Susan and God is one of the more unexplainable movies in Joan Crawford’s library of roles. This film is about Susan Trexel, a socialite who comes back from overseas converted to an evangelical-type of Christianity who then annoys her friends by trying to convert them as well. However, she fails to take her own advice about loving everyone and telling the truth by avoiding her estranged husband and daughter.
The movie is a bit weird, since Crawford is well known for her dramatic roles (Mildred Pierce), and when she has comedic roles, she’s usually playing it pretty straight (The Women), not so screwball-campy as she does in Susan and God. In Susan, she’s shrill and fast-talking, barely breathing in between sentences. When she does slow down, she’s trying to convey some type of double-meaning behind her words, but it gets lost somewhere. Since Crawford is the centerpiece of this movie, her acting makes the rest of the acting–and the movie itself–seem disjointed. That’s not to say that the other actors don’t do well; Frederic March (as Susan’s husband Barrie Trexel) and Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita Hayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, and Rose Hobart as Susan’s socialite friends, all do well with the roles they’re given. But their acting is much more subdued compared to Crawford’s manic Susan, making the other actors feel like they’re in a different movie.
Overall, it’s a good diversion if you want to spend some time watching a film, but if you want to see a great Joan Crawford performance, you might want to skip this one.
