Film Review
Given the talent at his disposal it is surprising, if not downright
shocking, that director George Cukor managed to make such a pig's
unholy breakfast of this screen adaptation of Rachel Crothers' hit
stage play
Susan and God.
The main reason why the film fails so spectacularly to enterain is not
too hard to see: Joan Crawford is woefully miscast in a comedy role
that should have gone to someone with more comic verve, Katharine
Hepburn springing readily to mind. Crawford apparently
based her nauseating portrayal of the central character on Gertrude
Lawrence, the actress who played the lead in the original play, but she
looks as if she is doing a seriously bad impression of her mortal
enemy, Bette Davis.
It is easy to fault Crawford for her irritating vocal histrionics
(which are only slightly less bareable than someone repeatedly running
her fingernails down a blackboard in the presence of an extremely
powerful amplifier) but she is at least making an effort - which is
more than can be said for the rest of the cast, who look as if they are
attending a wake. Fredric March has never given a duller, more
zombie-like performance than he does here and Rita Hayworth shows
precious little of her usual sparkle and allure. After a silly,
hyperactive beginning the film rapidly goes down hill and terminal
ennui sets in around the midpoint. It all ends as a clunky
melodrama with dialogue that appears to have been lifted from an early
talkie. Running to almost two hours
Susan and God is practically an
instrument of torture and resembles a screwball comedy that has had
every last ounce of life and charm sucked out of it. When you
consider the many classic American film comedies that bear George Cukor's name -
Holiday (1938),
Adam's Rib (1949),
Born Yesterday (1950)
- it's hard to believe that the director could sink to
these depths. Maybe he just wasn't up to the challenge of directing
Joan Crawford.
© James Travers 2014
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Next George Cukor film:
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Film Synopsis
On her return to New York society after a European vacation Susan
Trexel appears to be a changed woman. She is no longer the
vacuous, self-interested society matron she once was, but a selfless
creature devoted to serving the interests of her fellow man - and
woman. For Susan has found God and she intends that the whole
world should know about it. Ignoring her neglected daughter and
her husband Barrie's attempt to patch up their marriage, Susan
immediately embroils herself in the personal problems of her closest
friends, but her meddling does far more harm than good...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.