Ada (1961)

Too much of everything

hyped garbage

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Attention Susan Hayward fans: add Ada to your list. She plays the title character, and it's one of the most classic "Susan Hayward roles" she ever played. It's not my all-time favorite of her films, because I'm not a Dean Martin fan, but it's an essential watch for all who love her. Dean is a fast-rising politician in the South, and as everyone knows, skeletons run rampant in politicians' closets. When the movie starts, Dean doesn't have any scandal, but when he marries a prostitute, there's quite a bit of covering up to do! His campaign manager, Wilfrid Hyde White, and his speechwriter, Martin Balsam, can't stand Susan Hayward from the moment she marries Dean, because of the threat of danger she brings to their campaign. But when she starts becoming an even bigger threat-it's Susan Hayward, do we really think she'll be content acting like a simpering wife?-they really can't stand her!Susan Hayward is one of my all-time favorite actresses, so I absolutely loved her in this role. Her character is everything you think of when you think of Susan Hayward: strong, charming, cunning, shrewd, tough, smart, sexy, and classy. I also love political movies, and this one shows the fantastic and sickening world of back-door politics. Check it out to further your love of either!

For me, this film started off with a leg up because of the two stars. I'm a huge Dean Martin fan, and Susan Hayward has always been a favorite. Having said that, I still think this film is under-appreciated.I've heard people say that the plot's not really believable. It's about as believable as the plots of most films. And, it's loosely based on some real southern history -- multiple times in fact, and most recently in the case of Lurleen Wallace, wife to George Wallace. However -- despite the modernity of Hayward's attire in the film -- this film was set during the Great Depression...and in the deep South. So I think the basic plot is quite believable.As much as I enjoy Dean on film, a better southern accent would have helped (which he certainly achieved in "Some Came Running"). However, he's supposed to be a bit of a bumpkin in this role, and I think he plays it as needed. Susan Hayward...well, she has "spunk", and it really showed in this film. When you went to a Susan Hayward film, this is exactly the kind of portrayal you wanted to see.There are also a couple of superb supporting performances. Wilfred Hyde-White is brilliant as the dirty politician. True, his British accent showed through a tad, but his delight in playing the villainous role more than made up for that. An actor I usually don't really appreciate -- Ralph Meeker -- ably portrays the sleazy "colonel" in the state police and militia -- a wonderful performance. Martin Balsam is also very good as the speech writer/college boy working for the governor, but his role needed to be expanded just a bit. Balsam was one of those reliable character actors throughout much of the latter half of the 1900s. Frank Maxwell also has a good role as the lieutenant governor here, and joins a number of recognizable character actors in support of the primary cast.I also have to mention the direction of the film. It would have been very easy to overdo it with the southern aspect of the film, and shove that southern malaise down our throats (as Lillian Hellman sometimes did). Director Daniel Mann resisted that temptation, and also "the South" was always there, it didn't overwhelm the story.The Warner Archives has recently (2012) released this film, although it has not been restored. My biggest complaint with the DVD is a lack of crispness (though not bad), and variations in skin tone throughout the film...often too red. But, it's still nice to have it out in reasonable quality.Yup, I'm a bit prejudiced here, but this has always been a particular favorite of mine. I highly recommend it, soap-sudsy as it may seem.

I enjoyed this Susan Hayward film, even if it had a few holes in its overall plot. No film can be truly bad with someone like Susan Hayward in it (and yes, I think that goes for Valley of the Dolls (1967) too), so you can't really lose if you watch a Susan Hayward film. She's confident, aggressive, smart, sassy, and attractive. As for the film itself, it had some gaping plot holes. For instance, why did Sylvester end up in a wheelchair being pushed around by a nurse? Was something cut and never explained in the final cut?Another hole: I believe that digging up the dirt that someone worked as a prostitute would be fairly easy to find. They had detectives in those days too. You would think that Ada's past would have caught up with her much earlier.Another thing: as one reviewer also said, in the story various characters speak of the rough economic times sort of alluding to the Great Depression, yet the movie looks like a movie from the sixties. What's up with that?Even though the ending is sort of Pollyannish, the film works in its Frank Capra kind of way showing that the common man can make changes in a corrupt political environment. It was interesting to watch the movie realizing that we are still in the same sad shape with many lying and evil politicians.The film is worth watching, even if it is rather forgotten.

This is an MGM potboiler with great colors and weak credibility. The picture was probably the best that repressed Hollywood could do at the time with the legend of Earl Long, once Governor of Louisiana, and the stripper Blaze Starr. (The story was filmed many years later, with Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich.) A singing, guitar-playing candidate for Governor in the Depression South is quite historical. The sly self-deprecation in Bo Gillis's stump speech at the beginning of the picture is well done. But once he hooks up with Susan Hayward, Dean Martin becomes a marshmallow. The role must have appealed tremendously to a tough broad like Hayward. She was a perfect choice for Barbara Graham in I Want to Live. I'd call the picture a failure with interesting features.