Susan und der liebe Gott

Please take careful notice of the billing in the title of this film. It's about a society woman, Susan Trexel, who has taken up religion as some kind of a new fad. Ms. Trexel is rather full of herself and she would no doubt approve of the Deity getting second billing in a play about her life.

Susan and God, a play by Rachel Crothers, ran on Broadway for the 1937-1938 season for 256 performances and starred Gertrude Lawrence who got rave reviews for her performance as the Long Island society woman who is so full of herself that she neglects husband and daughter for her various fads. She's embraced a particular type of Christianity in which it's believed confession is not just good, but necessary for the soul. Not only your confession, but you must apparently be brutally frank about everyone around you.

I knew a woman many years ago when I lived in New York. She was a union official, the treasurer of a local. This was an office she used the way Susan Trexel uses her new religion, to become the world's biggest busybody, interjecting herself into everyone's business. When you're a busybody by nature it's great if you can find a religion that says God requires you to be one.

I wish I could give Susan and God a higher rating. But the fault lies with Joan Crawford who apparently made the mistake of seeing Gertrude Lawrence in the play. Someone who's never seen or heard Gertrude Lawrence might not catch it and just think Crawford is too mannered in her portrayal. But her inflections are unmistakable, her imitation of Lawrence just keeps coming out. She should have been a little more Joan Crawford in her performance.

That's a pity too, because apparently Crawford got both Louis B. Mayer and George Cukor to get the film rights to Susan and God in the hope of broadening her range as an actress. I couldn't say she succeeded here.

Fredric March plays her long suffering husband, a likable man driven to drink because of his wife and young Rita Quigley plays her shy daughter who Crawford has no time for. Rita Hayworth, a screen goddess to be, has a small role as a young actress who has married producer Nigel Bruce for her career. You can tell easily she was going to be a star.

Fans of Joan Crawford might like seeing her trying something different, but sad that it wasn't more of her in the role.

Watching this film, the lead role of Susan seemed to call out "Norma Shearer" to me, and sure enough, reading up on it, the rights to the play were purchased by MGM with Shearer in mind. Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford were both fabulous movie stars but with different gifts. You could not call either one of them great, visceral actresses so it was always best to lead with their strengths. Crawford's was drama. Shearer had a slightly wider range. This is just my opinion.

"Susan and God" is the story of a ditsy woman, unhappily married to drunken Frederic March, who takes a trip and comes back with religious fervor gained from a new group that emphasizes God, his guidance, and telling the truth. She then proceeds to wreak havoc on her entire social set and manages to break up one marriage and one near-marriage. March agrees to stay sober if she'll give their relationship a chance, and with their somewhat neglected daughter, Blossom, they spend the summer together. Ruth Hussey is a friend who is in love with March.

Crawford is an absolute disaster in this role, speaking very fast in a high-pitched voice that is supposed to represent her dizziness. She mugs, she poses, she wears absurd outfits (with the exception of the gorgeous one she wears to go to the train). It's a completely mannered, external performance. Shearer would have been much more natural in the role. Crawford is annoying. When it comes down to doing the more dramatic scenes in the film, she does much better.

The rest of the cast is very good, including March, Hussey, Rita Quigley, and a young, lovely Rita Hayworth. Due to Crawford, this comes off as rather strange, and it took me a while to realize it was supposed to be a comedy.

SUSAN AND GOD goes on too long and looks as padded as Joan Crawford's shoulders. Based on the 1937 Broadway play, which starred Gertrude Lawrence, story has the annoying socialite Susan Trexel (Crawford) coming home to her Long Island estate (and equally annoying friends) after having been uplifted (spiritually) during a trip to England. The play took a swipe at the Oxford Group, followers of Frank Buchman, an American missionary who believed that the root of all problems were the personal problems of fear and selfishness and that one of the "cures" was in the sharing of our sins and temptations. Rachel Crothers' play then has Susan espousing her slim understanding of this by pontificating to her friends about their lives while she ignores her own husband and young teen daughter. It's meant to be a comedy set among the horsey set, and sometimes Susan's absurdity comes through as stinging comedy; other times she just seems cruel (or even worse, stupid). Anyway, the film version is 2 hours long and is padded with extra scenes and characters. It didn't need it.

