SUSAN SLADE
US, 1961, 116 minutes, Colour.
Troy Donohue, Connie Stevens, Dorothy Mc Guire, Lloyd Nolan, Brian Aherne, Kent Smith.
Directed by Delmer Daves.
Susan Slade is one of a number of melodramas written and directed by Delmer Daves. The first of these was A Summer Place which starred Troy Donohue and Dorothy Mc Guire. Troy Donohue also appeared in Parrish with Claudette Colbert. This film is not quite as well known as the other melodramas like A Summer Place and Parrish as well as subsequent films including Youngblood Hawk, Rome Adventure (again with Troy Donohue) and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita.
The film was written and directed by Delmer Daves who directed a number of significant westerns and action films during the 1950s, including the breakthrough film about relationships with Native American Indians, Broken Arrow. He also made the classic 3.10 to Yuma. After this he made a number of romantic melodramas like Parrish and The Battle for the Villa Fiorita. Previously 20th Century- Fox had been making this kind of film, for example Peyton Place, A Certain Smile, Bonjour Tristesse. Daves established Warner Bros as a studio for making this kind of film.
1. The presentation of characters, emotional situations, traditional values in a heightened style?
2. The quality of this soap opera, the use of colours, costumes, music? The lush treatment?
3. How plausible were the issues, situations, characters? How much was cliche? The strengths and weaknesses of the dialogue illustrating the themes?
4. How particularly American was the atmosphere, the atmosphere of comfort, affluence and weath? the contrast with the world of Guatamala? How real does this world seem? How unreal? Is this important for the portrayal of the characters and audience response to the real issues?
5. Audience involvement at the opening, the situation and the return trip? The effect of focusing on Susan, the revelation of her love, her attitude towards her boyfriend, the pregnancy? The complication of Roger having a heart condition and wanting to retire? Audience response to the balance of these ironies?
6. The shattering affect of her friend's death on Susan? The worry about the pregnancy? The importance of her parents self-sacrifice in coping with the situation? Her mother pretending to have the child? Her father's willingness to get to work again and go to a distant place, sacrificing the leisure of retirement?
7. Audience response to the cover-up, the motives for the cover-up, the standards for society in terms of morals and respectability? The effect of this kind of suffering on Leah, on Susan, on Roger?
8. How well did the film portray Roger and Leah as characters? A typical American couple, their warmth of character? Roger and his heart condition, his skill in work, his capacity? Leah as an attractive mother? How was this highlighted by their relationship with the Corberts? The importance of Roger's illness, the presentation of his illness in work, his death and the effect?
9. How interesting was the portrayal of Leah pretending to be the mother of the child, Susan and her involvement in the cover-up? the difficulty of the double talk, the strain on both of them, the effect on the child? The importance of the accident and its effect on Susan?
10. How important was the telling of the truth, the effect of the truth especially on the Corberts? On their son?
11. How well was the character of Hoyt introduced throughout the film? The hero, his work writing? His love for Susan, their encounters before the Kamala episode? His being true to her at the end, a support? Was he a credible hero? Conventional values and the hero to the rescue?
12. What is the achievement of this kind of film, the issues that it raises which are close to everyday living? Heightening them in this popular style? Does it detract from them or portray them convincingly?
