Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman

 

Stuart Heisler: Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947). Angie Evans (Susan Hayward) attacks her husband's business manager Martha Gray (Marsha Hunt).

A Woman Destroyed / Una donna distrusse / Virran viemä / Vinddriven.
    US 1947. D: Stuart Heisler.
    Sog.: Dorothy Parker, Frank Cavett. Scen.: John Howard Lawson, Lionel Wiggam. F.: Stanley Cortez. M.: Milton Carruth. Scgf.: Alexander Golitzen. Mus.: Daniele Amfitheatrof, Frank Skinner.
    Int.: Susan Hayward (Angie Evans), Lee Bowman (Ken Conway), Marsha Hunt (Martha Gray), Eddie Albert (Steve), Carl Esmond (dottor Lorenz), Carleton G. Young (Fred Elliott), Charles D. Brown (Michael ‘Mike’ Dawson), Janet Murdoch (Miss Kirk).
    Prod.: Walter Wanger per Universal-International Pictures Co. 35 mm. D.: 103'
    Songs original for the picture: "I Miss That Feeling" (comp. Jimmy McHugh, lyr. Harold Adamson), played by bands in various nightclubs and sung by Susan Hayward (dubbed by Peg La Centra n.c.)
    "Life Can Be Beautiful" (comp. Jimmy McHugh, lyr. Harold Adamson), played on piano by Eddie Albert (n.c.) and sung by Lee Bowman (dubbed by Hal Derwin n.c.)
    "Hushabye Island" (comp. Jimmy McHugh, lyr. Harold Adamson), lullaby sung by Lee Bowman (dubbed by Hal Derwin n.c.), and Susan Hayward (dubbed by Peg La Centra n.c.)
    "A Cowboy's Never Lonesome" (Jack Brooks) played on guitar by Eddie Albert and sung by Lee Bowman (dubbed by Hal Derwin n.c.)
    "Lonely Little Ranch House" (comp. Edgar Fairchild, lyr. Jack Brooks), played on guitar by Eddie Albert and sung by Lee Bowman (dubbed by Hal Derwin n.c.)
    Finnish premiere: 25 Dec 1948 Elysee, distributed by Oy Filmiseppo.
    Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020: Guns for Hire: Frank Tuttle vs. Stuart Heisler
    Print: UCLA Film & Television Archive
    In English with e-subtitles in Italian.
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 26 Aug 2020.

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "Female insecurity in a male-dominated world is at the core of this proto-feminist melodrama, dubbed the “feminine version of The Lost Weekend”. Alcoholism as a subject found its way into three of Heisler’s films. In addition, his interest in women’s issues manifested itself in at least six films in which women are the leading characters, most prominently in two works starring Susan Hayward, Smash-Up and Tulsa. Talented singer Angie Evans abandons her profession to support the rising career of her musician husband. The birth of their child ties Angie further to the drab apartment in which she wastes her life, while her husband’s acclaim only adds to her sense of insecurity. She turns to drink and gradually becomes addicted. Told through one long flashback, the story leaves no room for optimistic resolutions, dragging Angie – an adequate performance by Hayward – through scene after scene of humiliation. With a script by communist writer John Howard Lawson – in fact, it’s the last film for which he was credited before being blacklisted in the same year – it’s not surprising that the story also doubles as a critique of a consumerist society, in which people don’t realise that in accumulating possessions they are paying with their own lives. Heisler, despite a low budget, shows a superb sense of direction. It is notable how he tended to tell the same story in different ways – with or without the use of colour. While Heisler’s ominous melodramas usually receive a more introspective and static treatment in colour (as in This Is My Love), in black-and-white the story becomes tensely semi-expressionistic, with many hysterical transitions, covering more ground than is demanded by the actual story (see the excellent montage of New York jazz club marquees during one of Angie’s drinking marathons). In his melodramas, tragedies are abundant; so are insanity, extinction, fear of other people and mob culture. For Heisler, the mere act of living has dire consequences." Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)

AA: A powerful melodrama about two singers who are in love and get married. Torch singer Angie Evans (Susan Hayward) retreats to the background to support her struggling husband Ken Conway (Lee Bowman). Conway's success with cowboy songs is limited, but on the very night when Angie gives birth to a baby, Ken sings a sincere and deeply felt love song, "Life Can Be Beautiful". He finds overnight success, and they move to a splendid New York apartment. Ken wants to give Angie everything, but relieved of all her burdens, Angie finds life meaningless and is drawn deeper into drinking.

