A Woman Destroyed (1947)

The title of this film is misleading. It's original title was "Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman," which I don't find any better as they both imply that this melodrama could unfold at any point for any woman. It is a small point, but this film is about the affects of stardom on a once loving family. It is a story of a singer with a promising career who sacrifices her future for her husband who, in turn, makes it big. This story can't be that of any woman because these characters are exceptional.

Susan Hayward is very strong as Angie who sees life through rose-colored glasses. Her aspirations of being a singer are set aside when she marries and has a baby girl. At the same time her husband, Ken (Lee Bowman), is signed on to sing cowboy songs on the radio in the morning. When he takes a chance to sing an original piece he is suddenly rocketed to stardom.

All is well until the family has enough money were they have butlers, nannies, a penthouse, and Angie is left with no responsibility, a feeling of inadequacy, and a fully stocked liquor cabinet. As Ken goes jet-setting around the country with a very pretty secretary Angie is left with nothing but her suspicions. The film takes a dark and twisted road in to the realms of alcoholism as we watch this once-been glamour girl spiral into depression at the sake of her family.

The middle of this film was very good, but it was trapped in between the sickly-sweet first act, and wildly melodramatic third one. The writing was sometimes corny, sometimes overly-sentimental, and sometimes ludicrous. The arc of the character Ken made no sense at all whatsoever. He begins as a loving, sweet man who wanted nothing more to provide for his family. But suddenly we are expected to believe that this man who came from nothing should come to the conclusion that the way to earn Angie's happiness was to buy her things? It never occurred to me that Ken should be that dense.

A further point was the way in which the screenplay tackled the idea of alcoholism. It seems to me that alcoholics would probably be ashamed of their drinking and do it more secretively than Angie did. However, she practically reveled in it; she was hardly ever seen without a drink in her hand, or making a reference to drinking, or describing how nice it was to drink. It didn't seem at all believable to me. If a person in real life were to behave in such a way there would be no possibility of them continuing on the same way for as long as Angie did. The lack of subtlety was irksome.

I am lukewarm to this film. I would never watch it again as it barely held my attention, but Hayward as a drunk was very convincing and there were some very beautiful moments of acting from the wider cast as well.

2/4