Susan Hawyard and Barbara Stanwyck

And how would you have known it would have been a better picture with Stanwyck> Have you seen footage of the film with Stanwyck in the role?

Where Love has Gone is remembered primarily because Bette Davis was in it. It is also ridiculed because of Susan Hayward's embarrassing performance. ("You're a drunk! A DRUNK!!!") Dreadful.

The OP's pathetic quest to maintain Hayward's memory at the expense of true legends remains an uphill battle.

With all due respect, I disagree. I don't think Stanwyck would have been right for the part---even if she and Susan Hayward did both have Brooklyn in common. She and Hayward would have seemed more like sisters than mother and daughter!

I like the film as-is, with Hayward and Davis.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

And Stanwyck and Hayward would have mixed like oil and water. Contrary to what the delusional Andersonwhitbeck had posted, they were never friends, not especially so in 1963. They met only once, in the early 1970s and according to a biography on Hayward, it was a very cordial meeting. Yet get them to work together and you have a disaster in the making, what with Stanwyck being so chummy with everyone and Hayward being so aloof on the set.

The problem with Andersonwhitbeck is he tries to make Hayward seem like everyone's friend in Hollywood. She was the exact opposite of what he deperately wants to make her out to be.

There is a picture of Bette Davis and Susan Hayward together with director Edward Dmitryk at a party for the press. In the shot, they seemed more like sisters since both were out of character and they were impeccably dressed and coifed for the party.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64924500@N04/11980090996

Bette Davis is a character actor and a character actor will make herself look old enough to make the role (and the film) believable.

Acting wise, there's no question that Stanwyck could have done it. And yes, even with white hair, she didn't really look her actual age, let alone old enough to be Hayward's mother. But aging makeup could have worked wonders...it was used when she played Mary in The Thorn Birds (to make her look 75, which was actually how old she was in real life, oddly enough). I don't know if it would have been better or worse than Davis but it certainly would have been good. But I agree with your suggestion of Judith Anderson...she really would have been marvelous!

Sweet merciful crap!

It's just tea! *sips* Needs more gin.