​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​

Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board: To reach If You Knew Susie by Trish Sharp, click the profile photo at www.facebook.com/susanhaywardclassicfilmstar and you will see the link.

Ginger's Susan Hayward Message Board
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

Thanks, Errol for your info on Deadline at Dawn, and I'm glad to know that we are both fans of this unique film. I know it's classified as film noir, but to that I'll add "film noir with a touch of class." Lol. It's interesting to learn that Walter Wanger picked Susan up that same year. He must have recognized that 'this was woman who could really and truly ACT! ' They sure had a wonderful partnership over the years and I loved that she acknowledged Wanger in her Oscar speech.

That's funny that you mentioned that Susan wears the same dress and pinned-up hairdo throughout the film. That was one of the details that made me get that "stage vibe" from the script. And, yes, as a fan, I always favor her hair long and flowing loose, but you are definitely right that her 'look' totally suited her character, and I think that it gave her a certain dignity that the dialogue seemed to dictate.

It certainly showed that she could be totally natural and make a character come alive yet be 'real.' Bravos to Walter Wanger for seeing that - and lucky us as her audience for being able to enjoy her amazing films and performances that followed Deadline at Dawn!!

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

I was hoping that more fans would chime in and tell us what they thought Susan's 'strangest' films were...but few have joined the conversation. I also said, at the beginning, that I did have 'another one' that I thought was 'very strange' for Susan for more reasons than one.

We once talked about some of her 'leading men' that really didn't fit the bill and this film was surely one of them! The film is.."THE HAIRY APE" with leading man being...WILLIAM BENDIX..(first strange thing about this film).

Then..there is the story line: A big, burly 'non-handsome' man stoking coal aboard a ship. It is a fine performance by Bendix...and you do feel sorry for him when he is seen by the snobbish, rich (SUSAN) while the ship is docked in Lisbon. She sees his very hairy body and starts calling a "hairy ape'. He becomes more and more attracted to her..thus leading to disastrous events that follow. The 'bitchy' beauty..luring the 'ape-like' man on....

Now..this film was made at a time (1944) when Susan was getting a 'name' for playing 'bitchy women' on screen. It would come a few years before she was under WALTER WANGER's wing and guided to much better roles for her..but he 'bitchy' roles were 'solid' and was pulling her up the ladder to success. This same year, she would also do "AND NOW TOMORROW" with ALAN LADD and LORETTA YOUNG..playing another 'woman-stealing-another-man' type role.

SUSAN had played the 'bitchy roles' from 1941 with the great.."ADAM HAD FOUR SONS" along with "SIS HOPKINS" the same year.."I MARRIED A WITCH" (1942) BUT..there were some other 'nice girl films' in between..like.."AMONG THE LIVING", ""REAP THE WILD WIND", "THE FOREST RANGERS", "YOUNG AND WILLING", "JACK LONDON" and "THE FIGHTING SEABEES"..along with a few 'small roles' in various musical comedies. But each time Susan did 'another ****** role' it seemed to pull her higher...up the ladder of success. Not ALL actresses had the 'chops' to play these type roles..so it was working in her favor.

"THE HAIRY APE" was the first time, writer, EUGENE O'NEILL had ok'd his play to be filmed..and it turned out to be a bit bland!

But..'bland' or not...it did not hurt Susan's rising career. It was through a second-type studio..UNITED ARTISTS so the film also, did not get a big budget.
In the end...the reviews proved just fine: NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE said.."Susan Hayward is appropriately hateful as the empty minded rich girl...
She achieves a good deal of 'villainy' in spite of the wealth of corny dialogue that has been included in her scenes."

TIME: SUSAN HAYWARD as the girl who drives him crazy, is much tougher-too coarsely so for the size of the girl's penthouse or the height of her social standing=but she is more convincing. She is, in fact, ablest ****************

These...were Susan's 'early years' and she fared well, no matter how good or bad the films were and within a few short years, she would have her first Oscar nomination for "SMASH-UP" by 1947.

I have this film on vhs and also on a 'double-feature' Susan dvd along with "SMASH-UP". I am planning to pull the dvd out tonight..and go back in time..to catch Susan, once more...in this..'very strange film'

YOU WILL NOTE* that I was quoting from a review..and when I looked at this message to edit/or approve it..I see that it has 'deleted' the words used in the review and one other place in this message. Sorry..but the 'words' were in the review and really...NOT..that bad!...but maybe you can figure it out.

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

It depends how we interpret 'strange' for this thread. Had the movie followed O'Neill's play tightly, it may well have been strange for the day as it had a very dark ending.

