What are the best Joan Crawford movies? In afraid i've only watched Baby Jane.

Mildred Pierce The Women Sudden Fear Queen Bee Strait-Jacket Autumn Leaves

I saw her in Sudden Fear last year and was mesmerised. I thought she was brilliant and it was a really good movie.

Female on the Beach for the 1950s, Grand Hotel for the 30s, Our Dancing Daughters for the silent era, MP for the 40s, Baby Jane for the 60s.

You need a double-feature starting with Mildred Pierce and finishing with Straight-Jacket.

Should Joan have had a second Oscar?

R5 No

That's a long title for a movie, R1!

[quote]Straight-Jacket.

Oh, dear.

"Torch Song," of course, for Joan in blackface.

Sudden Fear is a great movie. The scene where Joan listens to the recording and finds out something bad is about to happen is very well-done, she went back and used all of her silent film training for that scene.

Johnny Guitar is fabulous, especially if you're a cinema buff type. This movie was beloved among the French and directors like Scorsese and Almodovar.

R7 Sorry. Forgot to hit ENTER twice after each entry.

"I Saw What You Did," but only to see Joan drunk onscreen wearing the statement-est of statement necklaces.

A Woman's Face

Humoresque

Harriet Craig

R11 I took a young friend (26 or so) to see this at Film Forum about 7 or 8 years ago. I appreciate it still and it is almost surreal at times, but it really doesn't hold up well, unless once is, as you say, once is a cinemaphile. Although JC and Mercedes McCambridge are stunning in their performances, really over the top.

I do have a certain fondness for THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. And I love FLAMINGO ROAD.

I once read an article where a cinema queen was reviewing Joan Crawford's filmography and noted that after around 1954, Joan stopped making movies and started making eyebrow features.

I laughed out loud when I read that, but it's true. Starting in the mid 1950s, Joan's brows got bigger and blacker than ever.

I found Sudden Fear on YouTube! I'm going to start with that. Thank you everybody!

She's also good in Spielberg's short that was in the Night Gallery film.

I don't know about her movies, but I know the best line ever uttered about Joan Crawford was on Hollywood Squares back in the 70s.

Peter Marshall: "you have a pick, an ax, and a stick of dynamite - what are you about to do".

Paul Lynde: "clear out Joan Crawford's eyebrows".

Gorgeous!

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is not a Joan Crawford movie, OP, you pathetic excuse for a gay person. Not seeing a Crawford movie by age 10 is a sign of a perverse upbringing and stubbornness on your part bordering on pathology.

I think you're secretly non-binary. Maybe even something worse.

Straight.

Baby Jane IS the only Crawford film worth watching.

Was it Joan Crawford's evil twin who appeared in Baby Jane, R22? Do tell.

A montage for OP. With music.

Humoresque for sure but I also love her in Torch Song. Campy but Joan has some really nice moments.

Actually Baby Jane is also the only Bette Davis film I've seen. I'm a bad gay.

Possessed is also great. She plays a private duty nurse who may or may not be a homicidal sociopath. She was excellent.

Of the 30s I've always loved "Sadie McKee" "Dancing Lady" and "The Bride Wore Red"

Another vote for [italic]Humoresque.[/italic]

I've seen almost all of Joan's films. Here are my favorites:

West Point (silent) 1928- with BFF Billy Haines

Rain (1932) - wonderful - Joan hated this performance but time has proven it to be quite good

Grand Hotel (1932) - all star cast with the Barrymores, Garbo, Wally Beery

Dancing Lady (1933) - Joan and Gable. CHEMISTRY

Sadie McKee (1934) - Joan, Gene Raymond and Franchot

The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) - Joan with Melvyn Douglas and Robert Taylor. Period piece about the Andrew Jackson presidency. Famous curled wig.

The Bride Wore Red (1937) - Joan at her loveliest IMO. Dorothy Arzner directed and got a great performance out of her. Robert Young and Franchot.

The Women (1939) - a must see for the entire cast, director Cukor, all women cast, etc.

A Woman's Face (1941) - Joan and Melvyn Douglas again. spectacular performance and cast.

