefully find some more diamonds, but she found that Kurt had since set himself up as the kingpin of a criminal gang who largely controlled the diamond trade in that region, and claimed he would eventually own all the towns in the Dutch Free State. Well, Paul and his commandos had something to say about that. Paul had stolen his love's heart and destroyed his criminal empire, so Kurt went to kill him. Guess what happened, in quite dramatic fashion.

Several reviewers accuse Susan of overacting here and elsewhere. I don't see it. At least, you know she's alive. We may cringe at Katie's sometimes devious ways, but she remained true to Paul, despite his periodic disappearances.

Those Irish horses must have been some kind of special that Paul would travel months from and back to South Africa to acquire them. Katie had to stage an incident that caused Paul's horse to throw him in order to get his attention away from horses and her father. Doesn't sound like it was love at first sight on his part! Then, she expects him to offer to take her back with him to Africa, which he claims wouldn't work out for her as long as he felt he had to lead the fight for independence of the Dutch Free State.

Power and Susan are rather wooden in the Ireland segment, but limber up some in the African segment. Power isn't among my favorite actors. He's usually too wooden and formal. In contrast, I like the acting of Richard Egan. Susan is somewhere in between.

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I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) as Lillian Roth .

MGM director Charles Walters was originally assigned to I'll Cry Tomorrow; and wanted to cast June Allyson (who was not unlike the young Lillian Roth, in some respects). Walters wanted to start with Roth as an innocent girl, slowly chipping away at the surface, until the innocence was eaten away by fear. He knew June was tougher than people realized, and was certain she would excel. They had been working on the role, when Susan Hayward decided she wanted it. Taking her case to Roth herself, she eventually prevailed, causing Walters to quit, noting that Hayward had already played an alcoholic, in Smash Up (1947), and a famous singer who faced tragedy, in With A Song In My Heart (1952). By the way, if you sometimes get all three of these pictures mixed up, join the club.

At any rate, there are people who think Hayward was brilliant in this film, and those who feel she overdid it. Not over-acting, but perhaps, over-feeling. I fall into the latter category. She starts in a rather high gear, and just goes higher. While she's commendably emotional, and touching, I think we lose track of the story and the character, due to the focus on unbridled histrionics. Eventually, she just seems to be devouring everything in her path - including the movie. If this fascinates you, well, it fascinated me, too, but is it a performance?

Jo Van Fleet (in the role Walters wanted Mary Astor for) doesn't exactly back away from the big gesture, herself. A good actress with a nice understanding of the material, she nonetheless pulls out the stops, giving us the long-suffering mama complete with European accent (Roth found this surprising, noting that her mother only had a Boston accent). Much younger than her part, she does a good job - but the histrionics may wear you out. Especially when she and Hayward go at it hammer and tong.

As for the singing of Susan Hayward, you probably won't be asking yourself what took her so long to decide to sing in motion pictures. She does reasonably well, but it's not the voice or style of a successful professional singer.

Towards the end, we have Eddie Albert and his real-life wife, Margo (whom you may remember had a problem when she tried to leave Shangri-La, in Lost Horizon, back in 1937). They help Susan - I mean, Lillian - get back on her feet, with the assistance of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you're still around (and why not? It's a fairly gripping picture, overall) you may be touched, and a little relieved, that the shouting, and maybe even the singing, is over for a while.

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 Garden of Evil (1954) as Leah Fuller .

A desperate woman (Susan Hayward) hires three gringos and a Mexican to help save her husband (Hugh Marlowe) trapped in a gold mine several days away in the volcanic jungles of Mexico. The men she enlists are played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and Víctor Manuel Mendoza. Rita Moreno has a memorable bit part singing a song at a saloon. "Garden of Evil" (1954) is an unusual 50's Western in that it takes place completely in former Aztecan areas of Mexico. The sceneries of the coast, jungles, deserts and (authentic) volcanic zones are magnificent and augmented by Bernard Herrmann's score, which was his only one for a feature-length Western. The movie was remade as "Find a Place to Die" 24 years later, one of the few truly worthwhile Spaghetti Westerns due to its somber tone and quality characters rather than caricatures typical of Italo Westerns. This is basically a trail movie (the Western version of a road movie) in that a lot of the story consists of a small group traveling the imposing wilderness, similar to "The Train Robbers" (1973), but with jungle footage. The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Mexico as follows: The "colonial town" of Tepatzlan; the jungle areas alongside the Los Concheros River near Acapulco; Parícutin Mountain, which was surrounded by black volcanic sands; and the village of Guanajuato; meanwhile interior scenes were shot at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City.

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 Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) as Messalina .



 

The President's Lady (1953) as Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson .

The historical epics which were so popular in the fifties and early sixties frequently had a religious theme. Some were based on stories taken directly from the Bible ("The Ten Commandments", "Solomon and Sheba", "King of Kings"), while others tried to convey a Christian message indirectly. Thus the central character of "Spartacus" is treated as a metaphorical Christ-figure, and "The Egyptian" draws parallels between Christianity and the monotheistic religion of Atenism which briefly flourished under the heretical Pharaoh Akhnaten. "Demetrius and the Gladiators" is one of a number of films (the most famous is "Ben Hur", but others include "The Robe", to which "Demetrius" is a sequel, "Quo Vadis" and "The Fall of the Roman Empire") which deal with the early days of the Christian church and its persecution by the Roman emperors. The stories told by such films were normally fictitious, but were set against a background of historical fact.

The central character, Demetrius, is a former slave who, after assaulting a soldier who is molesting his girlfriend Lucia, is sentenced to fight in the arena as a gladiator. This causes him difficulties as he is a Christian whose moral code will not permit him to kill another man, even in self-defence. He survives, however, largely because he attracts the attention of Messalina, the wife of Claudius, uncle of the Emperor Caligula. Later, believing that Lucia has accidentally been killed by another gladiator, Demetrius renounces his Christian faith, and fights fiercely, killing the man he believes to have been responsible for her death and several others. His courage and skill with a sword lead to his being made a tribune in the Praetorian Guard, and he becomes Messalina's lover. As in "The Robe", the robe which Christ wore to His crucifixion plays an important part in the film; Caligula wants to get his hands on it because he believes that it has magical powers and that it will give him the secret of eternal life.

Several of the epics of this period combined, incongruously, an improving religious message with a good deal of eroticism, with much bare female flesh on display- examples include "Solomon and Sheba", "Esther and the King" and "Salome", where we get to see the famous dance of the seven veils, but it is made clear that, contrary to the Biblical version of the story, Rita Hayworth's character is in fact a virtuous heroine who only is flashing her legs in public in a desperate attempt to save John the Baptist from his fate. There are elements of this strange combination of godliness and sexiness in "Demetrius", but the sexiness is very much downplayed. Messalina's notorious promiscuity is alluded to rather than shown on screen, and the scene between the gladiators and the women brought in to entertain them may be an orgy, but it is a very decorous one. The film-makers were clearly more interested in the element of godliness, and, unlike some films of this type, "Demetrius" raises genuine moral issues about pacifism, non-violence and Christian forgiveness.

