Page "Nancy Reagan" Paragraph 9

Davis ' film career began with minor roles in 1949's The Doctor and the Girl with Glenn Ford, and followed with East Side, West Side starring Barbara Stanwyck.

She played a child psychiatrist in the film noir Shadow on the Wall ( 1950 ) with Ann Sothern and Zachary Scott ; her performance was called " beautiful and convincing " by New York Times critic A. H. Weiler.

She co-starred in 1950's The Next Voice You Hear ..., playing a pregnant housewife who hears the voice of God from her radio.

Influential reviewer Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that " Nancy Davis delightful as gentle, plain, and understanding wife.

" In 1951, Davis appeared in her favorite screen role, Night Into Morning, a study of bereavement starring Ray Milland.

Crowther said that Davis " does nicely as the fiancée who is widowed herself and knows the loneliness of grief ," while another noted critic, The Washington Post < nowiki >'</ nowiki > s Richard L. Coe, said Davis " is splendid as the understanding widow.

" MGM released Davis from her contract in 1952 ; she sought a broader range of parts, but also married Reagan, keeping her professional name as Davis, and had her first child that year.

She soon starred in the 1953 science fiction film Donovan's Brain ; Crowther said that Davis, playing the role of a possessed scientist's " sadly baffled wife ", " walked through it all in stark confusion " in an " utterly silly " film.

In her next-to-last movie, Hellcats of the Navy ( 1957 ), she played nurse Lieutenant Helen Blair and shared the screen for the only time with her husband, playing what one critic called " a housewife who came along for the ride ".

Another reviewer, however, stated that Davis plays her part well, and " does well with what she has to work with ".