Payment on Demand
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| Payment on Demand | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Starring | Bette Davis Barry Sullivan |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1951 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country |  U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Payment on Demand is a 1951 RKO Radio Pictures film drama directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan.
[edit] Plot
Davis stars as Joyce Ramsey, a wealthy society Dame whose unhappy husband wants her to give him a divorce. Payment on Demand begins when Sullivan tells Davis that he wants a divorce. The film flashbacks to the couple in their first years of happy wedlock in humble beginnings and worked their way into the nouveau riche. Sullivan starts off as a low-paid lawyer with no clients and makes his way up to being vice-president of his best client, a steel company. Davis becomes preoccupied with security, money and status anxiety; she becomes selfish and manipulative, bent on climbing the social ladder.
[edit] Response
Jane Cowl gives an outstanding supporting performance as an elderly woman attracted to gigolos. Filmed just before All About Eve but released two years later, the picture benefits greatly from the style of kitchen sink film noir.
While the themes of Payment on Demand may seem pretty bland by today's standards, back in 1951, divorce was a subject blocked off the screen by the very Catholic centered Hays Code.
[edit] External link
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