Demetrius himself is a man who goes through a crisis of faith and abandons his Christian beliefs in favour of an ethic based on revenge and worldly ambition. His conscience, however, is troubled, especially after he is reproached by his old friend St Peter. He is a more complex and interesting figure than many epic heroes, so it is unfortunate that the part was played by Victor Mature, an actor whose success often seemed to owe more to his ruggedly masculine good looks and his virile physique than to his acting technique. Susan Hayward (an actress who could often look bored and listless when asked to play roles that did not interest her) makes a weak Messalina. Neither give their worst performance (in Hayward's case that must surely have been "The Conqueror"), and Mature brings a certain rough sincerity to his part, but I felt that the film might have been improved with other actors in these roles.

Nevertheless, there was much I enjoyed about the film. Michael Rennie was appropriately dignified as Peter, played as a sort of ascetic philosopher, although I would agree with the reviewer who pointed out that it would be hard to imagine him ever working as a fisherman. I also liked William Marshall as Glycon, the former African king now forced to fight as a gladiator, who befriends Demetrius. ("Spartacus", a better film than "Demetrius" although it owes something to it, also features a sympathetic black gladiator who befriends the hero).

Jay Robinson, who played Caligula, has been criticised by some reviewers for overacting, although I must say I liked his performance. Historians have doubted whether the real Caligula was actually insane, although he was undoubtedly cruel and eccentric, but in the context of this film he is definitely presented as a lunatic, a man who has literally been driven mad by power to the point where he believes himself to be a god. (Not even Hitler went that far). There is an interesting contrast with a modern epic, "Gladiator", in which Joaquin Phoenix plays another tyrannical Roman Emperor, Commodus, as a basically weak and insecure young man. Although Phoenix's performance works well in the context of that particular film, the way the role of Caligula was written called for something quite different- the sort of ranting, over-the-top performance which might be unfashionable now but would have been less controversial in the fifties.

Although the standard of the acting is mixed, I generally enjoyed the film. It does not reach the standard of the really great epics, such as "Spartacus" or "Ben-Hur", but it works well on the level of spectacle, with fine sets and costumes and some exciting scenes of gladiatorial combat, and has a more intelligent script than many epics. 7/10

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White Witch Doctor (1953) as Ellen Burton .

 Enjoyable as well colorful film about a dedicated nurse who attempts to cure troubled people in the Belgian Congo .Set in 1907 when a nurse : Susan Hayward arrives in the Belgian Congo to work for a missionary doctor . There she meets a tough animal hunter : Robert Mitchum and , both of them gradually revealing their pasts each other . This is the exciting story of a woman who followed a dream to the end of the earth and found a love that will love to the end of time . Director Henry Hathaway struck a correct balance of pace and sensitivity in the absorbing tale of a young woman who arrives in the Belgian colony governed by King Leopold of Belgium to help a religious missionary to work at a hospital . As she is struggling to reconcile her free spirit and philanthropic wishes with the jungle rigors . Finely starred by a luminous Susan Hayward who chalked up another hit in this long but always interesting flick based on Louise Stinetorf's novel , being rightly adapted . This agreeable flick packs a moving screenplay , intense drama , fine interpretations and intelligent filmmaking . Good acting by Susan Hayward as a philantropic nurse who gains the trust of the local people and falls in love for a rude hunter . Robert Mitchum gives a decent and stoic acting , as usual , as the two-fisted adventurer . Walter Slezak plays as the bad guy and brief interpretations from Timothy Carey and Michael Ansara . This film follows the wake of the highly acclaimed ¨Nun's story¨ by Fred Zinneman starred by Audrey Hepburn ,Peter Finch that consolidated a sub-genre about nuns or religious people in far countries , going on ¨Heaven knows , Mr Allison¨ with Robert Mitchum Deborah Kerr and ¨A Nun at the Crossroads¨ with Rosanna Schiaffino and John Richardson , and ¨The Sins of Rachel Cade¨ by Gordon Douglas with Angie Dickinson , Peter Finch , Roger Moore , among others . Colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Leon Shamroy , it was filmed on location in Democratic Republic of Congo regarding some stock-shots and background ; as well as in Calabasas , California . Thrilling and evocative musical score by Bernard Herrmann , Hitchcock regular. The motion picture was professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Henry was a Hollywood classic filmmaker who worked with the greatest actors . As John Wayne played for Hathaway various films as ¨The sons of Katie Elder (65), ¨Circus World (64) ¨ certainly not one of his memorable movies , ¨How the west was won (62) ¨, ¨ North to Alaska (60)¨ , but his greatest hit smash was ¨True grit (69)¨ in which Wayne won his only Academy Award . Hathaway directed all kinds of genres , but especially Western : ¨From Hell to Texas¨ , ¨5 card stud¨, ¨Shootout¨ , ¨Rawhide¨ , ¨Wild Horse Mesa¨ , ¨Heritage of the desert¨ ,¨The Thundering Herd¨ and WWII . Henry directed the classic 20th Century-Fox movie about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and also set in World War II North Africa, ¨Rommel¨, (1951). Hathaway's other movies about the Second World War were all for studio Twentieth Century-Fox and included ¨The House on 92nd Street¨ (1945); ¨Wing and a Prayer¨ (1944); ¨You're in the Navy Now¨ (1951) and ¨13 Rue Madeleine¨ (1947) and his last film : Raid on Rommel that was a massive flop and was quickly withdrawn from theaters . .Although Hathaway was a highly successful and reliable director film-making within the Hollywood studio system , his work has received little consideration from reviewers . The motion picture will appeal to Susan Hayward and Robert Mitchum fans.

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The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) as Helen .

A successful writer (Gregory Peck) lays gravely injured and almost dying from an African hunting accident on the Kilimanjaro's skirts . He remembers his past life and women through numerous flashbacks set in Paris (Montparnasse) , Spain (during civil war) and Africa (Kenya , Kilimanjaro) . Peck's relationship with various lovers (Ava Gardner, Hildegard Nef , Susan Hayward , and Gene Tierney , Anne Francis were also considered for these roles) are the spotlights of the movie , while in a safari tent he is awaiting medical attention to save his gangrenous body and caring him Susan Hayward .