Mildred Pierce (1945) - "THE" Oscar winning performance

Humoresque (1946) - another flawless looking Joan, paired with John Garfield

Possessed (1947) - great noir film with lots of early DTLA scenes. Pairing with Van Helfin seems forced. Like her pairing with Raymond Massey.

The Damned Don't Cry (1950) - they used Frank Sinatra's house for the exterior shots of the gangster house in Palm Springs. Joan looks chic.

Sudden Fear (1952) - a flawless noir set in San Francisco, Joan paired with Jack Palance

Queen Bee (1955)- Deliciously evil role. Joan and Joan Ireland, Betsy Palmer.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) (for obviously camp and wonderful performances)

THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS (52). Her last flick at Warners when they wanted to give her the heave-ho. She is a socialite/gangster's moll who's going blind. It's like a whacked out version of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION.

All Joan's movies are BEST, baby!

[quote]West Point (silent) 1928- with BFF Billy Haines

Any movie where she's silent is preferable.

THE DAMNED DON'T CRY (50). Joan plays a frazzled working-class housefrau, loses her little boy to vehicular homicide, and becomes a wealthy and "cultured" gangster's moll. She also gets fucked by Steve Cochran, which is some kind of apotheosis.

Like I said, ALL her movies are BEST!

Oh-dearing myself: I wasn't sure whether it was Straitjacket or Strait-Jacket, so I looked it up. Unbeknownst to me, autocorrect changed "Strai" to "Straight" and I didn't catch it.

I am heating up the grease for my fire as I type (fat).

I saw a movie (sp?) once. It had a funny lady in it and there was sane in an ice cream cone at the end.

Bipteetbee.

Me speshul.

I HAVE seen eleven Victor Buono movies, though.

THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO (57). Joan plays a wealthy socialite who tools around the bogs of Ireland in a giant American car, and discovers a blind and deaf girl in the muck. Like a "Miracle Worker" AND "Mommie Dearest," she adopts her, teaches her how to communicate to mass audiences who are "inspired" by the girl. But trouble ensues when suave and debonair hubby Rossano Brazzi rapes the girl . . .

Lesser known Joan movies are the BEST!

[quote]OP: I'm a bad gay.

No, you're a bad human being.

Upsetting people here and all.

Shame!

I liked Strange Cargo, 1940, with Gable

Most entertaining. SEXY film of hers is Female On The Beach (she and Jeff Chandler were fucking up a storm in her trailer after shooting wrapped for the day, and their chemistry is hot).

The Damned Don't Cry is a blast, a noir that combines Mildred Pierce and Flamingo Road, plus a nice variety of hunks who take turns fucking her. Fun, and it's also on youtube.

Autumn Leaves is on youtube, but I've always found it over-rated and depressing, though she and Cliff Robertson and the rest of the cast do fine work.

Harriet Craig is one of my favorite films of hers. She's a controlling psycho housewife from hell who ruins her own life through manipulating and undermining the people who love her. Total bitch but I still feel sorry for her. It is also on youtube.

Strait-jacket changed a straight friend of mine's mind about Crawford-he thought she was amazing in it, and all he knew of her was the Mommie Dearest movie.

As mentioned by others, Sadie McKee, Rain, The Bride Wore Red are among her best 30s films (The Bride Wore Red is SO much better than its reputation). And Dancing Lady's a delight. Two of her early 40s movies she didn't care for (When Ladies Meet and Reunion In France) are charming and a lot of fun.

Actually, MANNEQUIN is pretty good. Better, I think, than THE BRIDE WORE RED.

[quote] (she and Jeff Chandler were fucking up a storm in her trailer after shooting wrapped for the day, and their chemistry is hot).

What was he wearing? Something frilly, I bet!

Mannequin IS good, and she's terrific in it, but as soon as Spencer shows up and sweeps her off her feet and buys her everything in sight it stops being gritty and real.

Joan was getting pounded by John Ireland's giant horse cock all during the making of Queen Bee.

A Woman's Face is a damn good movie, she should've been nominated for an Oscar.

