Vincent Sherman's 1943 'The Hard Way' stars Ida Lupino as an ambitious, manipulative woman who pushes her younger sister into a musical theater career, stopping at nothing to get her sister to the top. Despite her strong central performance, the film is a disappointment. It would have worked a lot better if it had been a backstage Hollywood story, like the original 'A Star Is Born,' rather then set in the world of vaudeville and the musical theater. The musical numbers were simply at odds with the typically gritty Warner Brothers 1940's production values. The film looked very noirish, and all that singing and dancing just didn't fit into the atmosphere director Sherman created. The film can't seem to make up it's mind what it wants to be, much to it's detriment.
However, Ida Lupino is first rate as the domineering older sister, who's single-minded determination to push her kid sister to the top ruins several lives, including her own. She's a perfect Warner Brothers actress, with a forceful screen personality that dominates a film much like the way Davis and Crawford did. I would not have named her best actress of the year, as the New York Film Critics did. But she's very good.
Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson also do marvelous work as a song and dance team, and the terrific Gladys George has a sad, touching vignette as an aging musical performer on the downside of her once successful career. She nearly steals the film right out from under Lupino with her moving performance in the small but flashy role. And while Joan Leslie, as the younger sister, was pretty enough and a competent actress, she's no Judy Garland (or even June Allyson, for that matter). It's quite hard to believe that she would be proclaimed the sensation of the New York musical theater world. More believable casting in the important role would have helped the film immeasurably.
All in all, the film is worth seeing for fans of the Warner Brothers melodramas of the 1940's. But as a star vehicle for one of their top studio actresses, it's not in the same league with Crawford's 'Mildred Pierce,' Davis' 'Now, Voyager,' or Lupino's final Warners film, 'Deep Valley.'
However, Ida Lupino is first rate as the domineering older sister, who's single-minded determination to push her kid sister to the top ruins several lives, including her own. She's a perfect Warner Brothers actress, with a forceful screen personality that dominates a film much like the way Davis and Crawford did. I would not have named her best actress of the year, as the New York Film Critics did. But she's very good.
Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson also do marvelous work as a song and dance team, and the terrific Gladys George has a sad, touching vignette as an aging musical performer on the downside of her once successful career. She nearly steals the film right out from under Lupino with her moving performance in the small but flashy role. And while Joan Leslie, as the younger sister, was pretty enough and a competent actress, she's no Judy Garland (or even June Allyson, for that matter). It's quite hard to believe that she would be proclaimed the sensation of the New York musical theater world. More believable casting in the important role would have helped the film immeasurably.
All in all, the film is worth seeing for fans of the Warner Brothers melodramas of the 1940's. But as a star vehicle for one of their top studio actresses, it's not in the same league with Crawford's 'Mildred Pierce,' Davis' 'Now, Voyager,' or Lupino's final Warners film, 'Deep Valley.'