Movie Biographies: I'll Cry Tomorrow

1955 Biography
From MGM
Directed by Daniel Mann

Starring
Susan Hayward
Jo Van Fleet
Richard Conte
Eddie Albert
Don Taylor
Ray Danton
Margo
Virginia Gregg
Don Barry

Lillian Roth is little-known today but she worked as a singer-actress from the time she was seven years old in 1917 until her final movie in 1979.  In the early fifties she wrote her first autobiography on which this film is based.  It focused on her relationship with her domineering stage mother (Jo Van Fleet), her relationships with men and her extreme alcoholism.  It was a scorching bestseller, a great deal of which could not be brought to a movie screen in 1955.  

The movie does provide an illuminating look into Roth's life although it contains a fair amount of fiction that has always been prevalent in movie bios.  The story delves into two of Roth's marriages while, in fact, there were six.  It shows her as an only child of a divorced mother whereas Roth was raised with both parents and also had a sister.

I suspect Roth, especially today, is more known for Susan Hayward's portrayal of her than she is for being herself.  In Hayward's canon of films, this stands out as one of her most famous, one she was eminently qualified to play.  Hayward had known a lot of hard knocks herself.  Additionally, she had previously played an alcoholic singer (in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman,1947) and a real-life singer, Jane Froman, in With a Song in My Heart,1952).  Appropriately she was nominated for Oscars for both of these films and also Cry.

Roth was thrust (more like kicked, pushed and threatened) into show business by her conniving, aggressive mother who, like all stage mothers, really wanted to be an actress herself but fell into domesticity and motherhood before she had a chance to pursue her dreams.

Like a number of children in this position, Lillian had little or no desire to be a performer, although she had some talent.  She was simply not able to tell her mother no.  As a scrawl at the opening of the film reveals... my life was never my own.  It was charted before I was born.  As it turns out, Roth was a bit shy, had low self-esteem and for too long was unsure of her talent.  She never had a yen for being on display.

It's not surprising that she yearned to free herself from the stranglehold of her mother who was also her manager, secretary, music arranger, financial planner and warden.  Those who wanted to see or speak with Lillian handled it through her mother first.

Shortly before her marriage to David Lyons (Ray Danton), her childhood sweetheart, he dies, sending Roth into an alcoholic haze that lasted for many years.  Hers was as bad as it gets... seedy hotel rooms with strangers, hocking her mink for booze, passed out in bars, on buses and on the streets and of course, eventually losing work.

She marries a sailor (Don Taylor) on the day she meets him and their year-long marriage was a boozefest.  She then meets a suave, former alcoholic (Richard Conte) who falls off the wagon after their marriage and beats her.

Her relationship with her mother, of course, greatly suffers.  Because the older woman is no longer getting wads of money from her daughter, she is now living in squalor.  She desperately wants her daughter to shake off her demons and get back into performing.

Ultimately, at her lowest point, Roth finds her way to AA.  The scenes are harrowing and difficult to watch, as is a failed suicide attempt, but quite the tribute to the force of Hayward's acting.  Ultimately she falls in love with a mentor at AA, Burt McGuire (Eddie Albert).  They decide to marry after her recovery.  The film ends with her appearance on TV's then-mega-popular, This Is Your Life, a similar ending to 1982's Frances, detailing the equally tortuous life of alcoholic actress Frances Farmer.  In neither film did I care for those endings.  They were disappointing, a little cheesy and despite their truth, I think they could have ended with something more meaningful.

Despite the romantic hue of the ending, her marriage to McGuire (the only husband whose real name is used in the movie) lasted only a few years before he left her for a man.

By the time MGM announced the upcoming production, every actress in Hollywood wanted to play Lillian Roth.  Singing, dancing, acting and playing an alcoholic is the stuff of actresses' dreams.  Grace Kelly, Jean Simmons, Jane Wyman, Piper Laurie and Janet Leigh made it known they wanted to play Roth.  I thought Laurie, who was dying to make better films than the schlock Universal was offering her, would have been terrific.  Jane Russell assertively campaigned for the part before Hayward nabbed it.  