For her silent films: "The Unknown", "Our Dancing Daughters" Pre-Code: "Possessed" (1931), "Grand Hotel" Others: "The Shining Hour", The Women", Mildred Pierce", "Humoresque", "Possessed" (1947), "Sudden Fear", "Johnny Guitar" , "Queen Bee", Autumn Leaves", "The Best of Everything", "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", Strait Jacket", "Berserk"

Joan was wonderful and suitably cast in Ice Follies of 1939!

Rozzano Brazzi punched me in the cooter!

She was originally cast as Cousin Miriam in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, but decided to throw a wobbly a week into filming and claimed she was too sick to work. In reality she was scared she was going to be upstaged by Davis again as she had been in WHTBJ. A great palava ensued with Robert Aldrich hiring private detectives to follow Crawford to verify if she was sick or not. She even had herself admitted to the hospital so they could dummy up some fake illness. They had to suspend filming until they could find a replacement and eventually cast de Havilland in the role. She did not want to do the part, but did it as a favor to her friend Bette Davis.

Johnny Guitar has a nice Dyke on Dyke showdown at the end.

Autumn Leaves. Joan is a spinster work at home typist who falls for a much younger Cliff Robertson who is a psycho. The best part is to compare Joan’s work at home attire-pearls, hairdo, etc.- to those of us WAH today- sweats and pajamas with bed head.

Queen Bee and Autumn Leaves are pretty bad, in my opinion. I always said, though, that Dunaway wasn't playing Joan in Mommy Dearest, she was playing Joan's character in Queen Bee.

IDK, I really liked Autumn Loaves, but I like her in anything.

[Quote] The best part is to compare Joan’s work at home attire-pearls, hairdo, etc.- to those of us WAH today-

Win :) so a must-watch!

I think all of Crawford’s best films have been named, so I’ll just add another vote for A Woman’s Face. The first part of this film has some of Crawford’s best acting. The cruel scene with Osa Massen is memorable. The second part of the film, unfortunately, falls apart. A Woman’s Face has some of George Cukor’s most sensitive direction. With a more psychologically astute second part and a less convoluted structure (too much reliance on flashbacks), this film might have been remembered as one of MGM’s, Cukor’s, and Crawford’s finest.

R50 There isn't a gay man of a certain age alive who doesn't already intimately know this story. Plus there was an entire episode of FEUD about it.

A Woman’s Face, Humoresque, Daisy Kenyon, The Story of Esther Costello, Sudden Fear, Autumn Leaves.

Christina always said that "Queen Bee" Joan was the Joan she knew, maybe you're kust taking credot for something you neard from her.

Checkout The Unknown (1927) for an early project. It's a silent horror movie that succeeds in being quite eerie and tense, featuring Lon Chaney (in a remarkable performance). Joan heralds the picture as a turning point in her early career, when all the techniques she had been taught at MGM coalesced into a single performance. Anyway, she is exotic and quite lovely as the young carney dancer.

I forgot about Queen Bee! I love it.

Must agree about DANCING LADY, a very different kind of picture for Joan as it's a musical. She's gorgeous and funny in it and Clark Gable - well, if you ever wondered what was so hot about Gable, check him out in this one. Incredible chemistry between him and Joan, especially in a scene in a gym where they work out together! This film is MGM's attempt to do a Busby Berkeley type back stage musical and IMHO it really works. Great fun!

And Joan dances a huge finale number Heigh Ho! the Gang's All Here! with none other than Fed Astaire in his Hollywood debut. She kind of clomps her way through it in a fabulous but rather annoying feathered gown that must have driven young Fred crazy. In fact, I think his somewhat careless treatment in the film was probably what drove him away from MGM and into RKO's arms until his return in the late 1940s when Joan was safely gone from the lot.

None—anywhere in this universe—none, I said!

Our Dancing Daughters made her into a Jazz Baby MGM Superstar.

"Rain," of course.

[quote]Christina always said that "Queen Bee" Joan was the Joan she knew

Christina should have been left in the foundling home where Joan found her.

I love nice autumn loaves as well. A freshly baked slice of pumpernickel toasted on a cold winter morning is delicious.

The Last of Mrs. Cheyney is the definition of fabulous.

I did it first, r68, and better!

