I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) is a biopic that tells the story of Lillian Roth, a Broadway star who rebels against the pressure of her domineering mother and struggles with alcoholism after the death of her fiancé.
The screenplay was adapted by Helen Deutsch and Jay Richard Kennedy from the 1954 autobiography by Lillian Roth, Mike Connolly and Gerold Frank.
[3] Eight-year-old Lillian Roth (Carole Ann Campbell) constantly is pushed by her domineering stage mother Katie (Jo Van Fleet) to audition and act, even though she is merely a child.
When Lillian informs her mother she intends to marry David, Katie is disappointed and sees a repeat of her own life happening—giving up a career to have a husband and children.
She begins to fall for her sponsor Burt McGuire (Eddie Albert), but the crippling effects of childhood polio make him wary of pursuing anything romantic.
She is supported by Ray Danton as the man whose death first upsets her; by Jo Van Fleet as her domineering mother who realises what she has done too late; Richard Conte, Eddie Albert and Don Taylor.