Susan and God (1940)
Directed by George Cukor

Film Review

Given the talent at his disposal it is surprising, if not downright shocking, that director George Cukor managed to make such a pig's unholy breakfast of this screen adaptation of Rachel Crothers' hit stage play Susan and God.  The main reason why the film fails so spectacularly to enterain is not too hard to see: Joan Crawford is woefully miscast in a comedy role that should have gone to someone with more comic verve, Katharine Hepburn springing readily to mind.  Crawford apparently based her nauseating portrayal of the central character on Gertrude Lawrence, the actress who played the lead in the original play, but she looks as if she is doing a seriously bad impression of her mortal enemy, Bette Davis.

It is easy to fault Crawford for her irritating vocal histrionics (which are only slightly less bareable than someone repeatedly running her fingernails down a blackboard in the presence of an extremely powerful amplifier) but she is at least making an effort - which is more than can be said for the rest of the cast, who look as if they are attending a wake.  Fredric March has never given a duller, more zombie-like performance than he does here and Rita Hayworth shows precious little of her usual sparkle and allure.  After a silly, hyperactive beginning the film rapidly goes down hill and terminal ennui sets in around the midpoint.  It all ends as a clunky melodrama with dialogue that appears to have been lifted from an early talkie.  Running to almost two hours Susan and God is practically an instrument of torture and resembles a screwball comedy that has had every last ounce of life and charm sucked out of it. When you consider the many classic American film comedies that bear George Cukor's name - Holiday (1938), Adam's Rib (1949), Born Yesterday (1950) - it's hard to believe that the director could sink to these depths. Maybe he just wasn't up to the challenge of directing Joan Crawford.

Film Synopsis

On her return to New York society after a European vacation Susan Trexel appears to be a changed woman.  She is no longer the vacuous, self-interested society matron she once was, but a selfless creature devoted to serving the interests of her fellow man - and woman.  For Susan has found God and she intends that the whole world should know about it.  Ignoring her neglected daughter and her husband Barrie's attempt to patch up their marriage, Susan immediately embroils herself in the personal problems of her closest friends, but her meddling does far more harm than good...