Congresswoman Joan would bitch-slap the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert to Kingdom Come!

Sudden Fear. That scene where she learns the truth is Joan at her best.

She's good in The Women (1939) and it's an entertaining film.

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Mildred Pierce, Female On the Beach, Autumn Leaves.

"Mildred Pierce"

Thank you all! I’m watching Harriet Craig now. Oh my goodness, how they keep lighting her face no matter where she is standing or placed. Oh these closeups!

Mommie Dearest. She was great in that.

R76, I believe Joan had it written in her contract that a band of light was to perpetually shine down on her face, as if she was touched by the Divine. It's actually pretty hilarious how her character will be standing in the shadows or sleeping with the lights out, but that damn light from nowhere hits her at flattering angles.

Joan pulled out of it because Bette sent her to a mental ward with her bullying, but Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte is great

She was at her most beautiful during the 1930s

Straitjacket

Trog

[quote]Oh my goodness, how they keep lighting her face no matter where she is standing or placed. Oh these closeups!

Joan, like Lucille Ball, knew as much or more about lighting as the film technicians knew.

She often made sure she had a "kicker light", in addition to the key light to highlight her eyes while de-emphasizing her neck....

R82 Trog is so bad it's good.

Joan plays an anthropologist. That has her own wing named after her.

The Trog costume was so half-assed it's not even funny.

And lines like "Trog is NOT a carnivore; fish and lizards will supply the proteins he needs until we can safely expand the range of his eating.". What?!?

[81] Straitjacket was epic. Epic disaster, but still epic.

Damn DataLounge make it easier to reply to ppl. This layout sucks ass, and not in the good way.

Just watched [italic]Sudden Fear[/italic] tonight for the first time, and it's really good. Edge-of-your-seat suspense, plus the big-dick-faced talents of Mr. Jack Palance.

Did Joan fuck Jack Palance?

Funny thing is, Joan's no great beauty. Nor is Bette or Stanwyck. But they hold their own. A mystery wrapped in bafflement.

Crawford was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood from 1929 through at least 1937. To say she was no great beauty is preposterous.

This article has a lot to say about Crawford's photogenic looks.

To think Joan wanted Brando for her leading man in Sudden Fear. I assume they did a rewrite when they got Jack Palance who was known as the ugliest man in Hollywood. He gets the lines about how ugly Casanova was.

R90 she ain't no Ava, Rita or Hedy. She looks like a drag queen, and I say that in the best way possible. No wonder gays worship her. Her eyebrows were amazing like Dan Levy's.

No way. In Dancing Lady, Chained, Possessed, I live my life, Sadie McKee she’s utterly feminine and ravishing. It’s crazy how people get this image of Crawford in her later career and apply it to her entire being. She was GORGEOUS when she was young.

Why do amazing actresses like Bette get maligned by female impersonators? To give one example. It's a vast gay male conspiracy.

Even her arch-enemy Bette Davis said of Crawford, "I wish I were half as beautiful as she is."

Oh that Bette. Cunt sure knew how to cunt.

It's already been mentioned, but "Trog" is also worth a look because it was Joan's final movie. I think she looked at the rushes and realized that she had hit a low point and it was time to bow out of the movie business.

Even though poor Joan was at her career nadir with "Berzerk!" and "Trog," she took these roles seriously and gamely played them straight as if she were doing A+ pictures.

Joan should have done more theatre

My choices:

Rain

Grand Hotel

The Women

Mildred Pierce

Humoresque

Flamingo Road

Sudden Fear

Johnny Guitar

Autumn Leaves

Forgot Daisy Kenyon. Fabulous Otto Preminger flick co-starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, and Ruth Warrick.

Joan was not a theater actress. She was also shitfaced drunk by 5pm every day so theater work wouldn't have been a good idea.

[quote]She was also shitfaced drunk by 5pm every day

Why do people feel the need to make up lies about Joan?

If Joan was in a production she would have been sober all the time

r104 are you kidding? Joan was a raging alcoholic. This has been very well-documented.

r105 Joan drank on sets.

I don't think Miss Crawford ever appeared in legitimate theatre.

Joan was the original runaway bride.