In addition, the many layers of sexual connotation were excised due to censorship in the 1940's and the resulting plot has more melodrama than unsettling motivations and consequences.

The other aspect of THE HAIRY APE that I recall is how it almost parallels William's STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. There we had the genteel and cultured Blanche both repelled and also drawn to the brutish lout Brando. The main difference being that where Blanche was fragile and fey and vulnerable, Susan's Mildred is supremely ****** and self assured and superior.

But it was ( I think) a career defining role for Bendix who has rarely done better and a good strong part for Susan.

After the mainly tender treatment women received on screen in the 1930's - the advent of the War and women going into the workforce in millions at the start of the 40's seemed to produce a sharp upswing in the femme fatale, almost nasty female role.
It also coincided with the rise of NOIR as one of Cinema's greatest eras (for me at least) where the lead actress was duplicitous, treacherous, deadly, scheming.

Hollywood needed tough girls ( or at least women who could portray 'tough' on screen. And what work we got from Babs Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Ava Gardner, Janis Carter, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Gene Tierney, Linda Darnell, Gloria Grahame etc.

Susan also rose to the occasion but I feel only in THE HAIRY APE. Her other strong, independent, feisty girl roles were not usually at the expense of her leading men where they were betrayed, sold out, set up to take a fall, teased into criminal acts, killed and so forth.


Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

Hi Kerry!

I always enjoy your astute comments, and I think you are so on target in your remarks about THE HAIRY APE (and, also, its parallels to William's STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE).

I found Bendix and Susan totally compelling and would love to see them both come alive and recreate their characters in a contemporary production - without all that censorship of the '40s. I can so easily imagine Susan giving such a layered performance - breathing fire into the character of Mildred with all the "unsettling motivations" (as you so aptly put it) intended by O'Neill's play.

At any rate, even within the confines of '40's scripts, I thought Susan was superb. Her eyes, when she's first confronted by Bendix, reflect right into her soul!

Kerry, please keep up your imput on NOIR. I'm only first beginning to appreciate the finer distinctions of this cinematic era and the amazing women who dominated the box office!

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

Actually, I think we've all been wrong--including me. The strangest film Susan ever made--and rather despicable--was her scene in Paramount's STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM,which paired her with Ernest Truex and a girdle.

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

For me the strangest film Susan ever made is "thunder in the sun" from 1959.I hate to say it but i think it is a bad movie...i can not believe the story ,and there is a lot of camp...nothing is credible here.....
i read that she accepted to do it to help her friend Jeff Chandler.....

Compared to "Thunder in the sun" ,"The conqueror " is a big joy to me :-)

Phil, Amsterdam,the Netherlands.

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

Hi, Bill!

Okay, you really got my curiosity on this one. My Eduardo Moreno book does have a page about this "Star Spangled Rhythm" film (sounds like a sort of "Let's Have a Show" plot--a la Mickey Rooney)!

It certainly does seems a rather oddball film, but what's even worse is that I now have this totally bad-joke/sick comment that's running around in my head, since you mentioned that Paramount paired Susan with Ernst Truex and a GIRDLE!!!

Are you ready for my sick NY humor?? - I am now dying to know which of the two did Paramount consider the 'beter fit'?!?!?

Okay! Okay! I did say it was my sicko-humor coming out--I never promised it was good! I just couldn't help it! And I do hope that Susan will forgive me--but since we both come from similar New York City turf--I think she will!

You made my day, Bill! And, now--how can I get to see that film? Is it on Youtube? Sounds like crazy fun!

Lynn

PS I never saw the film that Philippe mentioned either, although I've read about it---and the critics did tend to agree with you, I think. Susan did promise to help her childhood friend, Jeff Chandler, out, which was very kind. They'd gone to (or near) the same school in their neighborhood and were pals.

Re: THE 'STRANGEST'..FILM...IT THINK SUSAN EVER MADE..

Errol--I have dvd's of every one of Susan's flicks, including the girdle story---which of coruse is very short--just a segment with all the Paramount stars. None of it very good, in my thinking, though Godard, Lake, and Lamour in "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peek-a-Boo Bang" is quite cute.

Thunder in the Sun was probably her worst film. Not that she was part of the "worst"--and there are others--prboably that all of us--think are not up to her standards--but Thunder was the pits--and yes, the critics thought so too.

(We could--or have we?--argue for days about the quality of Valley of the Dolls, but her Helen Lawson was really marvelous (though they ought to have let her do her own singing).