Susan and God is a 1940 film directed by George Cukor.
Susan (Joan Crawford), a pampered socialite, returns from a trip to Europe filled with a new enthusiasm for religion. She is a devotee of a British religious movement that emphasizes Brutal Honesty, which in Susan's case involves meddling in the lives of others. So that's why Susan tells Leonora (Rita Hayworth in one of her first big film roles) that she should stop being a Trophy Wife and go back to the stage, and why she tells lovers Mike and Irene that they're ill-suited for each other.
Susan's enthusiasm for God and truth-telling hasn't inspired her to pay any more attention to her husband Barrie (Fredric March) or their teenaged daughter Blossom. In fact, she's demanding a divorce from Barrie, who's been driven to alcoholism by his wife's neglect. Barrie, citing Susan's own lofty rhetoric about fresh starts and redemption, says that if he can stop drinking, she should give their marriage a second chance.
Nigel Bruce plays "Hutchie", one of his usual amiable British nincompoops.
Tropes:
- As You Know: The audience learns that Rita Hayworth is married to Nigel Bruce in the scene where Leonora is nestled up on a couch with Clyde, and Charlotte tells Hutchie to pay more attention to "your beautiful wife".
- Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: Clyde and Leonora are introduced with Clyde nestled up to Leonora on a couch, holding her hand and saying "Why bother with these old meager memories, darling?" Seconds later it's revealed that they are running through lines from a play. This is later subverted however when it's revealed that he actually is in love with her.
- Bindle Stick: One of the signs of Susan's pretentiousness is that she carries around what is, quite literally, a designer bindle stick.
- Cast Full of Rich People: All the main characters live in enormous mansions which have private tennis courts and stables for horses.
- Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene, Barrie comes stumbling out of a movie theater drunk. In her first scene, Susan comes swooping down on Hutchie's mansion, alighting from a motorboat, calling everyone "darling" and talking a mile a minute. She's established as a flighty socialite and he's established as an alcoholic.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Susan does this with her own daughter, insisting that Blossom take her glasses off as part of her makeover, so she can impress a boy she's sweet on.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Barrie, who is utterly clueless about how Charlotte loves him, says that gee whiz, she ought to get married, and heck, he almost asked her to marry him once. The next scene has Charlotte returning to her room, quickly pouring and downing a drink, then bursting into tears.
- It's All About Me: Susan actually isn't interested in any of the problems of her friends, as shown by how she continually interrupts them and talks over them when they try responding to her hectoring. Her religious conversion is really just a way of making herself feel important.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Charlotte definitely could have landed Barrie for himself, after Susan again demands a divorce and a broken-hearted Barrie comes to her on the rebound. But when she realizes that he really does love Susan, she steps aside.
- The Makeover: Susan has decided to make her own daughter prettier, as Blossom is sweet on a boy. So, The Glasses Gotta Go, and so does Blossom's retainer, and also Blossom has to let her hair down. The result, naturally, is Blossom transforming from awkward dork to attractive young woman.
- Meaningful Appearance: Susan's hat in her first scene is sort of an Establishing Character Moment of its own, boasting a feather a foot high. Susan's dedication to high fashion while she natters on about devoting oneself to God is an indication of her hypocrisy.
- Name and Name: Susan and God, in something of an ironic commentary on Susan's pretentions.
- Oblivious to Love: Barrie never does realize that Charlotte is in love with him; Susan has to tell him towards the end.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: What rich ladies wear, it seems, when relaxing in the evenings. Every woman in the cast except for the more Earth-bound Charlotte wears one of these in the dinner party scene.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Irene is getting nervous about her engagement to Mike, which they have made before her divorce is even finalized. She starts expressing concerns, whereupon he says "Look honey, you think too much," and kisses her.
- Trophy Wife: Hutchie's wife Leonora, a sexpot who left the theater to marry a rich man twice her age, one whom she doesn't particularly seem to like.