It is an Ernest Hemingway's autobiography based on short tales , specially two novels : ¨Fiesta¨ and ¨Farewell to the arms¨, as the film creates a pastiche where is reflected the author's life . The main yarn about Africa develops an original structure in which other stories emerge . The motion picture has spectacular sets and wonderful outdoors , although there are some stock-shot from Africa . The warlike scenario is good , it's very well shot the Spanish civil warfare , we don't know if it's the battle of Guadalajara , Madrid , Teruel o Ebro , but sure that is referred to anyone those terrible wars . The picture has a little bit boring and being slow moving , in spite of different scenarios , thus it is developed in Africa , Spain , France and other European countries . Nice acting by Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner is attractive and enjoyable . Gregory Peck resisted taking the role because an earlier Ernest Hemingway adaptation he had appeared in , as ¨The Macomber affair¨ (1947) had been a box-office flop . Support cast is frankly good , such as : Hildegard Knef , Leo G. Carroll , Torin Thatcher and Marcel Dalio .

Leom Shamroy's cinematography is stylized and colorful , as it is brilliantly shown in the African landscapes and the episode of bullfights spectacle . Nevertheless , there was some adequate second unit work shot in Kenya , the main actors shot their African scenes in Hollywood . The classic musician Bernard Hermann composes a romantic and agreeable musical score .The motion picture was uneven though professionally directed by Henry King . The movie will appeal to romantic drama enthusiasts and Gregory Peck , Ava Gardner fans.

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 The Lusty Men (1952) as Louise Merritt .

Where the enemy is time and your own over-confidence and not those nasty Nazis? That MIGHT describe it The magnificently laconic Robert Mitchum turns in one of his most captivating performances in Nicholas Ray's brilliant modern day western.

Set in the down and dusty world of professional rodeo riders, it also stars Susan Hayward and Arthur Kennedy. Mitchum is Jeff McCloud, a former rodeo star, now somewhat adrift and down on his luck. He stumbles into town and quickly latches onto Wes and Louise, a married couple with aspirations of someday having a place of their own. Wes also harbors dreams of becoming a star on the rodeo circuit, a world McCloud is all too familiar with and one that Wes figures could be his ticket to a more rewarding life. It doesn't take a whole lot of encouragement on Wes' part to convince McCloud to become his mentor and before long this trio is on the road in search of those elusive cowboy dreams. Likewise it doesn't take a genius to figure out that an uncomfortable romantic triangle will emerge, sparking an unsettling and inevitable chain of events.

This is one Nicholas Ray film that rarely gets mentioned, yet it is one of the director's most emotionally satisfying works. Masterfully shot in black & white by Lee Garmes ( "NIGHTMARE ALLEY", "PORTRAIT OF JENNIE", "CAUGHT", etc) it has a beautifully lived-in look that enhances the exotic world it portrays. The performances are all sterling and the dialogue provided for them (most likely compliments of Horace McCoy, one of the most remarkably and honestly expressive writers of the period) rings remarkably true even in the midst of some overtly romanticized (it is a Nicholas Ray film, after all) moments.

The rodeo sequences are exceptionally exciting. Of course, the movie is quite atmospheric and nicely captures the lifestyle of the rodeo crowd. There are some exciting moments (like Wes riding Yo-Yo) and some great lines. ("Men... I'd like to fry 'em all in deep fat!") Highly recommended, and you don't necessarily even have to be a western fan, just a student of human nature.

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 With a Song in My Heart (1952) as Jane Froman .

A thin biography of singer Jane Froman is used as an excuse to string together a bunch of songs performed in their entirety by Susan Hayward lip syncing to Froman herself. The result is one of those Technicolor trifles from the 1950s that nevertheless is the first Susan Hayward movie I've seen that made me understand the appeal she had and has to so many people.

Movies like "With a Song in My Heart" have little to recommend them to modern-day audiences unless you happen to be a fan of the actress who stars in it or the person who the movie is about. But when viewed as representative of the culture the movie sprang from, films like this become fascinating examinations of gender dynamics. A film class comprised of Susan Hayward melodramas could be the springboard for all types of interesting conversations.

Jane Froman was a woman whose hugely successful career was nearly sidelined by an injury incurred when a passenger plane was shot down during WWII. That is an interesting story to tell. So does this movie tell that story? Sort of. We see her singing a lot, and we see her get shot down and recovering. But the film is mostly about which of two men she's going to pick, because this was the 1950s and God forbid we think a woman's life could be of interest in its own right without being told through the context of some man or other. There's about a 30 second monologue Hayward delivers at one point that suggests she's in danger of falling prey to bitterness and despair because of her medical condition, but Thelma Ritter, as Froman's nurse and sidekick, gives her a what for as only Ritter could do, tells her she's a spoiled brat, and that's the end of that. Everything after is peachy.

This movie is all about Hayward imitating Froman's performances, and that is when it's at its best. By the end, even the film has forgotten the two lunkheads fighting over her, as if it ran out of energy trying to, you know, give the actors dialogue and all, and just decides to spend the rest of its time giving us rousing musical numbers.

And those numbers actually are rousing. Hayward commands the screen and does a bang up job, and I found myself thinking, "Ok, THIS is why Susan Hayward was so popular."

"With a Song in My Heart" brought greedy composer Alfred Newman his fifth of nine career Oscars for its musical scoring. The film was also nominated for Best Actress (Hayward), Best Supporting Actress (Ritter), Best Costume Design, Color (for Charles LeMaire's endless parade of ruffled and frilled dresses), and Best Sound Recording.

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 I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951) as Harriet Boyd .

Susan Hayward is a determined, talented and ambitious woman in "I Can Get it for You Wholesale," a 1951 film which also stars George Sanders, Dan Dailey and Sam Jaffe. The title comes from the novel but the actual plot is only very loosely taken from the book.

The beautiful Hayward plays Harriet Boyd, a dress model in a small business in New York's Garment District. She talks the owner (Sam Jaffe) into putting up some money and going into business with her so that she can launch her own line. She gets the top salesman (Dan Dailey) to do the same, and she manipulates her own sister into offering insurance money for Harriet's share in the business. Harriet's ability and drive get the business going, and she's all work. Though Danny Sherman (Dailey) is in love with her, she gives him the brush-off. The two eventually stop speaking when Danny catches having dinner with a wolf-like buyer (Harry von Zell). One night, at a big buyer's dinner, she meets J.F. Noble, the head of Noble's Department Store, probably comparable to Saks Fifth Avenue. She wants to launch a line of gowns, which will mean getting out of her contract with her partners. Noble wants more than Harriet's gowns; he wants Harriet as well.

This is a very good drama with fine performances from everyone involved. Hayward, of course, carries the film as a driven woman who ends up having to question not only what she really wants but her own ethics and sense of responsibility. Sanders is great as the elegant Noble, representing, in a way, the devil, who knows Harriet's heart but wants her to sell her soul. Sam Jaffe is perfect as the grandfatherly boss, and Dan Dailey steps out of his dancing shoes and proves himself a good leading man.

