Happy Birthday: Susan Hayward!

Fun Fact:

Her footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre are the only ones set in gold dust.

Please click here to learn more about Susan Hayward.

Susan Hayward.

Susan Hayward (June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975). After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 to audition for the leading role in the film, Gone With the Wind (1939). Even though she was not selected, she landed a film contract and performed in many small supporting roles. By the late 1940s she won the first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, for her performance in the film, Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Later in he career she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performance of a death row inmate in the film, I Want to Live! (1958).

TCM is showcasing Susan Hayward with the films listed below:

Girls on Probation (1938). A dizzy young girl falls into crime but wins her lawyer's heart. Cast: Jane Bryan, Ronald Reagan, Henry O'Neill. Dir: William McGann. After Jane, is caught wearing a dress that Bromley stole, Bryan has a meeting with future D.A. Ronald Reagan, whose girlfriend turns out to be a very young, SUSAN HAYWARD. Later Jane Bryan, innocently meets up with her friend, Bromley, who leads Bryan, into BIG trouble where they both land in jail. Bromley, is vicious and will do anything to please her boyfriend. I do not want to give it away, but... a great ending..

My Foolish Heart (1949) A young innocent life is shattered when she falls for a World War II flyer. Cast: Susan Hayward, Dana Andrews, Kent Smith. Dir: Mark Robson. You will get caught up in Andrews and Hayward's first meeting when sparks begin to fly. Andrews, never looked more handsome and this maybe one of my favorite Hayward's performance. "My Foolish Heart", is a wonderful film to curl up with a box of Kleenex on a early Tuesday morning.

Thank A Fool (1962) A woman once convicted of euthanasia gets a job caring for her prosecutor's wife. Cast: Susan Hayward, Peter Finch, Diane Cilento. Dir: Robert Stevens.

Top Secret Affair (1957) A female publishing magnate tries to keep a general she hates from securing a prestigious appointment. Cast: Susan Hayward, Kirk Douglas, Jim Backus. Dir: H.C. Potter. I enjoyed Kirk Douglas's second performance in a comedy. His first since, My Dear Secretary. Susan, gives a very funny performance when she tries to drink Douglas under the table at a nightclub. The film was to star Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, but.. Bogart's terminal illness forced him to leave the film. He was replaced by 'Kirk Douglas'. Bacall left to stay at home with her dying husband, and was replaced by 'Susan Hayward'.

Stolen Hours (1963). An American heiress with an incurable disease falls in love with her surgeon. Cast: Susan Hayward, Michael Craig, Diane Baker. Dir: Daniel Petrie. 

Where Love Has Gone (1964) Family secrets come to light when a teen-ager murders her mother's lover. Cast: Susan Hayward, Bette Davis, Michael Connors. Dir: Edward Dmytryk.

 

Honey Pot, The (1967) A millionaire fakes a terminal illness to fleece his former girlfriends. Cast: Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Maggie Smith. Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Happy Birthday: Susan Hayward.

Susan Hayward, performed in small parts until she was cast in Beau Geste (1939) opposite Gary Cooper. During the war years, she played leading lady to John Wayne, in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and The Fighting Seabees (1944). She also performed in the film version of The Hairy Ape (1944). Later in 1955, she was cast by Howard Hughes to play Bortai in the historical epic The Conqueror, also opposite John Wayne.


My favorite Susan Hayward movie is, The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). The story is about the memories of a writer named Harry who is on safari in Africa. He is very ill when a wound becomes infected. While waiting for help to arrive he talks about his memories of the past years. Even though he has seen and experienced many wonderful experiences during his life, he had never written a book of the events.



After the war, she became one of Hollywood's most popular leading ladies in films such as Tap Roots (1948), My Foolish Heart (1949), David and Bathsheba (1951), and another favorite Susan Hayward movie, With a Song in My Heart (1952). Which is a biographical film which tells the story of actress and singer Jane Froman, who was crippled by an airplane crash on February 22, 1943, when the Boeing 314 Pan American Clipper flying boat she was on crash landed in the Tagus River, but entertained the troops in World War II even though she had to walk with crutches.



In 1947, she received the first of five Academy Award nominations for her role as an alcoholic nightclub singer in Smash-Up.

