Susan hayward3/17/2023 ![]() Playing proper supporting roles and some leads, in smaller movies, one of the highlights from this period was her role in Cecil B.DeMill's Reap the Wild Wind (1942), which I love. In the early 1940s she signed a contract with Paramount which was the real start of her career. I could see Susan as a good Scarlet, she certainly had that mix of fire and sweetness that Vivien possessed. She started at Warners, for a year or so, just playing extra parts and of course was one of the actresses testing for Gone with the Wind. Susan is a good example of a working actress, who went through several studios, made many movies and was rewarded with a career peak in the mid 1950s, winning an Oscar and achieving both box office and critical acclaim. This post is long overdue, since I love Susan Hayward and she has been in many great classics that I always enjoy revisiting. I recall her slashing a portrait of Bette's character with a chisel in a frenzy. And it features one of her more over the top performances. ![]() Her film with Bette Davis isn't that great. ![]() Even if they did she's more entertaining to watch than a lot of actresses of the time. But like I said that grittiness could sometimes give way to a complete over the top performance and things could get hammy. A gritty realness, she often played a drinker or a troubled woman and I like her for that, it was unusual for a Hollywood actress at that time to take such roles. She can do those real classy lady roles but also has an edge to her. It's one of those soapy 1960s melodramas that I just eat up with a spoon. I think my favourite film of hers is Backstreet with John Gavin and Virginia Miles. Still I enjoy her in almost everything I have seen her in. She's one of my favourite actresses and she can often be brilliant in a role but can sometimes launch into some ludicrous theatrics that can tip a performance overboard. In the episode where Sophia plans to marry her old friend Max, and Dorothy finally gives her mother her blessing, the apparently gay caterer sobbingly says: "This is more moving that Susan Hayward's climatic speech in I Want to Live!" Blanche turns and says, "I beat you're ready to fly right out of here!" and he snaps, "Well, excuse me for living Anita Bryant!" Similar to my thoughts on Ida Lupino, I cannot hear the name Susan Hayward without thinking of the reference made towards her on The Golden Girls. She also snagged the role of Helen Lawson, a part intended for Judy Garland, in the camp classic Valley of the Dolls (1967). Her public seemed to like her best as these bawdy women, typically headed toward some kind of destruction. Her crown jewels are I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) and her Oscar-winning role in I Want to Live! (1958). She was a beautiful woman, and she played roles with a gritty realism that many actresses dared not attempt. Susan Hayward is another actress that's skidded right under my nose for the majority of my classic movie infatuation.
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