She May Be "Back Street," But Still Susan Hayward's Show

And wasn’t it supposed to take place in WW II? Everything screamed sixties…

So typical of '60s movies... Same story with "Where Love Has Gone," three years later. The early part takes place during WWII, but you'd never know it...

I love Hayward, and always wonder why she doesn't get more gay love from gay film lovers.

If only she'd made a couple more truly great classic movies. She has 64 film & TV credits, but I'd say only a handful of her films are great.

The only Susan Hayward film where another actress steals the show. I love Susan but I find her a bit too nice in this. I still love it though

Too bad Douglas Sirk stopped making films in Hollywood by the time this film was made. He and Ross Hunter were a good team.

She looks like Shelley Fabares at R3.

Yes, Sirk gave Hunter's films some oomph!

'The funny thing about the old cliches is that they are true. You can't break the rules....you can't do what you want in spite of others.....you can't do what you want."

Susy was one vulnerable barracuda.

Original.

he 1940 version with Margaret Sullavan and Charles Boyer is the best version. The Hayward version is not good.

I love Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart, though. And she’s good in he Snows Of Kilimanjaro (though Ava Gardner is better), and I Can Get It For You Wholesale.

Sorry my T is sticking...

As are the fingers and palm of your right hand.

What was Virginia Grey's deal, anyway? She was so painfully thin. Also, while I'm sure all the stops were pulled to make Susan look like a total doll at 44, she doesn't look like a shellacked mannequin like Lana did at 38 in Imitation of Life...

I think Virginia Grey she was sort of a good luck charm for Ross Hunter and he had her in a lot of his films. Or he wanted to keep her employed. She was also in some of her friend Lana Turner’s films for that reason, I think.

She was at MGM for a long time and tested for and came close to getting some star parts (like the female lead in Cass Timberlane, with Spencer Tracy - that eventually went to Lana). She also went out with Clark Gable off and on for years and apparently they were about to get married when he suddenly married Lady Sylvia Ashley unexpectedly.

I don’t think Virginia ever got married, but never heard she was gay.

Virginia Gray as Crystal's co-worker, Pat has my favorite scene in The Women.

R16 It would be better if she didn’t have the “Just because she’s dark” line about Butterfly McQueen.

Butter Queen.

Virginia Grey and Ross Hunter were good friends - you'll always find her someplace in the movies he produced.

Rae Smith

R3. Well she has a reputation on DL as being somewhat homophobic, so ….

R21 There's a phone interview with her son on the internet somewhere where he says his mom was surrounded with nothing but gays in the last years of her life. Doesn't sound like the kind of company a homophobe would keep.

R22. Well I’m glad to hear that. Either I was given wrong information (entirely possible) or she mellowed in her later years, when she was ill and gay men were probably the people who gave her time and care. I always liked her.

R2 When in a few years we look at today's movies that take place in the 1970's and 1980's, we'll be cringing at them too. Hollywood rarely gets it right. One exception is Licorice Pizza.

More truly great classic movies, R3! How much more classic do you need than Valley of the Dolls, you poor deluded gay.

Happy Heavenly Birthday, John Gavin!

R20 - I think you mean rae Smith

I liked Susan Hayward in westerns.

"Rawhide" (1951) With Tyrone Power, Hugh Marlowe , Dean Jagger, Edgar Buchanan and Jack Elam.

and

"Garden of Evil" 1954 technicolor western with Susan, Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlow and Cameron Mitchell.