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Rawhide (1951) as Vinnie Holt .

Watched this again on the new DVD released & all I can say is WOW, I was impressed. This film has vaulted into my top 20 Westerns. First of all from beginning to end its hitting on all cylinders. This is a Stage Station film in the tradition of "The Tall T" & "Comanche Station" of the later Bud Boetticher/Randolf Scott Ranown series, all of the action takes place in the stage station and its immediate surroundings. The opening sequences of a stagecoach crossing the rugged barren wilderness including shots of it passing through snowbound passes are just spectacular. The Black & White cinematography is gorgeous, and add to that the historically accurate use of a team of mules pulling it makes this film one of the best portrayals of stage travel I've seen. Even the stagecoach itself is adorned with a "headlight" type lantern for night travel. This is one of those films where you learn some bits of Western lore, its a good example of what was prevalent in that "golden age" of the Western 1950 -1971 when the audience through both films like this and the abondanza of Westerns on TV were inundated with things western where you were in the aggregate going to a sort of "Western University". Its a knowledge that is getting lost now and a good example is the illogical stupidity and implausible scenarios in the recent remake of 3:10 to Yuma. But I've been digressing. Lets get back to Rawhide. Care is also taken to show how the arriving team of mules is changed out for a fresh team. For those who are not familiar with western staglines most stage stops "stations" were located between 15 to 20 miles apart so that fresh teams could replace the arriving team. Each tandem of driver & shotgun made a run of about 100 miles a day, so they would go through between 5-7 stage stops in a shift. At some stage stations they had lunch or dinner for the passengers, All the aspect of working a stage station was depicted spot on. The set is perfect. Dir Henry Hathaway does an impressive job in this film, his shots and compositions are beautiful & all the actors are convincing. This film boasts Edgar Buchanan's finest performance as Stationmaster Sam Todd, and Jack Elam is his creepiest as Treviss, Tyrone Power is Tom Owens, Susan Hayward as Vinne Holt a tough ex-saloon singer turned protector/surrogate mother of her dead sisters daughter, Hugh Marlow as the gang leader, George Tobias as Gratz, and a great performance by Dean Jagger as the slow on the uptake "one horse horse thief" Yancy. Its got a very well integrated low key un-intrusive to the story "love interest" between Power & Hataway a good example of they way it should be handled in all Westerns.

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I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951) as Mary Elizabeth Thompson, neé Eden .

As a native Georgian, I was on a trip to the North Georgia mountains with my parents and their friends and 2 daughters in July of 1950 (I was about to turn 12 at the time). We happened upon the site where the filming of the drowning scene was just being completed. (I still have a photo by my mother depicting me standing beside the buggy used by Lundigan and Hayworth in the movie.)

A recent showing of the movie on TV rekindled my rather nostalgic interest in that period of my life, and I've just returned from a trip to the area where the movie was filmed. Although I enjoyed visiting some of the locations used in scenes from the film, the most enjoyable aspect of my trip was a visit to Brenau College in Gainesville, Ga. where a historical society meeting was being held in which former child actors/actresses gave their recollections of the filming.

I find the film to be acceptably competent, although I wonder if Hayworth might have been better portrayed/acted in her role had she been cast opposite someone other than Lundigan. I found the portrayal of his role to be rather stilted and unconvincing.

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 David and Bathsheba (1951) as Bathsheba .

Unlike the classic biblical masterpieces of Technicolor days, "The Ten Commandments", "Samson and Delilah", "Sodom and Gomorrah", etc, this biblical film is not about the power and wrath of God. Instead, it's a very intimate story of a man's fall from grace and how he tries to find it again. While it can be approached literally as the story of King David's sins which brought drought, death and pestilence upon Israel, it is truly a secular story of a man who has lost his boyhood innocence. The power of the film rests in Gregory Peck's hypnotizing performance toward the end when, having hit rock bottom, he must answer for his life. Whatever religion you subscribe to, or none at all, this is such a powerful human theme because inevitably we all lose our way. Peck plays King David as a sort of religious skeptic, always investigating the scientific explanation behind supposedly supernatural events. And that diffuses the "biblical" aspect of the film so that we may enjoy it on any level. ABOUT THE PLOT... If you've studied the Bible, then you probably know the story and how it turns out. But if you're totally ignorant of the tale like I was, then I guarantee you'll have a great time. The suspense of not knowing how this volatile situation will play out is breathtaking. With that in mind, I won't say a thing about the plot, and I suggest you avoid any discussion of it. All you need to know is it's about 2 people named David and Bathsheba. About acting, technique and music. Very nice with only 1 minor complaint. In keeping with the times (1951) this can be a melodramatic film, and by that I point the finger at the music. Certain powerful, dramatic scenes are made a little syrupy with the characteristic lush Hollywood symphonic music of the Technicolor age. However, there are a few amazing scenes where Gregory Peck delivers his monologues in absolute silence, with a tight, stationary camera on his face, and those are the aforementioned scenes that are so strong they'll bring a tear to your eye. Directed by Henry King who, despite his masterpieces, never won an academy award in his 50 year career, "David and Bathsheba" is so impressive it makes me want to immediately run to the video store and check out his other films, particularly those he made with his favorite leading man Gregory Peck ("Twelve O'Clock High", "Snows of Kilimanjaro", etc). Susan Hayward did a great job, too. But this is really Peck's film, and King wasn't shy about using Peck to the fullest. Don't hesitate to see this film if you ever get the chance.

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 My Foolish Heart (1950) as Eloise Winters [Wengler] .
 

Boy this one is under the radar. Talk about high drama, and with the start of WWII at the center of it. I can only imagine how many people weeped at this one in 1949 because the main story is the flashback of a woman who had a romance go wrong, and surely half the audience had their romances go wrong at the start of the war. Dana Andrews is his cool, charming, warm, funny best, with that usual holding back all the time that makes him slow to like and easy to love. Susan Hayward shows the range she had, from cold, selfish conniver to warm and bubbly innocent. Quite a remarkable pair of performances, and a plot that circles around on itself nicely. The screen writing was by the famous Epstein brothers, who also wrote the core of "Casablanca" (another movie about the start of America's involvement in the war), and there are some zingers here. And some over the top weepy lines, too. If this movie isn't archetypal or classic, it's only because a few small things don't fully click. One of them might be the all-too-ordinary scenes--there is nothing bigger than life here except the story itself, which of course is meant to be familiar and not bigger than life at all, yet it is because it's so dramatic. There are secondary actors who hold up in varying degrees. Robert Keith plays Hayward's father with total sympathy, but Jessie Royce Landis as her mother is a bit of her usual caricature, not quite fitting in here (except for some light comedy). Kent Smith is a perfect second man, the "good" man who is more honor than charm, but still likable, and Lois Wheeler is a great if somewhat predictable second woman, also all goodness. But the story, as ordinary as the elements of it are on purpose, grows in its intensity scene by scene until a slightly sudden and convenient wrap.