Crawford is fine with what she's given to do, if you can get past distaste for the character. Fredric March plays the boozy husband. Fine supporting cast of friends includes Rose Hobart, Ruth Hussey, Bruce Cabot, Nigel Bruce, John Carroll, and Rita Hayworth (on loan-out from Columbia). Rita Quigley plays the hapless daughter. Added for the film version are Marjorie Main as a sarcastic housekeeper and Constance Collier as Susan's spiritual advisor. Among the horde of "young people" added for no real reason are Gloria DeHaven, Dan Dailey, Susan Peters, Lon McCallister, and Joan Leslie. There's also a singer played by the tall and repulsive Coco Broadhurst (no idea who he is), who also served as a "technical advisor."

Lawrence apparently filmed a TV movie of the play in 1938 (according to IMDb), but was never considered for the MGM film version. L.B. Mayer bought the film for Norma Shearer, hot again after THE WOMEN, but she refused to play a mother again (she was 38 years old). Greer Garson was also considered, and Mayereven reached out to Marion Davies, but apparently Crawford campaigned for a won the role.

The film cost about $1M and made about $1M and was considered a box-office bomb.

Having just watched the amazing A WOMAN'S FACE, ran across this comment thread and I am so glad to see this title has fervent admirers. I am definitely one. Watched it many years ago and was absolutely floored by Joan's performance in this, as atypical for her as A WOMAN'S FACE but in a completely different direction, high comedy. It is one of the all-time greatest comedic performances in my book, and yet remains tragically obscure, in both her and Cukor's filmographies. Of course, it is so over-the-top that it runs the risk of being pigeonholed as just another campy Joan Crawford display, and yet if you cast out your preconceptions about her you will see a multi-layered characterization that is at once absurd yet never condescending, expertly timed delivery that seems totally effortless. I simply cannot wait for a DVD of this!

... he would have given the part of Susan to his wife Norma Shearer. Instead it went to Joan Crawford, and, oh my, what a revelation. As socialite Susan, Joan goes from being sly to oblivious to caring (in her own way) at the snap of a finger. Joan had played socialites before, but usually with that world weary and wise way about her that Joan brought to so many of her parts. This is a completely different type of role for her.

In a nutshell, Susan is a wealthy rather air-headed woman who goes on a trip and learns about God "in a completely new way" from a fellow traveler, one Lady Wigstaff. She comes home loaded down with brochures in every language and immediately just bursts in on the most personal parts of her friends' lives in a very open and coarse way - You two should never have gotten married, you two should never get married, etc. Except now what she would previously have called nosy she calls religion! Plus you can tell that this rude kind of criticism is just Susan's nature but now she can claim she is on a mission from God.

However, this new found faith has not changed her attitude towards her husband, Barry (Fredric March), who drinks heavily due to Susan's neglect, nor her attitude toward her teenage daughter, Blossom, who at first glance looks like she is doing anything but blossoming - physically that is. Susan will do anything to avoid the two of them, but Barry arrives at the estate where Susan is staying with her friends and has a showdown. In the end Susan agrees to Barry's challenge. She will spend the summer in their country estate with Barry and Blossom and if Barry slips up and gets drunk just once, Susan can have the divorce she has wanted for some time. Complications ensue.

Did I mention that a close friend of both of them (Ruth Hussey as Charlotte) has always been and is still in love with Barry, hates to see Susan walk all over him, but is too good a person to trespass? Even though she has a small part I thought Hussey was really a stand-out here.

I think this film has been unfairly forgotten with an IMDb rating that might have you thinking it is a bore. I disagree. With an unusual topic explored in an unconventional way right before the second world war, with great ensemble acting and crisp dialogue that keeps the first half of the movie moving when it could easily have bogged down, I would recommend this one.