TCM Schedule for Friday, August 30, 2019 -- Summer Under the Stars: Susan Hayward

[Staph]

Today's Star is Susan Hayward. His TCM bio:

Pretty, exuberant leading lady who began her Hollywood career in 1937 as a bit player and was a star by the mid-1940s. Talented and tempestuous, with a penchant for playing ripe melodrama with all the stops out, Hayward reached her peak in the early 1950s in such enjoyably sudsy vehicles as "My Foolish Heart" (1950), "With a Song in My Heart" (1952) and "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (1955). She was often cast as the brassy, defiant heroine, as in her Oscar-winning role "I Want to Live!" (1958), where she splendidly played the real-life Barbara Graham, a woman who was wrongly sentenced to death. Hayward's stardom petered out by the mid-60s, but she continued playing occasional leads and character roles (including a part as a past-her-prime film star in the abysmal "Valley of the Dolls" 1969) on film and TV until shortly before her death of a brain tumor in 1975.

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- I THANK A FOOL (1962)
A woman once convicted of euthanasia gets a job caring for her prosecutor's wife.
Dir: Robert Stevens
Cast: Susan Hayward, Peter Finch, Diane Cilento
C-100 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Audrey Erskine Lindop.


8:00 AM -- THE HONEY POT (1967)
A millionaire fakes a terminal illness to fleece his former girlfriends.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson
C-132 mins, Letterbox Format

Joseph L. Mankiewicz first script contained several novelties that never made it to the screen. Among them was a series of memos from a theater-chain owner (made to look as though they had been slipped in front of the projector) that commented on the action taking place. Also, there was to have been a running argument (resembling backstage squabbling) between a theater manager and the actor playing Cecil over such things as lines and cues.


10:30 AM -- STOLEN HOURS (1963)
An American heiress with an incurable disease falls in love with her surgeon.
Dir: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Susan Hayward, Michael Craig, Diane Baker
C-97 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Also known as Summer Flight.


12:30 PM -- ADA (1961)
A call girl weds an easygoing politician and helps him against corrupt state officials.
Dir: Daniel Mann
Cast: Susan Hayward, Dean Martin, Wilfrid Hyde-White
C-108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Like many of her contemporaries, such as Claudette Colbert and Jean Arthur, Susan Hayward was photographed almost exclusively from the left side, usually the preferred left three-quarters angle.


2:30 PM -- THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME (1947)
A faithless husband is charged with a murder he didn't commit.
Dir: Irving Pichel
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Young, Jane Greer
BW-80 mins, CC,

When RKO re-released this in 1957, they cut it down from 95 minutes to 80 minutes, for more convenient double-billing, a typical practice at that time, especially for RKO. Turner Classic Movies repeatedly shows the 80 minute version, despite the fact that the 95 minute version has been restored and is marketed on DVD.


4:00 PM -- THE LUSTY MEN (1952)
A faded rodeo star mentors a younger rider but falls for his wife.
Dir: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy
BW-113 mins, CC,

The world's first rodeo was held July 4, 1869 in Deer Trail, Colorado. Cities such as Pecos, TX, Prescott, AZ, and Payson, AZ have also laid claim to the title, but Deer Trail has been officially recognized by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) as the first.


6:00 PM -- MY FOOLISH HEART (1949)
A young innocent's life is shattered when she falls for a World War II flyer.
Dir: Mark Robson
Cast: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Kent Smith
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward, and Best Music, Original Song -- Victor Young (music) and Ned Washington (lyrics) for the song "My Foolish Heart"

This remains the only film adaptation of a fictional work written by J.D. Salinger, having been adapted from his short story, "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", taken from the volume Nine Short Stories. Salinger was incredibly disappointed with the changes made to his original story, and never again allowed any of his work to be adapted for film.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: SUSAN HAYWARD



8:00 PM -- I'LL CRY TOMORROW (1955)
True story of singer Lillian Roth's battle against alcoholism.
Dir: Daniel Mann
Cast: Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Eddie Albert
BW-119 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Arthur E. Arling, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- Cedric Gibbons, Malcolm Brown, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt

Pryor to filming, Susan Hayward took the opportunity to study Lillian Roth's vocal style, tone and delivery when Miss Roth performed in Las Vegas. Moreover, the two women became friends during the production.


10:15 PM -- HOUSE OF STRANGERS (1949)
After years in prison, Max promises revenge on his brothers for their betrayal.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte
BW-101 mins, CC,

According to Kenneth L. Geist's biography of the film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, People Will Talk, the film's producer Sol Siegel hired Philip Yordan to adapt Joseph Weidman's novel for the screen. After Yordan submitted three-quarters of the script, Siegel, finding the script unacceptable, fired him and asked Mankiewicz to redo the script. Mankiewicz rewrote all of Yordan's dialogue, reshaped the script and finished it. The Screen Writers Guild ruled that Yordan receive sole story credit and that Yordan and Mankiewicz share credit for the screenplay. Mankiewicz refused to share credit for a screenplay he had basically written and so received no credit. The studio remade House of Strangers as a western in 1954 as Broken Lance and Yordan was given credit for the story and won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. As Yordan's filmography shows, he was a prolific front in the 1950s for screenwriters who were blacklisted. And so, it seems oddly fitting that he received his only Academy Award for a film (Broken Lance) that he did not work on that was based on a screenplay to which his contribution is a matter of dispute.


12:15 AM -- WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (1952)
This film focuses on the rise of an aspiring songstress.
Dir: Walter Lang
Cast: Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne
C-117 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Alfred Newman

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Thelma Ritter, Best Costume Design, Color -- Charles Le Maire, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton (20th Century-Fox Sound Department)

Susan Hayward's singing was dubbed by Jane Froman.


2:30 AM -- SMASH-UP, THE STORY OF A WOMAN (1947)
A singer's wife turns to the bottle when she fears she's lost her husband to success.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Marsha Hunt
BW-103 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Susan Hayward, and Best Writing, Original Story -- Dorothy Parker and Frank Cavett

Reportedly suggested by the life and career of Bing Crosby and songstress wife Dixie Lee; when his popularity as an entertainer eclipsed that of Lee, she drifted into extreme alcoholism, just as Susan Hayward's character does in film.


4:45 AM -- GIRLS ON PROBATION (1938)
A dizzy young girl falls into crime but wins her lawyer's heart.
Dir: William McGann
Cast: Jane Bryan, Ronald Reagan, Anthony Averill
BW-64 mins,

Susan Hayward's first credited role.

[TeamPooka]

1. There is no dispute with House of Strangers. The Screen Writers Guild ruled that Yordan get credit

That ends the dispute.
The only dispute was in Mankiewicz's head.

no writer is ever happy after a SWG/WGA credit review panel but they almost always get it right.