Over a decade after this movie was made, Susan Hayward would snap at Patty Duke about how Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope. It's too bad that Helen Lawson wasn't around when Lillian Roth was at her height, because she might have snapped it out of her, too. Unlike her role as Jane Froman, Susan Hayward got to actually sing here, and rather well, too. Froman's voice was too identified for another to sing her story through song, but by the mid 1950's, Roth was a blowsy character type whose parade might not have yet passed her by, but wasn't quite what it had been back during her heyday of the late 1920's and 30's.
When you see Lillian Roth in her 1930's film appearances today, she seems like a cute and sweet pixie with lots of vim and verve. But there was trouble in her supposed paradise with a ruthless stage mother (played by Jo Van Fleet with venom in her seemingly sweet demeanor), and so when you see Roth in her series of Warner Brothers shorts or supporting parts in "The Love Parade" or "Ladies They Talk About", you are seeing the artist, not the human being. Susan Hayward brings on the human being, and that makes for another engrossing tale of the rise above major problems and what glories come out of it.
Hayward shows the lowest of the lowest points in Roth's life, falling apart even in spite of the fact that she was a very popular artist. Hayward's breathy voice is perfect for the musical numbers, especially "When the Red Red Robbin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along". The men in her life are brilliantly played by Richard Conte and Eddie Albert, but it is Hayward and Van Fleet who score big here. The drunken singer tale wouldn't be so well told a few years later when Ann Blyth was miscast as Helen Morgan whose tragic life had no upward swing to it. For Roth, she would be back on Broadway in supporting roles in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" and "70 Girl 70" long after this movie had come out and reaped praise on its star, a nice footnote in a life that ended up being triumphant rather than tragic.
When you see Lillian Roth in her 1930's film appearances today, she seems like a cute and sweet pixie with lots of vim and verve. But there was trouble in her supposed paradise with a ruthless stage mother (played by Jo Van Fleet with venom in her seemingly sweet demeanor), and so when you see Roth in her series of Warner Brothers shorts or supporting parts in "The Love Parade" or "Ladies They Talk About", you are seeing the artist, not the human being. Susan Hayward brings on the human being, and that makes for another engrossing tale of the rise above major problems and what glories come out of it.
Hayward shows the lowest of the lowest points in Roth's life, falling apart even in spite of the fact that she was a very popular artist. Hayward's breathy voice is perfect for the musical numbers, especially "When the Red Red Robbin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along". The men in her life are brilliantly played by Richard Conte and Eddie Albert, but it is Hayward and Van Fleet who score big here. The drunken singer tale wouldn't be so well told a few years later when Ann Blyth was miscast as Helen Morgan whose tragic life had no upward swing to it. For Roth, she would be back on Broadway in supporting roles in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" and "70 Girl 70" long after this movie had come out and reaped praise on its star, a nice footnote in a life that ended up being triumphant rather than tragic.