[quote][R104] are you kidding? Joan was a raging alcoholic. This has been very well-documented.

Later in her career, Joan had substance problems, but she was always a professional.

What about her "smokers"?

[quote]—Or were they "art films?"

They were nudies!

Rain, a film noir. Yes, I know it's been mentioned. I read the story by Somerset Maugham before I saw the movie. Scary! Joan Crawford plays a prostitute stuck on South Seas island with a missionary (Walter Huston)!

If you don't see the movie, read the story (it's short). The story may be better than the movie.

Marilyn Monroe was going to do a TV version of "Rain" in the 60s

Joan is actually even more beautiful than Greta Garbo in "Grand Hotel".

I caught up with "Susan and God" a few weeks ago on TMC -- good film of play originally starring Gertrude Lawrence, but rather stolen by a typically wonderful Fredric March. Joan is very good in the film though playing a woman whose latest fad is following a religious guru and how it affects her friends after coming home from a retreat.

"Autumn Leaves" is really good, with a terrific Cliff Robertson as well

"Harriet Craig" is excellent, though it's a remake of "Craig's Wife" with very find and bitchy Rosalind Russell, which is actually closer in its writing to that of the original play.

"fine", that is

R113, I don't know what was the fascination with a South Seas prostitute, but this Maugham short story has gotten a lot of mileage, on the silver screen as "Sadie Thompson" with Gloria Swanson (1928), "Rain" with Crawford (1932), "Miss Sadie Thompson" with Rita Hayworth (1953), and on stage with Jeanne Eagles (1922) and June Havoc (1944). There was also a "race film" in 1946 called "Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A.," starring Francine Everett, that took the same story but changed the hooker into a showgirl and transported the location to the Caribbean.

r110 Joan was visibly drunk in her later films and television and public appearances.

R113, I was not fascinated with a South Seas prostitute. But, mix that with a missionary and I find it interesting. I read "Rain" before seeing the movie. Frankly, Joan Crawford was not what I had imagined as Sadie. I know people consider JC beautiful, I just don't see it.

I love Strange Cargo for the gay subtext between Albert Dekker and John Arledge.

You haven't lived until you have seen Kim Novak as Jeanne Eagels play Sadie Thompson on stage in "Jeanne Eagels".

[quote]THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS (52). Her last flick at Warners when they wanted to give her the heave-ho.

Not so.

As she did in 1943 after "Above Suspicion" flopped at MGM, Joan saved her career by buying herself out of the last movie she owed Warner Bros. as she was eager to do "Sudden Fear" at Universal, which she had some creative say in.

Both times (1943 and 1951) Joan made a wise move to end the assorted crap she was being offered under contract to do superior material somewhere else, but she paid big bucks to end those contracts one movie earlier than agreed upon.

For an excellent look at Pre-Code Joan take a look at "Dance Fools, Dance" (1931), also with Gable. Joan plays scruffy, smart upwardly mobile career gal. She's an impoverished former rich society girl as crime-investigating newbie reporter. Joan is great and you can see her putting herself on the A-list list with each new role.

[quote]For an excellent look at Pre-Code Joan take a look at "Dance Fools, Dance" (1931), also with Gable. Joan plays scruffy, smart upwardly mobile career gal. She's an impoverished former rich society girl as crime-investigating newbie reporter. Joan is great and you can see her putting herself on the A-list list with each new role.

Joan also made MGM so much money with those movies, they could afford to indulge Norma Shearer in her movies that made a lot less

"The Best of Everything."

I tried to fuck Peter Shaw—he was my agent at Morris all throughout the 1950s but he was married to Angela Lansbury and—to his credit—he did not take the bait.

I'd bet he'd like a do-over on that...

Have seen Ang and her big-low hanging tits lately?

I'm rewatching Sudden Fear, Joan is giving a wonderful performance and looks terrific.

“Sudden Fear”

Humoresque just for the party scene.

It was even parodied on SCTV. With Catherine O'Hara as Joan.

Gosh that Brett Barrett in Sudden Fear is GORGEOUS!

"I saw her in Sudden Fear last year and was mesmerised"

The gayest thing ever said on DL?!

