Jeanne Eagels was a great Broadway actress of the 1920's and an absolute sensation in the play "Rain". She went to Hollywood and made a handful of films but soon succumbed to drug and alcohol problems. Kim Novak, gorgeous though she was, on her best day wasn't a blip on the acting screen compared to Eagels, even though when used right she could be effective, as in "Picnic". Here she has the total film in her incapable hands - courtesy of Harry Cohn of Columbia with whom she was rumored to be having an "affair". Novak's drunk scene is one of the worst and most embarrassing ever on film. The script itself is the usual Hollywood baloney with passing reference to fact. See it only to gaze in disbelief at that atrocious drunk scene. And then turn to the IMDb reviews of Joan Crawford in "Rain".
Review of Jeanne Eagels
