Synopsis
Saint... Or Screwball?
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
1940 Directed by George Cukor
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
Joan Crawford Fredric March Ruth Hussey John Carroll Rita Hayworth Nigel Bruce Bruce Cabot Rose Hobart Constance Collier Rita Quigley Gloria DeHaven Richard Crane Norma Mitchell Marjorie Main Aldrich Bowker Rama Bai Coco Broadhurst Romaine Callender Don Castle Dan Dailey Jane Drummond Herbert Evans Edward Gargan Bobby Hale Sam Harris Keith Hitchcock Claude King Harold Landon Billy Lechner Show All…
The Gay Mrs. Trexel, Suzanne et ses idées, Susan und der liebe Gott, Susana y Dios, Peccatrici folli, Uma Mulher Original, Сьюзен и бог
joan norma shearers harder in this movie than norma shearer has ever norma shearered
“You look like a shining angel. You’ve got stardust in your hair.”
Joan Crawford as an extremely extra society woman who has seen and done it all, but is now on the spiritual wagon after getting swept up in Lady Wigstaff’s “love” movement while in England avoiding her husband and daughter. Drunk Frederick March is that sweet, suffering husband, alone caring for their bespeckled, ugly duckling daughter with clear mommy issues.
Too stagey and annoyingly bitchy. Crawford is properly insufferable doing morning sit ups and talking about her perfect teeth. The daughter gets her glow up and rude mommy Crawford starts taking an interest in her, realizing maybe she does love her family and shouldn’t throw them aside for whatever next thing catches her fancy. I hated all of this. Best thing I can say is, thank god Norma Shearer was smart enough to turn the role down.
One of the only good things about this film is Joan Crawford's character. It's a different role for her and it moves away from her stereotypical ingenue of the 1930s. She delivers about the only comedy in the film, making me wish she did more than just dramatic parts in later years.
If Joan was a JW and came to my door and asked me to convert I would do it 100%.
Didn't quite get Joan Crawford character, and by the looks of things neither did she. But there was a enjoyable Fredric March, especially when drunk, and a bunch of other decent boys 'n gals like that geeky chick and Ruth Hussey that saved this from disaster. Very uneven fling with God with some light shining down on us.
Joan Crawford tried spreading her wings by playing a wealthy married socialite who returns from a trip to Europe with a newfound religious spirituality that she then forces on her inner circle.
Susan and God is sort of a comedy and sort of a drama. It's never certain what it wants to be, which makes for a bumpy ride at times. Joan seems over medicated on happy pills and it's truly terrifying to witness. It's true she inherited the role after Norma Shearer and Greer Garson said no, so she works hard but it's mainly this material that let's her down. At least it was an attempt to change things up.
The cast is well stacked but the movie feels stagey and the outcome can be spotted well over the horizon. It took me two days to complete this because I was just not feeling it.
Whatever you do, don't drink every time Joan says "marvelous."
“All the things I’ve been running away from, are the only things I’ve ever really wanted.”
I know I’m probably not supposed to like this, based on all the bad reviews, but I kind of did. An odd narrative that was definitely more theatrical than it was cinematic, but I still thought Crawford and March were tremendous, so was Rita Quigley.
One of George Cukor’s lesser works. Boring and at times, almost insufferable with very few genuinely likable characters. That wouldn’t be an issue if any of them were interesting or well-written but they’re not. It was definitely fun to see Joan Crawford step away from her typical ingenue roles of the time, but not even she could carry this movie throughout its unnecessarily long run time. Especially, when her character, despite having the potential to be the opposite, was annoyingly one dimensional.
An interesting Crawford vehicle -- a role she picked up only because Shearer refused to play a woman with a fully grown daughter (it is rather comical to see a fairly young Joan have a child who's nearly her size).
Susan and God is a dramatic comedy, telling the story of a capricious socialite, Susan Trexler (Crawford) and her newfound spirituality that she tries to pass onto her friends, all the while avoiding her estranged husband (March) and daughter.
We first see Susan make her grand entrance via a boat, and quite literally the second she steps foot on land, she's already chattering away. Susan is grandiose, self-absorbed, and ebullient to the point of annoyance. She happily and haughtily preaches…