This is a great one, really, especially if you like films of the period dealing with the war from the home front perspective. There are a few scenes sprinkled through the film that touch on archetypal America--a football game, and a radio announcement saying that a ship had been hit in Pearl Harbor, and good old Grand Central Station. Don't miss this one.

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House of Strangers (1949) as Irene Bennett .

House of Strangers is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted to screenplay by Phillip Yordan from Jerome Weidman's novel I'll Never Go There Any More. It stars Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Luther Adler, Paul Valentine and Efrem Zimbalist. Plot finds Robinson as Gino Monetti, an Italian American banker who whilst building up the family business has ostracised three of his four sons. When things go belly up for Gino and the bank, the three sons turn against their father, the other, Max (Conte), stays loyal but finds himself set up for a prison stretch. Untimely since he's started to fall in love with tough cookie Irene Bennett (Hayward).

Jerome Weidman's novel has proved to be a popular source for film adaptation, after this 20th Century Fox produced picture came the Western version with Broken Lance in 1954 (Yordan again adapting), and then Circus set for The Big Show in 1961. While its influence can be felt in many other, more notable, crime dramas along the way. The divided clan narrative provides good basis for drama and lets the better actors shine on the screen with such material. Such is the case with House of Strangers, which while hardly shaking the roots of film noir technically, does thematically play out as an engrossing, character rich, melodrama.

Propelled by a revenge core peppered with hate motives instead of love; and dabbling in moral ethics et al, Mankiewicz spins it out in flashback structure. The primary focus is on Max and Gino, with both given excellent portrayals by Conte and Robinson. Gino is a driven man, very dismissive towards three of his boys (Adler standing out as Joe) who he finds easy to find fault with. But Max is spared the tough love, Gino admires him and sees him very much as an equal, which naturally irks the other brothers something rotten. This all comes to a head for the final quarter where the pace picks up and the tale comes to its prickly, if not completely satisfactory, ending.

In the mix of family strife we have been privy to Max's burgeoning relationship with Irene (Hayward sassy), which positively simmers with sexual tension, or maybe even frustration? This in spite of the fact he is engaged to be married to the homely innocent Maria (Debra Paget). So with dad Gino proving to be, well, something of an ungrateful bastard, and Max cheating on his intended, clearly this is not a film about good old family values coming to the fore! Then there's the small matter of brother betrayal and the case of the foolish decision making process, all elements that keep the viewer hooked till the last. 7/10

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Tulsa (1949) as Cherokee "Cherry" Lansing .
 

No need to repeat the plot. Darn few actresses can dominate a "man's picture" like Tulsa the way Susan Hayward does. What an exceptional combination of beauty and boldness she was. The production values of this non-studio project are unusually well targeted. Without them, the movie would be little more than a good programmer instead of the sleeper it is. Credit those values (special effects, location shooting, etc.) to producer Walter Wanger, who proved he had an eye for quality material, both big budget and small, e.g. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Credit too, under-rated director Stuart Heisler with a sense of pacing and an ability to redeem difficult material with intelligent touches, e.g. Beachhead (1954), Storm Warning (1951), etc. I especially like the nightmare montage of Redbird's (Armendariz) after he's set fire to the wells. Up to that point, the derricks have been portrayed as stately umbilical cords of wealth and progress, the life's blood of the city and state. So it's a surprise to see them suddenly depicted as hulking black monsters threatening everything around them. Contrast that dark depiction with the uncritically sunny, yet thematically similar, mega-hit Giant (1956). It doesn't take much extrapolation to update Redbird's vision to the oil-based crisis of today; at the same time, the values that evolve among the movie's characters show a surprising sensitivity to the need for a sustainable environment. I also like the way Indian Charlie Lightfoot (Yowlatchie) is shown as excelling at white man ways by becoming a shrewd businessman. Too often Hollywood portrayed Indians at extremes, either as bloodthirsty savages or as noble primitives, but rarely as 3-dimensional human beings. The screenplay may pander at times, especially with Pinky (Wills), but it's also unusually well-rounded for its period. I guess my only reservation is with the splendid special effects. Those burning oil fields are just so incredibly hot, it's impossible to see Brady (Preston) enter the inferno with little more than a squirt of water. Nonetheless, in my little book, the movie is a definite sleeper. True, as the lovelorn outsider, Pedro Armendariz is no quirky James Dean. Yet, despite its relative obscurity, Tulsa is as well-acted and carries as much depth as its sprawling, better-known counterpart, Giant.

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Tap Roots (1948) as Morna Dabney .

 

More interesting for what it represented to its leading lady than for how the film turned out. When Susan Hayward landed in Hollywood after being spotted in a magazine advertisement she was still Edythe Marrenner a green kid from Brooklyn who along with a flock of other young hopefuls tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. Obviously she didn't get the part and if you've ever seen her test it's obvious she was nowhere near ready. However it planted the seed for her desire to if not play Scarlett then at least play a Southern belle.

Within a short time she was discovered by producer Walter Wanger who recognized her potential and through the years carefully cultivated her career eventually making the film which won her the Oscar, I Want to Live! Along the way, about a decade after her initial GWTW test, Wagner developed this mint julep mediocrity for her to fulfill her dream. The thing is it's an odd choice to achieve that goal. Her character, the interestingly named Morna Dabney, after making a memorable entrance disappears for great swathes of the film's running time, first through infirmity and then being removed from the main action of the story for most of the climax. When the camera does train itself on her she is breathtaking, at the peak of her beauty in gorgeous Technicolor but the script hands her a confused character to play, one minute pining for the lout who runs off with her hussy of a sister, a young and lovely Julie London who is given little to do, the next passionate about Van Heflin playing another murkily defined role. Around the edges of the story are Boris Karloff ludicrously cast as an Indian and Ward Bond who by the end is hamming it up to the nth degree.

This is beautifully produced but a moderate affair. However for fans of Miss Hayward it's worth watching once but she has many much better movies in her filmography.

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 The Saxon Charm (1948) as Janet Busch .

At the height of his career at MGM Robert Montgomery was famous for those society playboys he was always cast as. But if he's remembered at all today it is for the oddball performances that were nothing like those playboy roles. Yellow Jack as a cavalry sergeant, Here Comes Mr. Jordan as a prizefighter, Night Covers All as a homicidal maniac or They Were Expendable as a PT boat skipper and others, these are what we remember Robert Montgomery for. Fitting right in there is The Saxon Charm made after his years with MGM were over. Montgomery is debonair but there's malice in that charm.

