Payment On Demand (1951)

• Director
  • Curtis Bernhardt
• Writers
  • Bruce Manning
  • Curtis Bernhardt
• Stars
  • Bette Davis
  • Barry Sullivan
  • Jane Cowl

  Well-to-do Joyce Ramsey is the dominant and domineering force in her household comprised of her lawyer husband David Ramsey, their young-adult daughter Diana, and their late-teen daughter Martha. Everything Joyce has done in the course of her marriage to David has been in the pursuit of wealth, prestige, comfort and security for her and the family, which belies her and David's humble beginnings. Their current wealth and status began with a white lie told by Joyce to one of David's potential clients when David was still struggling as a lawyer, that lie which had the consequence of Joyce, and by association David, stepping on a friend's back as they climbed the social ladder, Joyce never to look back. Joyce has no real idea of how her actions have negatively affected David's feelings for her, so she's blindsided when David tells her he no longer loves her and asks for a divorce. Joyce's friends put into her mind that another woman could be involved, which makes Joyce curious--is that the sole reason? She starts to reflect on key points of their marriage. Those reflections, Joyce's investigation into David's possible infidelity, her getting a glimpse of her future without David and his love, and her getting a sense of that young, pure love again that she and David truly had when they wed, could affect what Joyce decides to do about David's request for the divorce.