The third melodrama by Delmer Daves -who is best remembered for his distinguished westerns .If you do not like the genre ,that is to say if you don't like the two previous works ("a summer place" and " Parrish" ) you probably will not like "Susan Slade " for it's more of the same.Ironically (?) a small excerpt of the wonderful score of "a summer place" is heard during the voyage.
In "Parrish" Troy Donahue played the lead (title) and had three loves ,including Connie Stevens who got pregnant (but not by him) when she was not married .In "Susan Slade",Stevens plays the lead (title) and she has three loves ,including Troy Donahue whose time on screen is twice as short as hers ;he does not even appear in the first twenty minutes ;and Susan does get pregnant (but not by him) and of course she's unmarried .
Much more modest in scope and in ambition than ¨"Parrish" ,"Susan Slade" actually recalls those old melodramas of the two precedent decades in which Davis and De Havilland shone.She's not in their league ,it's to state the obvious to write this ,but she and Donahue are a nice couple.The actor is always wearing a red jacket ,a la James Dean ,and, as soon as he appears ,he is plunged in despair for his dad is sentenced to jail and the poor man hangs himself one minute later .He becomes a stable-boy but writing improves the mind and he works on a book .
They could not "remake" "Susan Slade " today :the bygone days of the unmarried moms who had to find a way to cope with a particularly tricky situation for a well-meaning milieu Susan lives in .The scenes in which Dorothy McGuire passes for the mother are a bit unintentionally funny .But in melodrama,it's the name of the game: it's virtuous Donahue (poor but with good prospects) who accepts Susan whereas the fortunate bourgeois son and his family turn their back on her.
Some elements of former westerns ("broken arrow" ,"the last wagon" " the hanging tree" ) seemed to indicate Daves' fondness for melodrama .And "Kings go forth " was a forerunner of these sentimental stories of the sixties .It would continue with such works as "Roman adventure" (Daves' fourth film starring Donahue) "Spencer's mountain" and 'the battle of the villa Fiorita".
In "Parrish" Troy Donahue played the lead (title) and had three loves ,including Connie Stevens who got pregnant (but not by him) when she was not married .In "Susan Slade",Stevens plays the lead (title) and she has three loves ,including Troy Donahue whose time on screen is twice as short as hers ;he does not even appear in the first twenty minutes ;and Susan does get pregnant (but not by him) and of course she's unmarried .
Much more modest in scope and in ambition than ¨"Parrish" ,"Susan Slade" actually recalls those old melodramas of the two precedent decades in which Davis and De Havilland shone.She's not in their league ,it's to state the obvious to write this ,but she and Donahue are a nice couple.The actor is always wearing a red jacket ,a la James Dean ,and, as soon as he appears ,he is plunged in despair for his dad is sentenced to jail and the poor man hangs himself one minute later .He becomes a stable-boy but writing improves the mind and he works on a book .
They could not "remake" "Susan Slade " today :the bygone days of the unmarried moms who had to find a way to cope with a particularly tricky situation for a well-meaning milieu Susan lives in .The scenes in which Dorothy McGuire passes for the mother are a bit unintentionally funny .But in melodrama,it's the name of the game: it's virtuous Donahue (poor but with good prospects) who accepts Susan whereas the fortunate bourgeois son and his family turn their back on her.
Some elements of former westerns ("broken arrow" ,"the last wagon" " the hanging tree" ) seemed to indicate Daves' fondness for melodrama .And "Kings go forth " was a forerunner of these sentimental stories of the sixties .It would continue with such works as "Roman adventure" (Daves' fourth film starring Donahue) "Spencer's mountain" and 'the battle of the villa Fiorita".