Anyone who knew anything about the theater knew that Montgomery was basing his character on Broadway producer Jed Harris. Harris was a theatrical genius with an ego the size of South America and the antics you see here are mild compared to the real deal. Harris was used also by John Barrymore in 20th Century and Warren William in Varsity Show as a model. But in those he was eccentric, here he's a first class heel who thinks he's the center of the world.

Based on his reputations novelist John Payne seeks out Montgomery to produce his play. But Montgomery has to have his own imprint on the work and he weaves Payne into his web. It breaks up Payne's marriage with Susan Hayward in the process. Of course not helping is the clumsy pass Montgomery makes at Hayward.

Best in the film and possibly a career role for her his nightclub singer Audrey Totter who is Montgomery's main squeeze. She's loyal to a fault until Montgomery does deliberate dirt in fact goes out of his way to do it to her. Montgomery is married to Heather Angel, but they have an arrangement that also doesn't end well.

The real Jed Harris probably could have sued. But I suspect he rather enjoyed his reputation as a heel and enjoyed The Saxon Charm just as you will.

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They Won't Believe Me (1947) as Verna Carlson 

Intricately plotted noir with one too many surprises for my book, but is still underrated. Nice guy Robert Young gets to break character and play a real heel for a change. He's not wicked, just weak, following his wife around because that's where the money is. He's about as faithful as a Tom cat in heat, but she's too dependent to care. Even his one noble gesture ends in a fiery crash.

Young looks the part of a married gigolo, all slicked down in fancy suits, sipping martinis in upscale bars. But then who could resist that luscious package Susan Hayward even if she is just an office girl with scheming ambition. Their gambits of conversation amount to little gems of carnal aggression. Pity poor wife Rita Johnson who's all business-like competence, but can hardly compete in the glamor department with either Hayward or the sultry Greer. The faithful stallion is, I guess, her consolation prize and an excellent touch. He's like the eye of fate watching from above the mountain pool in a meaningful moment that foreshadows the reckoning yet to come.

In passing-- I can't help noticing the true-love embrace of Hayward and Young washed clean now in the mountain lake and the similarly meaningful ocean scene of Garfield and Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. The aftermaths look also suspiciously similar. Postman came out about six months earlier than this one, so draw your own conclusions.

Too bad director Pichel adds so little to the screenplay. Indeed, the story's strong enough to carry interest; still, he films in straightforward, unimaginative fashion. The cross-currents and conflicts, however, cry out for a stronger expressionistic approach, especially the waterfall and pool scenes. A better noir director like Siodmak or Lang could have deepened the visuals to complement the strong screenplay. Also, someone muffs the staging of the very last scene which comes across as incredible given the crowded courtroom and police guards. It also distracts from an interesting ambiguity-- is Young too weak to face a verdict or has he simply passed judgement on himself.

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 Smash Up--The Story of a Woman (1947) as Angie Evans Conway .

Allegedly, Susan Hayward got this breakthrough role because every other Hollywood actress turned it down, due to the fact that it is the story of Bing Crosby's wife, Dixie Lee. Whatever, it got Susan an Oscar nomination and put her on the road to meatier parts.

As other comments have pointed out, this was probably considered very hard-hitting back in the day. But while it's true that "The Lost Weekend" tackled alcoholism, this is the story of a woman alcoholic, and that carries a lot of baggage with it - baggage Hollywood probably wasn't ready to face in 1947. One of the stereotypes of female alcoholism is promiscuity, a subject not broached here. Also, rather than a slovenly, bedraggled appearance, Hayward looks gorgeous throughout. Had this subject been handled more brutally, it would have been groundbreaking. In 1947, alcoholics like Gail Russell hid out at home, leading miserable, lonely lives. Here, Hayward gives up her own successful singing career to be the stay at home wife of Lee Bowman, whose career takes off. (In Bowman's dubbing, they even give him those mellow, rounded Crosby-like tones.) Boredom, feeling left out, and jealousy lead her to consume more and more alcohol, although it's clear from the beginning of the film that she drinks for courage before performing.

Her downward cycle and the ending of the movie are all a little too pat, but Hayward does a good job with the material she's given. Lee Bowman is miscast as her successful husband - he lacks the charisma, breezy manner, and flirtatiousness one would associate with a successful pop singer of the era and displays none of the ambition one would suspect Crosby and Sinatra, for instance, possessed. He also lacks the self-involvement one would associate with a star of that magnitude, which would in turn drive his wife out of his life. This is more the fault of the script and the direction, however.

Eddie Albert is charming and gives an honest performance as partner and concerned friend.

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The Lost Moment (1947) as Tina Bordereau .
 

A fine mist of the gothic lingers over The Lost Moment, as it would do in the following year's A Portrait of Jennie – a mist that blurs the boundaries between past and present, between the quick and the dead. As it happens, Leonardo Bercovici adapted the screenplays for both movies, for The Lost Moment drawing (rather distantly) from Henry James' The Aspern Papers. And as in A Portrait of Jennie, his script made a haunting plunge into nineteenth-century romanticism, a rhapsody on obsession and loss. The Lost Moment takes place (as all nineteenth-century rhapsodies should) in Venice, voluptuous and miasmatic. Arriving there incognito is a young New Yorker engaged in the literary trade (Robert Cummings), on the trail of love letters written by a poet who, after mysteriously disappearing decades before, has become a legend. Cummings knows that publishing the letters will make his name and his fortune, but he must be cagey about his purposes. The poet's mistress Juliana (Agnes Moorehead), is now a recluse of 105 living in reduced circumstances. Posing as a writer of means wanting to finish his novel, Cummings arranges to take rooms in her gloomy old palazzo. Manderley was more inviting. The Mrs. Danvers of the piece proves to be Susan Hayward, the recluse's niece, grand-niece or even more distant kin. Draped in black with hair wrenched back into a bun, she dutifully carries out her aunt's wishes but makes it plain that Cummings' welcome will be chilly. The trappings are old-dark-house as well, with a servant girl who wanders the halls at night when she's not howling and whimpering, presumably from beatings by Hayward. Eventually Cummings meets the enfeebled Moorehead, whose dotage has not dimmed her mind or dulled her relish for the crafty games she plays; only she can lead him to the letters and shed light on the fate of their author. Events even stranger take place: At night, lured by ghostly piano music, Cummings finds Hayward, radiant in white, her tresses loosed, convinced that she is Juliana and he her poet-lover; as he phrases it, she's `walking dead among the living and living among the dead.' The claustrophobic menage-a-trois takes yet another Jamesian turning.... The Lost Moment is the sole directorial effort by Martin Gabel, a character actor who was married to Arlene Francis. Due either to his inexperience or holes in the script, some strands of the story lead nowhere, like that of the servant girl. Another concerns John Archer, whose aid Cummings enlists though he neither likes nor trusts him; his motives remain murky, and ultimately his sub-plot just fizzles out. Cummings proves another drawback. Always a weak actor, he sometimes (Kings Row, The Chase) rose to serviceable, and does here. Moorehead, buried under old-crone makeup and furlongs of black lace, is barely recognizable by visage or even by voice. Hayward's the surprise, negotiating the shifts from stern spinster to distraught damsel with grace and conviction. Yet Gabel brings it off. Slow and resolutely low-key until it nears its finish, The Lost Moment stays compelling throughout, a literal-minded version of James' story that manages to maintain an languorous integrity all its own.

