Truer words were never spoken as a dizzy New York socialite (Joan Crawford) talks everybody in her social circle to death over her new found spirituality which threatens to make her loose friends, in addition to her troubled husband (Fredric March). Crawford has just come home from England and hides from March at a Long Island estate while he searches in desperation for her after she fails to disembark from her ship. Crawford is too concerned with converting all her friends to this new found light in her life, totally oblivious to the fact that they are all annoyed by her constant chirping of "tell the truth". Her new found religious beliefs show her to be a total hypocrite, trying to fix everybody else when in fact, she's the one who needs the fixing.
In a role that might have suited Norma Shearer more than Crawford (a surprising revelation for me since I much prefer Crawford as an actress), Joan tries too hard to be flighty, but her cat-like qualities are too strong for her to successfully play a ditz. She was extremely funny as the bitchy Crystal in "The Women", but here, she fails to convince. You can't help but admire her for trying for a different type of role after years of long-suffering socialites who bared claws when necessary but cried in private.
The stage-trained March seems more at ease as the befuddled husband, punch-drunk from missing his wife and occasionally literally drunk from his anger at her, he becomes even more perplexed with her sudden change in attitude upon her return. The young Rita Quigley is given a plain demeanor as Crawford and March's only child to show Crawford's materialistic nature hasn't changed her one dimensional spirituality as she verbally attacks her own daughter for wearing dowdy outfits and doing nothing to make herself more attractive.
Amongst the social set are Nigel Bruce as a snobby cynic, Rita Hayworth as his much younger wife who is secretly in love with another man, and Ruth Hussey as the one realistic member of the social set who makes the comment about "divine silence" and admits to not being religious but finding Crawford's attitude too irreverent for what beliefs she obviously does have and wisely just keeps to herself. Marjorie Main is one of the household servants, and the very regal Constance Collier plays the English lady who influenced Crawford's spirituality change in the first place. A very young Gloria de Haven is seen briefly as one of Quigley's school chums.
While certainly a dated play in regards to the social scene of a Long Island estate, it does make some wise observations about the dangers of home-made religions and tossing spiritual beliefs down other's throats that ultimately offends them. Today, churches of practically every belief seem to pop up on practically every street corner (remember the "Rhythm of Life" church in "Sweet Charity"?) and obviously cause more confusion than good. Obviously, the writer's intention here was to parody this fact and to wisen the viewer to utilize their own good judgement in finding an individual relationship with God rather than to rely on man-made beliefs and creeds.
Another obvious point the writer was trying to make is that spirituality is an individual choice that shouldn't be influenced by political or personal agendas, and that even Susan, as messed up as she was, needed to find her own identity with God rather than to become subject to something that wasn't really anything more than a high-society cult. Without this wisdom, we'd all be subject to constant judgments from all the Susans of the world, or even an "Aunt Esther" (Fred Sanford's bible- thumping sister-in-law on TV's "Sanford and Son") or all the street preachers tossing their philosophies at us on the crowded subways and street corners.
In a role that might have suited Norma Shearer more than Crawford (a surprising revelation for me since I much prefer Crawford as an actress), Joan tries too hard to be flighty, but her cat-like qualities are too strong for her to successfully play a ditz. She was extremely funny as the bitchy Crystal in "The Women", but here, she fails to convince. You can't help but admire her for trying for a different type of role after years of long-suffering socialites who bared claws when necessary but cried in private.
The stage-trained March seems more at ease as the befuddled husband, punch-drunk from missing his wife and occasionally literally drunk from his anger at her, he becomes even more perplexed with her sudden change in attitude upon her return. The young Rita Quigley is given a plain demeanor as Crawford and March's only child to show Crawford's materialistic nature hasn't changed her one dimensional spirituality as she verbally attacks her own daughter for wearing dowdy outfits and doing nothing to make herself more attractive.
Amongst the social set are Nigel Bruce as a snobby cynic, Rita Hayworth as his much younger wife who is secretly in love with another man, and Ruth Hussey as the one realistic member of the social set who makes the comment about "divine silence" and admits to not being religious but finding Crawford's attitude too irreverent for what beliefs she obviously does have and wisely just keeps to herself. Marjorie Main is one of the household servants, and the very regal Constance Collier plays the English lady who influenced Crawford's spirituality change in the first place. A very young Gloria de Haven is seen briefly as one of Quigley's school chums.
While certainly a dated play in regards to the social scene of a Long Island estate, it does make some wise observations about the dangers of home-made religions and tossing spiritual beliefs down other's throats that ultimately offends them. Today, churches of practically every belief seem to pop up on practically every street corner (remember the "Rhythm of Life" church in "Sweet Charity"?) and obviously cause more confusion than good. Obviously, the writer's intention here was to parody this fact and to wisen the viewer to utilize their own good judgement in finding an individual relationship with God rather than to rely on man-made beliefs and creeds.
Another obvious point the writer was trying to make is that spirituality is an individual choice that shouldn't be influenced by political or personal agendas, and that even Susan, as messed up as she was, needed to find her own identity with God rather than to become subject to something that wasn't really anything more than a high-society cult. Without this wisdom, we'd all be subject to constant judgments from all the Susans of the world, or even an "Aunt Esther" (Fred Sanford's bible- thumping sister-in-law on TV's "Sanford and Son") or all the street preachers tossing their philosophies at us on the crowded subways and street corners.