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I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)

Passed  -  Biography | Drama | Music  -  25 December 1955 (USA)
7.1
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Ratings: 7.1/10 from 932 users  
Reviews: 21 user | 13 critic

Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie, Lillian Roth becomes a star of Broadway and Hollywood before she is twenty. Shortly before her marriage to her childhood ... See full summary »

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(screenplay), (screenplay), 3 more credits »
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Title: I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)

I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) on IMDb 7.1/10

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Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations. See more awards »
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
Tony Bardeman
...
Burt McGuire
...
Katie Roth
Don Taylor ...
Wallie
...
David Tredman
Margo ...
Selma
...
Ellen
...
Jerry (as Don Barry)
David Kasday ...
David as a Child
Carole Ann Campbell ...
Lillian as a Child
Peter Leeds ...
Richard
Tol Avery ...
Fat Man
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Storyline

Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie, Lillian Roth becomes a star of Broadway and Hollywood before she is twenty. Shortly before her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, David Tredman, he dies and Lillian takes her first drink of many down the road of becoming an alcoholic. She enters into a short-lived marriage to an immature aviation cadet, Wallie, followed by a divorce and then marriage to a sadistic brute and abuser Tony Bardeman. After a failed suicide attempt, Burt McGuire comes to her aid and helps her find the road back to happiness after sixteen years in a nightmare world, not counting the first twenty with her mother. Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

The frank, revealing story of Lillian Roth's life! Best-seller now a film sensation. See more »

Genres:

Biography | Drama | Music

Certificate:

Passed | See all certifications »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

25 December 1955 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Und morgen werd' ich weinen  »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Sound System)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

In March 1955, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that nine-year-old Lana Wood had tested to play Lillian Roth as a child. In May, the trade paper noted that Thelma Ritter was being considered for the role of Lillian's mother Katie. See more »

Goofs

When Susan is giving her "I'm a drunk" speech in the bar (at around 1h 16 mins) the woman she has accosted suddenly turns into a man in a dark suit. See more »

Quotes

Lillian Roth: What I'm doing now is 'wrong'... and I'm *doing* it!
See more »

Connections

Features This Is Your Life (1952) See more »

Soundtracks

"The Vagabond King Waltz"
Music by Rudolf Friml (uncredited)
Lyrics by Brian Hooker (uncredited)
Performed briefly in a medley montage by Susan Hayward (vocal) and Eddie Albert (piano)
See more »

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User Reviews

 
My Life Was Never My Own
20 August 2006 | by (Buffalo, New York) – See all my reviews

I'll Cry Tomorrow was the title of the autobiography of Lillian Roth, former singing star of the Twenties and Early Thirties whose career like her contemporary Helen Morgan took a nose dive into the toilet. Unlike Morgan, Roth survived to tell about it and became one of the first name clients of Alcholics Anonymous.

That does seem like an oxymoron because as an organization AA does survive on the anonymity of its members. But Lillian Roth went public with her story as a warning to those becoming to dependent on alcohol.

Susan Hayward gave one of her best screen performances ever in essaying the part of Lillian Roth. In fact she does her own singing here and even made a record of four of the songs she sang in this film, When the Red Red Robin, Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe, Sing You Sinners, and Waltz Hugette. She had previously played singers in With a Song In My Heart and Smash-Up, but was dubbed by others.

Hayward was an amazing talent, even in some of her worst films she comes across like no other actress. Even Bette Davis who could chew scenery in a bad film to make it entertaining could never hold a candle to my fellow Brooklynite, Susan Hayward. That she could sing too, is no surprise to me.

Probably Lillian Roth's best known screen roles are in Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, in the Marx Brothers comedy, Animal Crackers and in the first screen version of the Vagabond King. The first two are out, I wish the third was also, a print might no longer exist.

Jo Van Fleet played Hayward's mother, the Jewish stage mother from the lower depths. Van Fleet gave one of her most acclaimed performances here. Her Jewish New York accent is the only clue to Lillian's ethnic background. It's a sad portrayal of a woman who both lived vicariously through her daughter and is pushing her because she wants her not to have as tough a life as she had.

Richard Conte, Ray Danton, Don Taylor, and Eddie Albert all play men in in Roth's life and though the protagonist is a woman, each of the guys makes an indelible image. Ray Danton plays her boyhood fiancé who dies young and helps start Lillian's downward spiral. In that Roth's story was very similar to that other star of the Twenties Marilyn Miller who lost a husband early and never recovered from it. That's all depicted in the Marilyn Miller biographical film, Look for the Silver Lining from 20th Century Fox a few years before this.

Hayward got a deserved Oscar nomination for this part, but lost to Anna Magnani. That was a year for substance abuse because Frank Sinatra got a nomination for playing a junkie in The Man With the Golden Arm. Both Sue and Frank went through gut wrenching withdrawal scenes in both films.

I'll Cry Tomorrow is always listed among the five best films of Susan Hayward's. It's some people's personal favorite and while mine happens to be I Want to Live, this one is right up there.


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