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Canyon Passage (1946) as Lucy Overmire .

A bland, generic title disguises a sublime little Western which, despite being one of a string of prestige genre pictures shot in color around the same time – like DUEL IN THE SUN (1946) and California (1946; included in Volume 2 of Universal’s “Classic Western Round-Up” series) – only in recent years did its reputation soar considerably through the championing of renowned admirers like Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Rosenbaum. It is also important in that it marked Jacques Tourneur’s first film in color and for being the first of several Westerns he would go on to helm, the most distinguished of which was the black-and-white STARS IN MY CROWN (1950) with Joel McCrea.

All the familiar Western ingredients are present (love triangles, crooked bankers, bar-room brawls, Indian attacks, impromptu court hearings turning into lynch mobs) but which are literally rendered fresh once more by impeccable handling and production values – the beautiful color photography (courtesy of color lighting expert, Edward Cronjager), skillful music accompaniment (composer Frank Skinner) and a splendid cast who rise up to the occasion of breathing life into their three dimensional characters: Dana Andrews’ restless hero, Brian Donlevy’s likable rogue, Susan Hayward’s feisty heroine, Ward Bond’s mean town-bully, Hoagy Carmichael’s balladeer-cum-cynical observer, etc. Besides providing notable roles also for Lloyd Bridges (as a hot-headed miner), Stanley Ridges (as Hayward’s lawyer father), Onslow Stevens (as a tubercular conman) and Rose Hobart (as Ridges’ enigmatic, exotic wife), screenwriter Ernest Pascal – working from material originally published by noted Western writer Ernest Haycox – adds the nice touch of introducing English émigrés (Patricia Roc and Halliwell Hobbes) into this community, which further aids the film in standing out from the crowd of similar fare.

CANYON PASSAGE is undoubtedly one of the most vivid portrayals of pioneer life in the Old West ever brought to the screen, certainly on a par with John Ford’s DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939) but arguably working on a greater level of sophistication: for one thing, the relationships between the characters are more complex in nature than they at first appear (practically every major character is engaged to marry someone but is truly in love with somebody else) and the fact that Tourneur boldly chooses to have some of the film’s major events take place off-screen – Donlevy’s killing of the miner whose money he has been pilfering (which leads to the trial in the bar), Ward Bond’s slaying of the Indian girl (which leads to the climactic Indian attack), Andy Devine’s death at the hands of the Indians, Donlevy’s own ‘execution’ by the villagers, etc. – also hints that we are watching is indeed something quite special.

Director Jacques Tourneur and leading man Dana Andrews went on to collaborate on two more films a decade later – the superlative occult chiller, NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957; which is apparently getting a fully-loaded release on R2 DVD later on this year) and the obscure Cold War thriller, THE FEARMAKERS (1958). One final note about CANYON PASSAGE: multi-talented Hoagy Carmichael composed and sang four songs for the film – one of which, “Ole Buttermilk Sky”, became a hit tune and was, sadly, also the film’s sole Academy Award nomination!

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Deadline at Dawn (1946) as June Goffe .

Little know post-WWII Film-Nior gem set in New York City on a hot sweltering summer night with one of the most unusual murder mysteries you'll ever see. The movie starts out with Sleepy Parsons, Marvin Miller, pleading with his estranged wife Edna, Lola Lane, for the $1,400.00 that she owes him. Edna after insulting the poor blind and very sick man Sleepy finds out that the money, Sleepy's $1,400.00, that she had in her purse is gone! what happened to it?

Earlier that evening Edna met this young sailor Alex, Bill Williams,on leave at a restaurant that her gangster brother Val Bartelli, Joseph Calleia, owned. After getting him drunk Val cheated him, playing cards, out of his pay. The story got even weirder when Edna telling Alex that she'll pay him to goes up to her place to fix her radio, Alex is a radio repairman in the navy, and got the poor slob even more drunk where he lost consciousness. waking up at a news stand after being given a cup of strong coffee by the newspaper man to clear his mind Alex staggered up on his feet a wad of $1,400.00 falls out of his pocket, where did it come from?

Going to a dance-hall later that night Alex gets very friendly with a local dance girl June, Susan Hayward. After June finished dancing with the costumers Alex goes with June to her place to have a bite to eat. At June's place Alex gets this bright idea to go back to where Edna lives and return the $1,400.00 ,which he feels is hers, with June coming along for the ride. When both get there they find, to their surprise and shock, that Edna was murdered, who did it? was it Alex? was it Sleepy? was it about a half dozen other suspects who had some connection with Edna? All I can say about the movie is that it will floor you with an ending that you won't see coming and even when it does! It will take you a while to realize what you missed in the clues that were so skillfully dropped leading to it all throughout the film.

"Deadline at Dawn" is one of those films that just sticks with you right from the start. Even though there's a number of flaws in it you easily overlook them when you realize that it's going in a direction that will more then make up for them, with it's almost unbelievable ending. Paul Lukas as NYC Cabbie, Gus Hoffman,is at first just an innocent bystander who picks up the couple, Alex & June.

As the movie goes on he becomes more and more central to the story by being more of a detective then a taxi driver as well as having the knowledge of a Ivy League Collage professor! whats this guy doing driving a cab? As the trio slowly work together time is running out to find out not only who murdered Edna but to also clear Alex of the crime, in which he's the prime suspect, and at the same time make it possible for Alex to catch the 6;00AM bus to Norfolk Virginia to report to his ship.

Powerful and surprising ending that has elements to it that you just rarely see in movies today and never in movies back then, in the 1940's. It really has you thinking about what is really good and bad in the world. Like I said before the ending just floored me not that it was so surprising, it was, but that it shows just how human and imperfect people are in the movie as well as they are in real life.

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 And Now Tomorrow (1944) as Janice Blair .

