Helen Chernen wants to get herself and her talented kid sister Katie out of their jerkwater hometown. And if that means using people and throwing them away, that's what Helen will do.

Biting, observant, set against a glittery show-biz backdrop, The Hard Way has earned its reputation as one of Hollywood's great melodramas. Among the film's many fine performances, two stand out. Jack Carson, typically cast in comic roles, is powerfully affecting as a song-and-dance man whose kind heart is no match for Helen's ruthless wiles. And Ida Lupino is pitch-perfect as Helen, etching an indelible portrait of twisted ambition that won her the 1943 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress."

In this dark drama an iron-willed older sister forcibly thrusts her only modestly talented younger sister into a Broadway career. She does this to desperately try to keep her little sis from falling into the same small-town trap of marriage to a dull working-stiff and endless hours of taking care of babies and household drudgery. The bigger sister gets her chance when two handsome vaudevillians come to town. Seeing that one of the fellows eyes her younger sibling, the elder connives to get the two together. The scheme works and the smitten performer dumps his long-time partner in exchange for a career with his new love. That might have been hunky dory, but the ambitious big sister wants more for her sister and convinces her to become a solo act. So upset is the jilted partner that he commits suicide. Still the big sister refuses to stop pushing until finally the younger girl gets fed up and rebels in a bitter confrontation that only results in more tragedy.