During the 1950s she won recognition for her performances as President Andrew Jackson's melancholic wife in The President's Lady (1953); the alcoholic actress Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), based on Roth's autobiography of the same name, for which she received a Cannes award; and the real-life California murderer Barbara Graham in, I Want to Live! (1958). Hayward's performance of Graham won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 1961, Hayward starred as a working girl who becomes the wife of the state's next governor (Dean Martin) and ultimately takes over that office herself in Ada. She replaced Judy Garland as Helen Lawson in the 1967 film adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls.

They Wont Believe Me (1947): This is more than just a trip to Montreal.

They Won't Believe Me (1947). Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Rita Johnson and Jane Greer. Film noir. Director: Irving Pichel. Produced by Alfred Hitchcock longtime assistant, Joan Harrison.

Womanizer Larry Ballentine, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend and wants to take the stand in his own defense. During his testimony, we learn that he married his wife, Gretta, for her money and had many affairs. He makes plans to leave his wife for Verna, withdrawing all of his wife's money from the bank. Larry's plan falls apart after Verna is killed in a car accident. This film has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. What will the jury decide?

Joan Harrison, worked on the screenplays for four Alfred Hitchcock films: Rebecca (1940) and produced the director's TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents as well film noirs : two with director Robert Siodmak (Phantom Lady, 1944; Uncle Harry, 1945). Joining Harrison were director Irving Pichel (The Most Dangerous Game, 1932); screenwriter Jonathan Latimer, who wrote Nocturne (1946) and The Big Clock (1948); cinematographer Harry J. Wild, who worked on Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Cornered (1945); and composer Roy Webb, whose music scores for film noirs like The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and Crossfire (1947).

What I enjoyed most about this film was Robert Young in the role of Larry Ballentine. I was used to seeing, Young in romantic comedies. In this Film Noir, He plays a liar, a thief, a coward who is lacking in moral character and yet it is one of his best, performances. In my opinion. :)

Rita A. Johnson (August 13, 1913 – October 31, 1965), began acting on Broadway in 1935 and started her film career two years later.

She played a murderess in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and a doomed wife in the RKO film noir They Won't Believe Me (1947).

Her film career came almost to a complete stop after a 1948 accident (a hair dryer fell on her head) that required delicate brain surgery.

Her screen time in movies after that was limited due to her reduced mobility and powers of concentration.

She also suffered from alcoholism from the time of her injuries  until her death of a brain hemorrhage on October 31, 1965.

I MARRIED A WITCH (1942)

I MARRIED A WITCH, is a charming/comedy. Cast: Fredric March and Veronica Lake. Author Thorne Smith, wrote about a beautiful, playful, witch.. instead of the ugly witches that we grew up reading about.. Much like the TV series "Bewitched".

The movie begins with Veronica Lake, who along with her father, is burnt at the stake on charges of witchcraft. Before her death she places a curse on the descendants of the man responsible for the burning.

The movie quickly moves to the present where we see political candidate for the State Senate Jonathan Wooley, fully involved in his wedding to Estelle, daughter of big shot J.B. Masterson.

During a storm, both Jennifer, and her evil father Daniel, are freed from their imprisonment inside the tree that grew on the spot where they died. Jennifer's goal is to find Jonathan and make life a complete misery for him. She does everything she can to sabotage Jonathan's wedding which includes a huge wind storm that destroys the event. Then she pretends to "die by gunshot", which will set Jonathan up on a murder charge.

Earlier she made a love potion that would cause Jonathan to fall in love with her. Jonathan now accidentally uses it on Jennifer and she finds herself madly in love with him. Fed up with Estelle and her father planning his every move, Jonathan begins to realize that the problems that Jennifer has brought into his life has actually has saved him.

When Jennifer's father sees what is happening he decides to take matters into his own hands. Unfortunately, for him his plan backfires and he and ends up in the bottle where he will stay for all eternity. What does the future hold for the bewitched couple?



I thought Veronica Lake was very good and proved herself to be wonderful in a comedy and capable of far more than just hiding behind her famous hairstyle. Her chemistry with Fredric March is magical. "I Married a Witch", is a fun movie..

Fun Facts:

Joel McCrea was initially cast as the lead, but declined the role because he didn't want to work again with Veronica Lake, his co-star in Sullivan's Travels (1941).

Veronica Lake and Fredric did not like one another, due in part to some disparaging remarks March made about her. During filming, Lake delighted in playing pranks on March, such as hiding a 40-pound weight under her costume when March had to carry her in his arms.