Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman

Smash Up (1947)

A moving, dramatic story of a singer and then wife and mother and her battle with alcohol. At first you don't know this is going to figure, and it seems to be about a female singer stepping aside to let her new husband's singing career rise. Which it does. And singing dominates the first half to the point of being a musical (and to the point that some viewers might give up on it).

But don't. It's a really good film, the voices are strong even if very old fashioned, and the leading woman's performance is all out, really terrific. She got an Oscar nomination for this role and it's no wonder.

The leading man was probably chosen for his silky rich voice, but Lee Bowman is a very natural actor, and he keeps up his end of the relationship. And this relationship suffers, thanks to career and to the sharp looking and devious Marsha Hunt playing a secretary who likes this singer too much. There are lots of great scenes of parties and night clubs, and even (by contrast) raising a baby. There are lots of movies with these kinds of themes, including a baby who has a brush with death (I give nothing more away), and everything is played out with elegance and smarts.

The elegance comes from great cinematographer Stanley Cortez ("Night of the Hunter") and the smarts come from director Stuart Heisler ("The Glass Key") who never quite rose to his potential in the industry, turning eventually to television. The supporting cast is terrific, including a very natural and likable Eddie Albert, but it's Hayward to eventually steals the show. See her!

This was Hayward's watershed film, thrusting her into the A-Bracket. That's not surprising since she delivers an ace performance as a down spiraling alcoholic wife. Angie's (Hayward) given up her singing career so that hubby Ken (Bowman) can shoot to the top of his. Trouble is he now neglects his wife, while his super organized assistant Martha (Hunt) attends to his every need. So Angie looks for consolation in one bottle that quickly leads to two, and so on. Now Bowman must take informal custody of their baby. Looks like both the marriage and Angie are doomed.

The movie's pretty strong melodrama with some nice touches by director Heisler, (e.g. the subjective camera conveying Angie's delirium). It's hard to picture the wooden Bowman as any kind of lounge singer; still he is recessive enough not to take focus from Hayward's central role. I expect that's why he was cast. Eddie Albert certainly has an easy way as nice guy Steve, while Marsha Hunt appears ice cold except for her one revealing scene, (btw, she's still with us as of 2015 at age 98, a fine actress whose career was unfortunately damaged by the blacklist). And catch the omniscient psychiatrist (Esmond) back when Hollywood was having a love affair with head doctors.

Anyhow, the film holds up as human interest, even if it long ago lost its cutting edge. Too bad there's that phony Code enforced ending. It's so abruptly brief, my guess is writer Lawson and director Heisler wanted to lessen the sappy impact as much as possible. Nonetheless, the film does showcase one of Hollywood's few glamour girls who was also a whale of an actress. RIP Susan.

A successful singer Angelica Evans (Susan Hayward) gives up her career and marries unsuccessful singer Ken Conway (Lee Bowman). She happily sacrifices for him and his partner (Eddie Albert). Eventually he DOES hit it big, she has a baby...but he never has time for her--his rising career comes first. She slowly drifts into alcoholism.

This was probably hard-hitting in 1947 (a female alcoholic) but it's not even remotely surprising today. It tiredly follows all the rules of a drama like this leading to a jaw-dropping happy ending that was TOTALLY unbelievable (but the Production Code demanded that). Also Bowman is pretty stiff as the husband and this looks pretty cheap (it WAS independently financed).

Still Hayward is so good all the shortcomings can be forgiven. She dives into the role full force and gives everything she has to it. This film (understandably) made her a star and earned her an Academy Award nomination. She's just incredible--it's worth sitting through just for her acting. Also Albert is very good in his supporting role.

So it is dated and really not that good--but worth seeing for Haywood's strong, impressive performance.

Susan Hayward's fine performance, for which she is deservedly well-remembered, is easily the best reason to watch this feature. Overall it is not bad, but mostly unremarkable, and it is Hayward's ability to make her character interesting, believable, and sympathetic that makes the rest of it work.

The story has many familiar elements, with Angie (Hayward's character) sacrificing her singing career for the sake of her husband's own singing career. Her ups-and-downs, her battle with alcoholism, and her fears about her relationships all provide good material for Hayward to work with.

As the husband, Lee Bowman is quite bland and one-dimensional, so much so that it almost looks deliberate. Eddie Albert helps out as the husband's partner, and Marsha Hunt gives a good performance as Angie's cold-blooded rival. Carl Esmond gets a couple of good moments as the caring doctor who tries to set things right.

While much of the story follows familiar formulas, it does bring out a few useful thoughts, and more than that it allows for a well-developed look at its main character. Its strengths as a character study and as an acting performance make it worthwhile, despite a few weaknesses elsewhere.

Anyone who passes up the chance to see Susan Hayward in "Smash-Up" because they've already seen her play a drunk in 1956's more popular "I'll Cry Tomorrow" are missing out on a great performance from the star. Hayward seems to relish her role in this extremely well-written melodrama deluxe involving a nightclub songbird who gives up her career to be a wife and mother. But when husband Lee Bowman's singing career takes off, she feels forgotten and falls back on her main weakness (always a little shy--maybe anti-social--she hits the sauce). John Howard Lawson wrote the screenplay from a treatment by Dorothy Parker (!) and Frank Cavett, and their dialogue has a canny ring of Hollywood-ized truth (meaning it's ripe with romanticized realizations). Far from camp, the movie shrewdly gives a woman who doesn't fall apart simply because of her husband's popularity--she had a streak of insecurity before they wed--and even a loyal friend of hers doesn't come racing to her rescue (she has to hit bottom, and even at the finale I wasn't totally sure she had embraced sobriety). Some odd moments: there's a quick scene with Hayward waking up in a stranger's house on Skid Row which isn't used for anything other than a bridge to the next scene, and the crucial last shot of Hayward and Bowman is muffed because Hayward has her back to the camera. Eddie Albert is very good as Bowman's accompanist (he helped Hayward out in "I'll Cry Tomorrow" too) and Marsha Hunt is fantastic as an executive with eyes for Bowman (her designs are subtle, but Susan catches them, leading to a great catfight). Glossy but not soft, "Smash-Up", which may have been loosely based on Bing Crosby's first marriage, was criticized at the time for being merely a distaff variation of "The Lost Weekend". However, it gives us a fine actress in her prime, and her strong performance here is well worth-seeing. *** from ****