But the closest contender was June Allyson who was looking to modify her screen image of the perfect wife with the perfect life.  Since the film was being made at her home studio, she thought she was a shoo-in.  Director Chuck Walters made it known he was in her corner.  New studio head, Dore Schary, however, was not crazy about Allyson or her abilities and when he nixed her for the part, Walters left the production in a huff.

So with no director and no lead actress, pre-production marched on.  In the background, with little or no mention, Hayward was planning her crafty moves.  One of the first things she did was catch Roth's Vegas show.  She saw it a few times and took note of Roth's every move, all the nuances and bits of stage business. She zeroed in on Roth's delivery of her songs.  As a result, the two women became close friends for a while.

The real and reel Lillian Roth

Hayward also wrote a letter to Schary, speaking of her meeting and new friendship with Roth, detailing past roles that would help her play Roth and basically begging for the part.  Schary may not have thought of Hayward initially because she was not part of MGM but he had to be aware that she was always near the top of notable actresses of the 50's and that she was best at playing tortured women.  While she was never popular with studio moguls, none could dismiss her ability to make money for them.  She got the role.

Interestingly, not only did Roth not record her own songs for Hayward to lip sync (and she was very disappointed) but Hayward had never done her own singing in a film.  But it is indeed Hayward voice belting out some of Roth's signature tunes... When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along, Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, Sing You Sinners and a little of The Vagabond King Waltz.

Hayward obviously threw all she had into the film, most of which was her own chaotic life.  As popular as she was in the fifties and as good as her work was, her performance clearly echoed battles of her real life at the time.  She was in a divorce war with her actor-husband, Jess Barker, over the custody of their twins.  She had just recently had two good friends die.  She was arguing heavily with her mother and had started drinking more than she ever had.  Hmmm, was this life imitating art or art imitating life?

Much of this made the press and it didn't always paint Hayward in a favorable light.  She was also sexually involved with character actor Don Barry, who has a small role in the AA scenes of the film.  While they were alone at his home, his fiancée, starlet Jil Jarmyn walked in and she and Hayward got into a physical fight.  Hayward came out the victor but as this and other highly-publicized events made the papers, the actress attempted suicide with pills and booze.  It must have made for an interesting time for the movie's yet-to-be-filmed suicide scene. 

No wonder Hayward understood how to so magnificently play self-destructive characters.  Playing Roth seemed to do her in and watching her playing Roth kind of did me in.  Much as I like the film and adore her performance, it is difficult to watch.  The drinking, the DTs, the blank stares, the lifeless body, the heart-breaking scenes with her mother just wear out an audience.  It is a wonderful performance, all the more so knowing some background.

If all of this turmoil in her personal life weren't enough, consider that her next film was opposite John Wayne in The Conqueror.  It is believed that it is the film and the nearby nuclear testing site that is said to have caused Hayward's death (along with other cast and crew members) from cancer at age 57. 

The entire cast, of course, performs admirably but it is a privilege to take in the gifts offered by Van Fleet.  The pain she expresses in her face as her daughter succumbs to alcoholism just blows me away.  A fun aside is knowing Van Fleet was only one and a half years older than Hayward.

After Hayward was hired, she personally asked for Daniel Mann to direct.  She was not only impressed with his guidance of Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba, but Booth had won the Oscar.  Probably no actress in the history of movies wanted to win an Oscar more than Hayward.  What a rub that the same year he made I'll Cry Tomorrow, Mann also directed Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo.  Both she and Hayward would be nominated for Oscars but Magnani came out the winner.  Hayward would get her Oscar three years later for I Want to Live.

The film was a roaring success... no surprise there.  I have no doubt all true Hayward fans have seen it.  If you haven't, you should.  It's a good film about a real person with real problems and contains some wonderful acting.  Adding to it Hayward's real-life drama at the time makes the film all the more watchable. 

Here, take a gander:

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