This was Bette Davis's first film after All About Eve (1950), and it surprisingly showed that the aging star's "staying power" at that time.
Payment on Demand shows Davis in both her strong conniving side as well as her weaker more vulnerable side.
Here, she plays Joyce Ramsey, the middle-aged wife of David Ramsey (Barry Sullivan) and the mother of two daughters in their late teens or early 20s: Martha (Betty Lynn) and Diana (Peggie Castle).
As the movie opens, we see Joyce as the wife of a successful man and the mother of burgeoning and wonderful daughters. She clearly is happy with her station in life and its situation, and confident that everything is under control. However, when her husband comes home one evening and asks for a divorce, it throws her off balance. As she displays a calm facade, she reflects back on her married life. The movie displays this backward reflection as a series of flashback scenes in silhouette (which I found as very convincing as a way to show the past without leaving the present). There, flashback scenes show the Ramseys as hopeful and full of life as they run off to get married and meet life head on.
Now, those salad days are gone and David is tired of the superficial life that his wife has helped make for him. But, filing for divorce is one thing, and the anticipation of living in that life is quite another, as Joyce finds out...
