Actors on Actors: "The Susan Hayward of it All"

Actors on Actors looks at screen moments when stars are name-checked... by other stars! It's very meta. Since we're multi-tasking today trying to catch up, it's also a Tuesday Top Ten! In this episode, a scene from My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Julia Roberts: I have big plans for dancing. Just give me 30-35 years."
Rupert Everett [the voice on that ginormous cel phone]: The misery. The exquisite tragedy. The Susan Hayward of it all!"

The umimpeachably witty Mr. Everett (aided by that film's wonderful screenplay from Ronald Bass) is, of course, referring to the grand high priestess of exclamatory drama, Miss "I Want to Live!" Herself. It's not just those curtain-chewing performances, the desperate women she played or the trashy films but the gleefully histrionic taglines, too.

For no reason other than that I plan to live my life with exclamation points this week...

10 Best Taglines from Susan Hayward Films

 (We really should do like a Hayward tribute week at some point.)

10 "She made good - with a plunging neckline, and the morale of a tigress"
from I Can Get it For You Wholesale (1951)

09 "LOVE-WRECKED!"
from Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman! (1963)

08"They branded her "Adulteress"!
from The President's Lady (1953)

07 "HARD-MUSCLED! SOFT-HEARTED!"
from The Fighting Seabees (1944)

06 "Do you know what they say about Laura Pember? They say she uses men like pep-up pills!"  from Stolen Hours which is also known as Summer Flight (1963)

05 "Love can make a killer out of a woman... and a fool out of any man!"
from I Thank a Fool (1962)

04 "She fell from fame to shame!" from I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)

03 "The way SHE loved a Man could lead in only one direction - DOWN!"
from They Won't Believe Me (1947)

02 "A FAST BUCK... A FAST BRONC ... A FAST THRILL"
from The Lusty Men (1952)

01 "This story was filmed on location...  inside a woman's soul!"
also from I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
It's not just the greatest tagline from a Susan Hayward picture, it's the greatest movie tagline of the 20th century! And probably the 21st century too!! It deserves so many exclamation points !!!

At the annual convention of TLCOM (Tag Line Copywriters of America) their lifetime achievement prize is called "The Hayward".*

*I made that last part up but it should be the truth.

Hayward on My Mind.

Jose here.



Today is the anniversary of Susan Hayward's birth (she would've turned 93). Browsing through her filmography it struck me how conflicted I am regarding her acting. Despite her extreme beauty (what did they feed these women back then?) I find her acting slightly hammy sometimes and rather inexpressive on different occasions.

Hayward was nominated for five Best Actress Oscars and perhaps the reason for my slight discontent with her is that in a way, she created the "easy way to an Oscar nod". Let's take a look at the characters that got her Oscar's attention and the reasons why AMPAS couldn't resist to nominate her:

1946 Angelica 'Angie'/'Angel' Evans Conway in Smash-Up, The Story of a Woman
Angelica is a club singer who marries a rising performer, gives up her career and becomes an alcoholic. The plot is loosely based on the life of Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby's first wife.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: alcoholism, deglam, suffering wife, performer, semi biopic)

1949 Eloise Winters in My Foolish Heart
Eloise is a wife reflecting on the twists her life has taken. Based on J.D. Salinger's short story Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: suffering wife, decade spanning drama, famous song, literary pedigree)

1952 Jane Froman in With a Song in My Heart
Real life singer Froman had a terrific career in film and song, until she was almost killed in a plane crash in 1943. She overcame adversity in every possible way and went on to have a fruitful life and career (Froman even outlived Hayward).
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: famous song, decade spanning drama, deglam, biopic, overcoming tragedy)

1955 Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow
Roth was a real life Broadway star who overcame her mother's domineering and becomes an alcoholic after the death of her fiancé.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: do I really have to point them out at this point?)

1958 Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (pictured left)
Real life prostitute, drug addict and manipulative Barbara Graham gets convicted for murder and executed.
(AMPAS buttons it pushed: biopic, murder, jail, decade spanning drama, deglam)

Hayward finally got her Oscar for this role and was never nominated afterward. So now do you see my point? Hayward was great at this sort of campy melodramatic, fictionalized biopics but her career can't help but leave a bittersweet aftertaste.

Perhaps we wouldn't have instant wins for the Reeses, Marions and Charlizes if it weren't for Hayward. Or maybe I'm just rambling. What's your take on this?
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