Although Angie is a great performer, she is socially insecure, and even as the hostess of her own party she feels an outsider and hides her insecurity in drinking. Ken has a business manager, Martha Gray (Marsha Hunt, born in 1917, still with us) who seems to excel in everything. Angie feels inferior, develops an unfounded sense of jealousy, and attacks Martha at a party, only humiliating herself. Due to escalating misunderstandings, Ken is estranged from Angie, who dedicates herself to the daughter Angelina, but because of her drinking, Angie is forbidden to meet her. Until one night she abducts her, and her neglected cigarette stub causes a fire.

Stuart Heisler directs Susan Hayward "in the first of her roles as a long-suffering heroine" to a performance of passion, vigour and complexity. Angie is complicit in becoming marginalized in her own life. The perfect love extolled in the film's theme song is not enough to save Angie from meaninglessness.

The tale gets told as an inner monologue during a delirium at the hospital where Angie has been taken after she has been almost fatally burned, trying to rescue her child from a fire. Angie's passion play unfolds in the mode of melodrama, complete with alcoholism, drunken driving and car crashes.

Susan Hayward's face lingers in memory in moments of radiant triumph as a nightclub singer and young mother, as well as covered in sweat and agony at childbirth and in the emergency room.

An immaculate print from UCLA Film & Television Archive.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: SYNOPSIS FROM AFI CATALOG ONLINE:

At White Memorial Hospital, a delirious woman, her face swathed in bandages, thrashes in her bed and recalls snatches of her past: The woman is nightclub singer Angie Evans. Although successful, Angie possesses little self-confidence and drinks to overcome her stage fright. Madly in love with Ken Conway, a struggling young composer and singer, Angie forsakes her own career to marry Ken and raise a family. With the help of Mike Dawson, Angie's agent and friend, Ken and his accompanist, Steve Anderson, get a job performing cowboy tunes on an early morning radio show. Angie encourages Ken to perform his own romantic ballads instead, and on the day that Angie gives birth to their daughter Angelica, Ken, emboldened, croons one of his own compositions over the air. The ballad wins Ken acclaim, and soon he is promoted to his own show in an evening time slot. As Ken's popularity soars, Angie cloisters herself at home with the baby. Angie's confidence is further eroded by her husband's new prominence. When Ken buys an exclusive apartment equipped with servants' quarters, and expects Angie to host glamorous social gatherings, she becomes even more insecure and again turns to drink. Ken's secretary, Martha Gray, gladly supplants Angie as Ken's hostess, causing Angie to seek further solace in a bottle. Ken's busy life leaves no time for a dependent wife, and when he invites Martha to join him and Angie and on a concert tour to Chicago, Angie, insecure, gets drunk and Ken leaves without her. While Ken is away, the baby falls critically ill with pneumonia, and Angie forswears drink and spends sleepless nights caring for the child until the crisis is over. Afterward, when Angie calls Ken at his hotel room, and Martha answers the phone, Angie's self-esteem is totally shattered and she again turns to drink. Ken hurries home to be home with his sick daughter, but when he finds Angie drunk, he becomes disgusted and returns to Chicago. Years pass and Angie, now a chronic alcoholic, sinks into the depths of despair. Urged by Steve to be more understanding of Angie, Ken decides to give a party in his wife's honor. At the party, Martha deliberately arouses Angie's jealousy, causing Angie to assault her in a drunken rage. Although Angie expresses remorse for her behavior, Ken, disgusted, files for divorce and seeks custody of their daughter. Rejecting Ken's offer of the apartment and a generous alimony settlement, Angie moves into a hotel, and with Mike's help, tries to rekindle her singing career. Remaining loyal to Angie, Steve confronts Martha when she begins to date Ken, causing her to break into tears and admit that she harbors an unrequited love for Ken. Refused visitation rights with her daughter, Angie continues to drink and one night passes out in the street. Upon awakening, Angie drives to see Angelica and kidnaps the girl from her nurse, Miss Kirk. After putting Angelica to bed, Angie drunkenly drops a lit cigarette on the floor, then leaves the room. Awakened by Angelica's screams, Angie dashes into the flames of the now burning house to rescue her daughter. Although Angelica is uninjured, Angie is badly burned. At the White Memorial Hospital, as Angie regains consciousness she cries for her child. Ken is at her bedside, and after Dr. Lorenz finally makes him comprehend Angie's desperation, Ken reconciles with his wife who then recovers with renewed self-reliance and strength.