#jane cowl

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Goldwyn Pictures

Saturday Evening Post, Oct. 27, 1917

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Lady of The Day 🌹 Jane Cowl ❤️

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Once More, My Darling (1949) Robert Montgomery

February 14th 2026

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Payment on Demand

Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan grab a weak script by the neck and wrestle it into something resembling a serious motion picture in Curtis Bernhardt’s PAYMENT ON DEMAND (1951, HBO Max). Originally titled “The Story of a Divorce,” the film follows husband and wife Sullivan and Davis through an acrimonious break-up, with flashbacks explaining how they got there. But despite Davis’ star presence, it’s very much a male view of marriage and a woman’s place.

The film opens in the present, as wealthy lawyer Sullivan asks his ambitious wife (Davis) for a divorce. She reflects on the earlier years of their relationship, leading to flashbacks depicting the tricks she used to put him in place as a member of a powerful steel company and a leader of San Francisco society. Before they get to the final settlement, it’s clear the thirst for success has turned her into a manipulative monster who doesn’t trust her husband to make the choices for their family.

Curtis, who co-wrote the script, was a proficient director who knew how to keep things moving smoothly and create images that reinforce the action and characters. He also chose to shoot the flashbacks in a stylized manner reminiscent of DEATH OF A SALESMAN; the walls of memory are transparent, creating a visual distinction to balance the rather schematic development of Davis’ character. He’s so determined to make her the villain, it’s rather hard to believe anybody would have anything to do with her. Nor is there a hint of anything Sullivan did wrong except to give into her while she made him rich. The film even seems to justify his affair with another woman (Frances Dee). And when Davis reforms, it’s not because she’s learned the error of her ways but rather because once the divorce goes through, she’s lonely.

And somehow or other, Davis makes this claptrap work. One of the great misfortunes of the American entertainment industry is that our film and theater centers are on opposite sides of the country. Where great British and European actors could move easily between film and theater, with people like Maggie Smith, Ian McKellan, Louis Jouvet and Vittorio Gassman playing the classical works, an actress like Davis never got to take on the roles she was born for. She certainly got to play some great characters on screen — Mildred in OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) and Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) chief among them — but she spent much of her career shoring up weak scripts. Here she uses her clipped delivery to capture her character’s growing hardness as she becomes steeped in her acquired social standing. But she also uses it with wit in early scenes. And her silent reactions, simply walking through her room after being asked for a divorce, are bits of screen poetry that generate a sympathy the script fails to develop.

In a role with less screen time or acting opportunities, Sullivan more than holds his own. He’s a match for Davis in the fight scenes and, though his age makeup isn’t as convincing as hers, captures the physicality of a man worn down by an unfortunate marriage. There’s also a wonderful supporting turn by Jane Cowl, in her last film. The stage legend is a social leader courted by Davis early on, and she plays their scene with wit and restraint. Later, Davis meets the now divorced Cowl, who’s living in the Caribbean with a kept man, and she manages to capture the sense of a woman who knows she’s become vaguely ridiculous without ever seeming ridiculous herself. It’s a gem of a performance that, like Davis’ and Sullivan’s work, deserved a better script.

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Lady of The Day 🌹 Jane Cowl ❤️

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Round 1 Losers Highlights: Jane Cowl

She made a record for played Juliet over a thousand consecutive times which I think is pretty cool. Also Jane Russell was named after her

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Jane Cowl ❤️

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DAYBREAK

1917

Daybreak is a play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin. It was originally produced by Selwyn and Company staged by Wilfred North and Miss Cowl. 

Successful businessman Arthur Frome, who drinks too much, pushes a newsboy under an automobile, thus causing him severe injuries. His wife Edith then becomes disillusioned with her husband and leaves him. After an absence of a few years, Edith returns to her husband but offers no explanation of her behavior. Soon, however, Arthur becomes suspicious when she and their family friend, Dr. Brent, frequently visit a house in which a small child is living. Arthur has Edith followed by the wife of one of his employees, whom he has caught stealing, and soon discovers that the child, who is gravely ill, is his own. Edith confesses that she did not want to raise their child under the influence of a drunkard and so left him in someone else's care. Soon after this confession, Arthur is shot by the husband of the woman who has followed Edith because the man suspected his wife of having an affair. Arthur recovers, however, as does the child, and through Dr. Brent's intervention is happily reconciled with Edith, with whom he plans a new life.

About the Title: The play begins at daybreak in a darkened hallway of a New York apartment. Cowl and Murfin were intent on creating the mood of daybreak without resorting to clichés that might result in laughter. They nixed a visit from the milkman and a crowing rooster. They settled on a single shaft of yellow light piercing the darkness of the quiet room. The first scene is played in silence with no dialogue to create the ‘hush’ of early morning. 

Daybreak premiered in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on the Boardwalk on June 18, 1917.

“[The play] was presented to early summer reporters at Atlantic City.  It will not, therefore, be an unusual sight in Atlantic City to see a large number of people going home after ‘Daybreak'.” ~ WASHINGTON POST

Edith Frome was played by Blanche Yurka, a performer that Cowl had worked with and promised to help in her career. She was later cast in another play by Cowl and Murfin. Arthur Frome was played by Frederick Truesdell, one of Broadway’s most popular leading men.  

In late July and early August, the play was seen on the Jersey shore in Asbury Park at The Savoy and Long Branch at the Broadway.

Daybreak opened on Broadway at the Harris Theatre (254 West 42nd Street) on August 14, 1917. 

About the Venue: The Harris (named after William B. Harris) was built in 1904 as the Lew Fields Theatre. It was variously known as the Hackett, Wallacks, the Frazee, and finally the Anco Cinema. In 1988, the interior was gutted and it was used as retail space. It was finally demolished in 1997 as part of the 42nd Street redevelopment.

This was the second collaboration between Cowl (above) and Murfin, who previously penned Lilac Time earlier in 1917. Cowl also performed in Lilac Time, which closed on June 9th at The Harris (having transferred from The Republic), allowing Daybreak to move in. Between the two plays, Lilac Time proved the more popular and more successful. In October 1918 they collaborated on a third production, Information Please, with Cowl again performing, which was less successful still. In December 1919, the pair had their most successful script, Smilin’ Through, although they wrote it under the pseudonym Allan Langdon Martin. It inspired two films and two television adaptations. In 1932, Smilin’ Through was the basis for a flop musical titled Through The Years by Vincent Youmans. 

"I am really pretty tired," she said. "You see, last summer was a strenuous one. I live at Great Neck on Long Island, and my movie work was done at Fort Lee NJ. I used to get up every morning at 5:30 am and shortly after after 6:30 I was in my car and on my way to Fort Lee. At 7 I was in my dressing room, by 8 I was in the studio. Then it was work until 5 or 6, with a short time off for lunch. Back to New York and rehearsals for "Daybreak,” my new play, until all hours. ~ JANE COWL, OCTOBER 7, 1917

After the play was established on Broadway, Jane Cowl joined the road company of her Lilac Time. As of October 1917, Cowl was also seen on cinema screens in The Spreading Dawn (a title oddly similar to Daybreak), a civil war drama. 

Daybreak closed on Broadway on October 13, 1917 after 71 performances. 

Daybreak was filmed in 1918 starring Emily Stevens and Julian L’Estrange. It is now considered a lost film.