Gloria Grahame is awful in Sudden Fear. This Dame has an Oscar?!

I'm not a Crawford specialist but 'Autumn Leaves' stands out a lot.

Love this thread! Don’t sleep on Joan’s interesting films such as “Dance,Fools,Dance”, “Possessed (1931)”, “Paid”, “Letty Lynton” -which was pulled from release over a licensing issue and not seen publicly for almost 90 years. I saw a bootleg of it on YT years ago. Dancing Lady has the distinction of not just being the screen debut of Fred Astaire, but also Ted Healey and the Three Stooges.

R125. Peter Shaw and Ange were a cute couple. It's weird how Angela Lansbury, who was gorgeous in her youth, became a little old woman in her late '20s and then lived till 100.

Most unintentionally hilarious: "Torch Song." Runners-up: "Berserk" and "Female on the Beach."

The Damned Don't Cry(1950). After a tragic accident, a woman starts her life anew with the desire to get to the top, at any cost. Joan was really good in this film. For this picture she won the 1951 Photoplay Award for Most Popular Female Star.

"You've got to kick and punch and belt your way up because nobody's going to give you a lift."

"The Damned Don't Cry"

But Joan does, over..and over....and over

Mommy Dearest.

Towards the end of Sudden Fear, that prick who slams the door in Joan's face as she's begging for help? What a prick!

Female On The Beach started well but then went off the rails.

Maybe we have something in common?

Great memory jog for this thread.

The damned Don't Cry and Harriet Craig (both 1950) and Sudden Fear (1952) and Autumn Leaves (1956) and an unsold TV pilot called Royal Bay are all on YouTube.

All the films are good (though I don't really enjoy Autumn leaves, it feels like Aldrich really enjoyed tormenting his female characters) but she's great in all of them. And Royal Bay is a luridly melodramatic and fun (but a slow start until Joan makes her entrance at the top of a staircase while the violins swell).

Joan didn't drink alcohol, that's just another of her daughter's lies and slanders.

Orly?

Above Suspicion is one of the movies Charles Busch paid homage to in The Lady in Question.

Is LETTY LYNTON still unavailable on DVD/streaming services?

I never felt closer to Joan than when she stayed in the closet for fear of being murdered in Sudden Fear.

She always credited George Cukor for finally teaching her the true craft of acting while directing her in “A Woman’s Face”. She said he had to break her down and build her back up in order to shed old habits. According to her, through the grueling shoot, she learned how to inhabit a character and act from the inside out instead of putting on a facade. She always had raw talent, but needed a good director to guide her. Regardless of her aggressive reputation, she was very insecure and needed the persona of “Joan Crawford” the star to prop her up. This is where she differs from Bette Davis. Bette could make any lousy material and hack director look good. I suspect these are the differences that led to Joan leaving the “…Sweet Charlotte” production.

One more vote for Susan and God which hasn't gotten many mentions. I found the plot to be surprisingly clever and funny. It was nice to see Joan play light. She looked beautiful, too.

R123, "Joan also made MGM so much money with those movies, they could afford to indulge Norma Shearer in her movies that made a lot less."

Wasn't the saying at MGM "Shearer gets the prestige pictures, Garbo supplies the art and Crawford makes the money to pay for both of 'em."

Meh, r151.

She had a knack for choosing very entertaining films. Most of her movies are wonderful. The worst were:

"Goodbye My Fancy." I just couldn't fully watch it. It was dull. I lost my patience waiting for Eve Arden, who always livens up a movie.

"This Woman is Dangerous". It was a horrible script. The movie was tacky and she couldn't make it work. There was a scene, which was supposedly set in Indianapolis. There were palm trees in the background.

"Trog", albeit naturally.

I didn't watch "Ice Follies of 1939" , "Above Suspicion" and "They All Kissed the Bride."

Ironically, "Reunion in France" was enjoyably campy. Her character's name was Michelle. John Wayne called her "Mike" in the film. It was hilarious.

Miss Crawford would have been wonderful in Rosemary's Baby

Above Suspicion is a lot better than any number of her films. It's fluff, but very enjoyable. Flamingo Road is my guilty pleasure. I always enjoy a good revenge movie.

