The Hard Way (1943)

An ambitious woman (Ida Lupino) in a small steel town is determined to push her younger sister (Joan Leslie) toward a better life. To that end, she manipulates, lies and backstabs anyone who stands in her way. Directed by Vincent Sherman (MR. SKEFFINGTON). Ida Lupino never got an Oscar nomination but she did receive the New York Film Critics award for best actress for this film. The movie itself is nothing special, a standard melodrama about clawing your way to the top of the show business heap only to find when you get there that it's pretty lonely (in that respect, one could call it the VALLEY OF THE DOLLS of its day). What is special is Ida Lupino's performance, who always seemed to inherit Bette Davis's hand me downs. Here she gets an opportunity to sink her teeth in a juicy role that's all hers (though reputedly Davis turned this down, too). I have to say I think the film lets Leslie's sister off the hook too easily. She's every bit as ambitious as her sister, at least in the beginning. Well done of its kind but not entirely persuasive. With Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Faye Emerson, Gladys George, William Hopper, Jody Gilbert and Dolores Moran.