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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
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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).