Tonight's movie was "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1955), the harrowing story of real life stage actress and singer Lillian Roth, who was pushed into show business as a child in the early 1900s by her mother, a "Stage Mother" if there ever was one. Her experience of constant auditions as an eight year old, having to be charming and professional for endless producers, is depicted in the first 15 minutes of the film. She never gets a chance to play with her friends in their Brooklyn neighborhood. She also has a child's crush on one boy, but her mother pulls her away. She is allowed no time to just be a kid.
Cut to adulthood, and - as played by Susan Hayward in the starring role - she is now on the rise, gaining marquee parts in small theaters. She still lives with Mom, who exerts control over her career in an "I'm doing it all for you" kind of way. Sweet, but pushy. Insistent if not demanding.
Out of the blue, a young man comes into her life. He is David, the boy she knew as a child. He is a real gentleman to her, and her feelings for him are rekindled. She feels a new confidence to be herself, and she tells her mother that she really doesn't want to act or sing anymore. She and Mom both know that she was only doing it to please her mother, despite the minor level of success she has attained.
The story moves quickly forward from there. Next we see that she and David are planning to marry. He is a lawyer with some showbiz contacts, which is how he came back into her life in the first place, and to appease Mom, he has arranged a contract for Hayward to do one final tour of her stage show. The mother feels slighted, naturally, because as with all Stage Mothers it's really all about her. But a Stage Mom can't show this, so she plays nice. But in truth, the Mom - played by the great character actress Jo Van Fleet (of "East Of Eden" fame) - resents the heck out of David, for taking Lillian away from her, and the career she had planned for her daughter since she was little.
Soon, the mother's worries are over, because David takes ill with tuberculosis and dies a short time later. Lillian is devastated but has no time to even grieve because her mother is telling her to move past it, to resume her career. She is back on stage in no time and plenty shook up. It is at this critical juncture that her nurse, hired by Mom to stabilize her daughter's emotions, introduces young Miss Roth to whiskey.
Here begins the story in earnest. It is brutal and very melodramatic, and if you have seen any of Susan Hayward's other famous performances, in movies like "Smash-Up" or "I Want To Live" (for which she won Best Actress), you can see why she was chosen for this role. Her technique was given to raw, naked emotion; few actresses let it all hang out onscreen like Hayward, and what she does here is pretty courageous. She was sometimes accused of chewing scenery, and there are a few instances in this movie where the director could have reined her in just a tad. But I think that he saw overall that she was giving her performance everything she had and decided to let her go for it.
It's about as fearless a portrayal of rock-bottom alcoholic behavior as you will ever see. She is the victim of her life circumstances but also of her own anger, which she unleashes on Mom in a stunning scene, very hard to watch. Also, she is taken advantage of by men, one a violent alcoholic himself who uses his sleazy charm to fool her into marrying him. Man, she is a basket case by this point, but the script takes you step-by-step through her descent to this place, with Hayward acting out all of the vulnerabilities of the terminal alcoholic, but also the manipulations, when she will do or say anything for a drink.
Listen movie fans, though I am giving this movie Two Big Thumbs Up, despite the few scenes of heavy-handed acting (a small quibble), I nevertheless am not sure I can recommend it to you, unless you are ready for such a depressing ride. If you are on an even keel, go ahead and watch, and anyway, there is a happy ending of sorts. But if hard core melodrama, meaning strung out addiction in this case, is too strong a theme, then I would suggest you give it a pass.
The movie was nominated for several Academy Awards, including another Best Actress nomination for Hayward. She didn't win but she could have, and I think it is time for critics to re-evaluate her career and talent. You know how athletes talk about "leaving it all on the field", meaning not holding back? That's what Susan Hayward did, in every role I've seen her in. She didn't exhibit the total stylistic control of a Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck, whose acting techniques required them to maintain their star power at all times, even when they were playing vulnerability. And of course those two were great actresses, but they were never gonna show themselves really and truly in the gutter. What Susan Hayward did was take her talent, and movie star beauty, and throw out all rules and constraints. She wasn't afraid to go crazy or make a mess of herself onscreen, and in that way she paved the way for a lot of the soul bearing actresses of the future.
You always know you will get 100% from a Susan Hayward performance, even if her characters and their stories are not always easy to watch. ////
Today was my last day off work for the time being. Tomorrow begins a new cycle and I will be once again writing to you from Pearl's. What is happening with Trump? Is he toast yet? I have not been paying attention since I don't have cable here at The Tiny Apartment. I did go on a minor hike at Chatsworth Park this afternoon, though the thunderheads were forming over the mountains and the lightning began to flash shortly after I arrived back home.
I have been listening to Scarlatti sonatas as played by Alexandre Tharaud, so I will choose a favorite in the next blog, as Scarlatti was one of our Top Ten Composers.
That's all I know for today. Hope your day was good. Love as always through the night.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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