Une femme en enfer

One of the best pictures ever made showcasing the talent of the brilliant Susan Hayward.

Miss Hayward was never better as Lillian Roth. Her drunk scenes are unbelievably realistic. Just ask any alcoholic.

Susan Hayward was equally matched by the terrific supporting performance of Jo Van Fleet as her mother. Van Fleet would win the coveted Oscar that same year (1955) for "East of Eden." I'll never understand why. She was far better as Katie Roth.

Hayward, who did her own singing, did very well. It is even said that Lillian Roth tried to emulate Hayward, when trying to make a comeback.

The film co-stars Ray Danton as Hayward's ill-fated fiancé, whose death from an apparent rapidly growing brain tumor, sets Roth on a downward spiral. Don Taylor, who would later become a director, is effective as Wallie, the guy who Roth marries when she is dead drunk. Richard Conte steals the show as the brutal Tony, who takes Roth for a ride, before she dumps him in California.

Eddie Albert, in one of his greatest roles, is terrific as Burt McGuire from AA. A recovering alcoholic, still hesitant about life, he acted beautifully in some memorable scenes.

Hayward's singing and dancing, especially in the number, Sing You Sinners from the Vagabond King, is marvelously staged.

Susan Hayward began her long trek in playing troubled women in the 1947 hit Smash-Up: The Story of A Woman. Both she and Eddie Albert got great experience for their parts, 8 years later, in this fabulous movie.

Sad story but Susan Hayward's powerhouse performance holds you from beginning to end. She's matched by Jo Van Fleet as her mother, even though she's overbearing and grasping she makes it clear that she loves her daughter and is at a loss as to how to help her as she washes away in a sea of alcohol. This could be Hayward's career best performance even if it's a stretch at the beginning to believe she's suppose to be in her late teens. Forget that and watch as she takes you through the downward spiral of this tormented woman, doing her own vocals most impressively. Her scenes when Lillian has hit rock bottom are almost painful to watch but her mastery is assured.

Superb performance by Susan Hayward as Lillian Roth.

No eye for period detail, not even an attempt, and probably a lot of hooey biographically, BUT....

Terrific performances by Susan Hayward as Lillian Roth and Jo Van Fleet as her mother. The two women give stunning performances.

The film is a tad preachy with the AA message but Hayward and Van Fleet (born a year apart) are a feast. I don't think any actress ever gave better performances as a drunk than Hayward (SMASH-UP), And Van Fleet, who made her film debut in 1955, scored in this film as well as EAST OF EDEN and THE ROSE TATTOO--all in 1955! Richard Conte, Eddie Albert, Margo, Don Taylor, Virginia Gregg, Ray Danton, Henry Kulky, Veda Ann Borg, and Tol Avery co-star......

Anyone know who did the singing voice for Hayward?

Lillian Roth was a big stage star who made a few good films in the early 30s and always seemed likable.

MGM director Charles Walters was originally assigned to I'll Cry Tomorrow; and wanted to cast June Allyson (who was not unlike the young Lillian Roth, in some respects). Walters wanted to start with Roth as an innocent girl, slowly chipping away at the surface, until the innocence was eaten away by fear. He knew June was tougher than people realized, and was certain she would excel. They had been working on the role, when Susan Hayward decided she wanted it. Taking her case to Roth herself, she eventually prevailed, causing Walters to quit, noting that Hayward had already played an alcoholic, in Smash Up (1947), and a famous singer who faced tragedy, in With A Song In My Heart (1952). By the way, if you sometimes get all three of these pictures mixed up, join the club.

At any rate, there are people who think Hayward was brilliant in this film, and those who feel she overdid it. Not over-acting, but perhaps, over-feeling. I fall into the latter category. She starts in a rather high gear, and just goes higher. While she's commendably emotional, and touching, I think we lose track of the story and the character, due to the focus on unbridled histrionics. Eventually, she just seems to be devouring everything in her path - including the movie. If this fascinates you, well, it fascinated me, too, but is it a performance?

Jo Van Fleet (in the role Walters wanted Mary Astor for) doesn't exactly back away from the big gesture, herself. A good actress with a nice understanding of the material, she nonetheless pulls out the stops, giving us the long-suffering mama complete with European accent (Roth found this surprising, noting that her mother only had a Boston accent). Much younger than her part, she does a good job - but the histrionics may wear you out. Especially when she and Hayward go at it hammer and tong.

As for the singing of Susan Hayward, you probably won't be asking yourself what took her so long to decide to sing in motion pictures. She does reasonably well, but it's not the voice or style of a successful professional singer.

Towards the end, we have Eddie Albert and his real-life wife, Margo (whom you may remember had a problem when she tried to leave Shangri-La, in Lost Horizon, back in 1937). They help Susan - I mean, Lillian - get back on her feet, with the assistance of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you're still around (and why not? It's a fairly gripping picture, overall) you may be touched, and a little relieved, that the shouting, and maybe even the singing, is over for a while.

I'll Cry Tomorrow was the title of the autobiography of Lillian Roth, former singing star of the Twenties and Early Thirties whose career like her contemporary Helen Morgan took a nose dive into the toilet. Unlike Morgan, Roth survived to tell about it and became one of the first name clients of Alcholics Anonymous.

That does seem like an oxymoron because as an organization AA does survive on the anonymity of its members. But Lillian Roth went public with her story as a warning to those becoming to dependent on alcohol.

Susan Hayward gave one of her best screen performances ever in essaying the part of Lillian Roth. In fact she does her own singing here and even made a record of four of the songs she sang in this film, When the Red Red Robin, Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe, Sing You Sinners, and Waltz Hugette. She had previously played singers in With a Song In My Heart and Smash-Up, but was dubbed by others.

Hayward was an amazing talent, even in some of her worst films she comes across like no other actress. Even Bette Davis who could chew scenery in a bad film to make it entertaining could never hold a candle to my fellow Brooklynite, Susan Hayward. That she could sing too, is no surprise to me.

Probably Lillian Roth's best known screen roles are in Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, in the Marx Brothers comedy, Animal Crackers and in the first screen version of the Vagabond King. The first two are out, I wish the third was also, a print might no longer exist.

Jo Van Fleet played Hayward's mother, the Jewish stage mother from the lower depths. Van Fleet gave one of her most acclaimed performances here. Her Jewish New York accent is the only clue to Lillian's ethnic background. It's a sad portrayal of a woman who both lived vicariously through her daughter and is pushing her because she wants her not to have as tough a life as she had.

Richard Conte, Ray Danton, Don Taylor, and Eddie Albert all play men in in Roth's life and though the protagonist is a woman, each of the guys makes an indelible image. Ray Danton plays her boyhood fiancé who dies young and helps start Lillian's downward spiral. In that Roth's story was very similar to that other star of the Twenties Marilyn Miller who lost a husband early and never recovered from it. That's all depicted in the Marilyn Miller biographical film, Look for the Silver Lining from 20th Century Fox a few years before this.

Hayward got a deserved Oscar nomination for this part, but lost to Anna Magnani. That was a year for substance abuse because Frank Sinatra got a nomination for playing a junkie in The Man With the Golden Arm. Both Sue and Frank went through gut wrenching withdrawal scenes in both films.

I'll Cry Tomorrow is always listed among the five best films of Susan Hayward's. It's some people's personal favorite and while mine happens to be I Want to Live, this one is right up there.