I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Daniel Mann

Writers:

Lillian Roth (book) and
Mike Connolly (book) ...
(more)

Release Date:

25 December 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Tagline:

Filmed on location; inside a woman's soul.

Plot:

Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie (Jo Van Fleet), Lillian Roth (Susan Hayward)...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Hollywood | Broadway | Alcoholic | Divorce

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 13

3:30 PM

TCM

Cast

Susan Hayward	...	Lillian Roth
Richard Conte	...	Tony Bardeman
Eddie Albert	...	Burt McGuire
Jo Van Fleet	...	Katie Roth
Don Taylor	...	Wallie
Ray Danton	...	David Tredman
Margo	...	Selma
Virginia Gregg	...	Ellen
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Jerry (as Don Barry)
David Kasday	...	David as a child
Carole Ann Campbell	...	Lillian as a child
Peter Leeds	...	Richard Elstead
Tol Avery	...	Joe - drunk party guest
Anthony Jochim	...	Paul (butler)
Jack Daly	...	Cab driver
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mary Bear	...	Wife (uncredited)
Larry J. Blake	...	AA Member (uncredited)
Nesdon Booth	...	Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Veda Ann Borg	...	Waitress (uncredited)
Peter Brocco	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Henry Brock	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Budd Buster	...	Streetcar switchman (uncredited)
Timothy Carey	...	Derelict (uncredited)
Harry Cody	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Lucille Curtis	...	Stage Mother (uncredited)
Robert Dix	...	Henry (uncredited)
Joe Duval	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Ralph Edwards	...	Himself (uncredited)
Kay English	...	Dress designer (uncredited)
Stanley Farrar	...	Movie director (uncredited)
Jerrilyn Flannery	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Nightclub patron (uncredited)
Joel Fluellen	...	The porter (uncredited)
Gail Ganley	...	Lillian Roth, age 15 (uncredited)
Jack Gargan	...	Restaurant Cashier (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Party guest (uncredited)
Elizabeth Holmes	...	Stage Mother (uncredited)
Bob Hopkins	...	MC (uncredited)
Sonny Howe	...	Acrobatic Dancer (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Alcoholics Anonymous Patient (uncredited)
Marc Krah	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Frank Kreig	...	Bar Patron (uncredited)
Henry Kulky	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Eddie Lee	...	Chinese Grocer (uncredited)
George Lloyd	...	Studio messenger (uncredited)
Alyn Lockwood	...	Stage Mother (uncredited)
Herbert Lytton	...	Streetcar conductor (uncredited)
Nora Marlowe	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Alphonse Martell	...	Nightclub Waiter (uncredited)
Eve McVeagh	...	Ethel (uncredited)
Cheerio Meredith	...	Elderly lady (uncredited)
Frank Mills	...	Dock Worker (uncredited)
Jimmy Ogg	...	Usher (uncredited)
Kenneth Patterson	...	Audition director (uncredited)
George Pembroke	...	Husband (uncredited)
Voltaire Perkins	...	Mr. Byrd (movie producer) (uncredited)
Florence Ravenel	...	Stage Mother (uncredited)
Vernon Rich	...	Club manager (uncredited)
George Selk	...	Switchman (uncredited)
Robert R. Stephenson	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Ruth Storey	...	Marge Belney (uncredited)
Charles Tannen	...	Audition stage manager (uncredited)
Bill Walker	...	Porter (uncredited)
Harlan Warde	...	Stage manager (uncredited)
Guy Wilkerson	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Robert Williams	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Bernadette Withers	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Jeane Wood	...	Stage Mother (uncredited)

Directed by
Daniel Mann

Writing credits
Lillian Roth		(book) and
Mike Connolly		(book) and
Gerold Frank		(book)
Helen Deutsch		(screenplay) and
Jay Richard Kennedy		(screenplay)

Produced by
Lawrence Weingarten	....	producer

Original Music by
Alex North

Cinematography by
Arthur E. Arling		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Harold F. Kress

Art Direction by
Malcolm Brown
Cedric Gibbons

Set Decoration by
Hugh Hunt
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by
Helen Rose

Makeup Department
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair stylist
William Tuttle	....	makeup designer

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Al Jennings	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Wesley C. Miller	....	recording supervisor (as Dr. Wesley C. Miller)

Special Effects by
Warren Newcombe	....	special effects

Music Department
Xavier Cugat	....	composer: song "Cui Cui"
Foster Curbelo	....	composer: song "Cui Cui" (as Fausto Curbelo)
Johnny Green	....	music supervisor
Charles Henderson	....	musical director
Albert Stillman	....	composer: song "Cui Cui"

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1978) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (19??) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PA (Ontario) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

According to actress Patty Duke, she made one of her very first movie appearances in this film as a non-speaking extra eating a pretzel. She and Susan Hayward were infamously teamed years later in Valley of the Dolls (1967).

Goofs:

Continuity: Lillian sits at a desk and begins to write a suicide note on a pad of paper. When she rises from the desk to walk to the window the pad of paper, as well as the pen, are nowhere in sight.

Quotes:

[alcoholic Lillian is desperate for a drink - mother drops the glass bottle on the floor, shattering it]
Lillian Roth: OH! Look what ya did! And ya DID IT ON PURPOSE! You're still trying to make me do what you want, to be what you want! I can't be anything except what I am! Look, look what did you drop that bottle for? What are you trying to do, drive me crazy? Go on, GET THE BOTTLE! GET IT NOW!
Katie Roth: All right! All right! All right, it's my fault, huh? I made you become an actress, you didn't want to, all right. I've been a bad mother, you had to support me, all right! All right! ALL RIGHT, EVERYTHING! Just this, and for once in your life you're gonna hear it...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Maude: The Convention (#1.14)" (1973)

Soundtrack:

Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe

My Life Was Never My Own

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.