This is a true story and very meticulously told, as Susan Hayward enters the role deeply enough to make it overwhelmingly convincing and true in heartrending sincerity. The only foible of the film is that it is too long, some scenes are unnecessarily overdrawn in their painfulness, while the most interesting and rewarding part of the film is the inside picture of the A.A. Of course everybody knows about Alcoholics Anonymous and what it is all about, but only true alcoholics get to know it from the inside, while this film actually reveals it from the inside, so that you feel that you become one of them and included in the community. Only a talented and intelligent actress like Susan Hayward could have gone through with making this role convincing all the way, and her performance raises the film to top level, very comparable to Ray Milland's "The Lost Weekend" by Billy Wilder ten years earlier, more efficient and impressive, but this film is more elaborate and documentary. Of course, you can hardly bear seeing it more than once in your life, while "The Lost Weekend" is a film many will return to.
Review of I'll Cry Tomorrow