Although she got second billing to Ladd, Young's articulate smooth projection of her character shines in this movie. Ladd probably got the top spot because in 1944 all men were fighting overseas leaving the women to make up the majority of the audience. Still, his portrayal is very believable as one who has humble beginnings yet rises in the class structure while still showing rough edges. The poor boy and rich girl theme is not as boring as it seems. The Ladd-Young interaction works well as their characters develop a reluctant caring for one another. The supporting cast and crew represent a Hollywood Who's Who at the time. Beulah Bondi is one of the great supporting actors of the 30s and 40s. Her appearances while cameo always added depth to her films. Susan Hayward is superb as the brash assertive sister. One could go on: Barry Sullivan with his mellow distinctive voice; costumes by Edith Head, one of the great ladies of Hollywood; music by Victor Young. Yes, the movie is dated. The Great Depression looms in the background. But that is also its strength. Seldom was the Depression ever directly mentioned in the cinema. It truly was one of the most formative experiences of American life because it affected the entire population. While class envy always existed in our collective culture class hatred never engendered much support. This movie touches on this with sophistication.

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The Fighting Seabees (1944) as Constance Chesley .

One of John Wayne's best WWII movies has him in charge of the first Seebee construction battalion in the Pacific building airfields and port facilities for the US Navy and Air Force as well as fighting off hundreds of wild eyed and charging Japanese soldiers. Things at first didn't go too well from the men of the Wayde Donovan, John Wayne, Corps. Construction Company. Searving the US military in the Pacific their easy marks for Japanese snipers who pick off the unarmed construction workers. while the US Army and Marine Corps. are busy fighting the main Japanese forces on the many islands contested by in that theater of war. Demanding to be armed and part of the US military, not contract workers, has Donovan's men incorporated into the Army. Donovan's Seebees are then sent fully armed to island X-214 to build a base for the US Navy to refuel it's war-ships. Right from the start Donovan doesn't have the discipline thats demanded of him and is men by engaging the enemy. When told by his superior Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow,Dennis O'Keefe, to stay in the barracks and, in what looks like an American version of a Bonzai charge, Donovan has almost his entire construction company wiped out by the invading Japanese forces! Donavon, now a Lt. Commander, also screws up an ambush that the US Army had set up to stop the Japanese. That resulted in his, and Yarrow's, girlfriend war corespondent Constence Chesley, Susan Hayward,to be gunned down but not killed by a wounded Japanese soldier. Back in the states Donovan tries to make amends with the US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow and Constance over his bullheadedness on the battlefield that cost scores of US military and Seebee's lives. His relationship with Constance is handicapped by her also being in love with Wayde's commander Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow who, unlike Wayde,is a handsome and refined spit and polish Annapolis Navy man. Given a second chance to show his, and his Seebees, worth on the field of battle Wayde Donovan's construction battalion is sent ashore on island X-371. Not only to build a fuel depot and airfield but to defend if against a possible Japanese invasion of the island. Rip roaring battle scenes, some of the best ever put on film without the benefit of computer enhancement, makes "The Fighting Seebees" stand out among the score of war movies released during WWII by the major Hollywood studios. In fact the film was released by Republic Pictures which only specialized in low budget B and C movies up until then.

Taking heavy casualties from Japanese fire Donovan decides, against orders, to take it, the fight, to em' and organizes another Banzai-like charge on the Japanese forces, which seems like a full division, that are invading island X-371. The US forces, Army & Marines, deafening the island are badly chopped up with Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow seriously wounded in the fighting and Donovan's Seebees are on the verge of being overrun by the fanatical Japanese troops. Having nothing but earth-moving and construction equipment to fight off the hoards of highly motivated and heavily armed Japanese troops supported by tanks the Seebees still hold on to the fuel tanks that's desperately needed for the US Navy Task Force in the area. Donavan told by the wounded Lt. Cmdr. Yarrow that he'll see to it that's he's court-martial-ed if he survives this action takes matters into his own hands. With a steam shovel loaded with explosives Donovan drives it into one of the fuel tanks causing it to explode and smoke out and drive into the open the attacking Japanese troops, their then mowed down by the Seebees and US Army and Marines. Donovan for his bravery got a medal, posthumously, not a court-martial at the end of the film, Let. Cmdr Yarrow gets the girl that both he and Donovan left behind Constance Chesely.

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 The Hairy Ape (1944) as Mildred Douglas .



 

 Young and Willing (1943) as Kate Benson .



 

Star Spangled Rhythm (1943) as Herself, Genevieve in skit, "Priorities" number .



 

 Jack London (1943) as Charmian Kittredge .



 

 Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) as Jill Wright .



 

Reap the Wild Wind (1942) as Drusilla Alston .



 

 I Married a Witch (1942) as Estelle Masterson .



 

The Forest Rangers (1942) as Tana Mason .



 

Sis Hopkins (1941) as Carol Hopkins .



 

Among the Living (1941) as Millie Pickens .



Adam Had Four Sons (1941) as Hester [Stoddard] .



 

Beau Geste (1939) as Isobel Rivers .



 

Our Leading Citizen (1939) as Judith Schofield .



 

$1,000 a Touchdown (1939) as Betty McGlen .



 

 Girls on Probation (1938) as Gloria Adams .



 

The Sisters (1938) as Telephone operator .



 

Comet over Broadway (1938) as Amateur actor .

 

 

 

SUSAN HAYWARD: BIOGRAPHY

 

Susan Hayward was born on June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1937, she lost the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind but signed with Warner Brothers. In 1947, she starred in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, and earned her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She received four more nominations over the next 12 years. Hayward died on March 14, 1975 in Hollywood, California.

Early Life

Born Edythe Marrener on June 30, 1917, to a poverty strickenfamily in Brooklyn, New York,  Susan Hayward's childhood was difficult. She was hit by a car at the age of 7 and stranded at home in a body cast for months. The experience left Hayward with limp and painful memories of a debility she would never forget.

Big Break

Hayward's life took an unexpected turn when she was cast as the lead in a school play at age 12. The attention she received quickly turned her into a compulsive star. By 1935, a sexy swagger had replaced Hayward's childhood limp, and the gorgeous 17-year-old possessed an hourglass figure, a brassy Brooklyn accent and a burning desire for fortune and fame. She began working as a model to help support her family, and when she was featured in the Saturday Evening Post in 1937, all of America was introduced to the red-headed siren from Brooklyn. The same year, David O. Selznick offered Hayward an audition for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. Though her lack of experience took her out of serious consideration, Hayward decided to trade in her return ticket and stay in Hollywood. After signing a contract with Warner Bros., she changed her name to Susan Hayward.

Hayward was driven to succeed as an actress and worked virtually non-stop. Offered the starring role in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman in 1947, Hayward dazzled both audiences and critics, receiving her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Hayward received four more nominations over the next 12 years, eventually winning for her work in the wildly successful I Want to Live in 1958. Sadly, the actress's happiness was eclipsed by the death of her husband Eaton Chalkey. And in 1972, just as she was emerging from her despair, she was diagnosed with cancer.

Death and Legacy

Refusing to surrender to the illness without a fight, Susan Hayward even managed to present the Academy for Best Actress in 1974. On March 14, 1975, at age 57, the irrepressible Brooklyn Bombshell died, leaving behind legions of fans all over the world.