I love "Flamingo Road", it has everything!

Many of Joan's movies are fearless in that they get you to climb down into the gutter...then roll around in it!

Did anyone else get pissed off at that man who refused Joan aid as she was being chased by her murderous husband at the end of Sudden Fear? What did he think she was, a STREETWALKER?!

And why did her character spend so long untying the fence? She could have showed off her sexy gams if she'd hopped over it!

[quote] Ironically, "Reunion in France" was enjoyably campy.

Agree, I also enjoted that film.

Blue (stag) films. The Casting Couch, Velvet Lips and The Plumber, if you can find em.

"In The Casting Couch, Joan Crawford is reportedly seen performing oral sex on a producer before stripping off her clothes, jumping on his couch nude and engaging in another sex act. Crawford denied ever appearing in an indecent film in her 1962 memoir, but her first husband Douglas Fairbanks Jr. claims she told him about the pictures."

Didn't she make a silent porn movie?

Honey, that's so cute. Joan came up the hard way, which included stag film(s), fornicating w/ anyone who could help her financially or professionally. Her medicine cabinet was always full of prescription meds.

The best Joan Crawford movies to watch are not necessarily the best Joan Crawford movies.

Some of the absolutely essential Crawford movies to watch for their "camp aesthetic value," shall we say, are:

"Johnny Guitar" (Joan destroys Westerns. If only one will fit in the vault, this is it.)

"The Damned Don't Cry" (Joan destroys noir. Dead.)

"Sudden Fear" (Joan destroys thrillers. She married Jack Palance and his girlfriend is the brilliant Gloria Grahame.

"The Best of Everything" (Joan destroys office drama - Extraordinarily uncomfortable and hilarious.)

"Rain" (Early Joan camp.)

"Possessed" (Joan destroys horror!!!)

"Mildred Pierce" intersects here. It's so high-pitched that original solo matinee viewers must have felt like someone was tickling their pudenda with a feather.

Honorable mention (To demonstrate the completeness of the theme: Joan destroys science fiction and tragedy.): "Trog." I can't watch it. It's like "Lear," only bleaker.

Mildred Pierce, The Damned Don't Cry, Johnny Guitar

164 replies and no one recommends "Berzerk!"?

Did she do any sci-fi roles in her career?

Crawford was cast in "From Here to Eternity" but she insisted on using her own cameraman, the studio didn't agree, the role went to Deborah Kerr, the final film was nominated for Oscar in all 4 acting categories. If Crawford had given up her demand, I could totally see her winning her 2nd Oscar there, the role suited her perfectly, a slightly older woman with a younger men, also she was at the top of her game, no longer the top billing actress in Hollywood, but the acting was at her best, she was consistently praised by the critics. Deborah Kerr was nominated that year but lost to Hepburn from "Roman Holiday", Crawford had a much bigger clout than Kerr, if she was nominated, she would have won that over Hepburn, just one year earlier, Crawford was nominated for "Sudden Fear" but lost to Shirley Booth, the academy would be totally fine rewarding her on the second year.

“Trog,” OP. It was both her big-screen farewell and zenith.

I am really surprised no one has mentioned When Ladies Meet which also has Joan playing light, alongside Greer Garson who is also wonderful.

Don’t forget about AUTUMN LEAVES, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO AND THE CARETAKERS.

"The Story of Esther Costello" while firmly in the melodrama genre is pretty tough stuff. It is a very daring and challenging subject matter and Joan and Rossano Brazzi are very good.

Our Blushing Brides. It has that raw pre-code feeling. It’s about shop girls working in a department store with Joan as a lingerie model, looking quite fetching.

She's still a good looking dame at R165 if you scroll the pic up beyond those awful eyebrows. Someone needed to numb her brow with 100% proof vodka and pluck them like a chicken!

R167 I don't know if the Academy would have felt Joan was "due" another Oscar but agree she would have had a great shot with "From Here To Eternity". She was wonderful in "Sudden Fear" though, glad they nominated her for that.

R167 I'm sorry, but Crawford would have been dreadful in From Here To Eternity - thank God someone came to their senses. Nobody knows what her real age was, apparently, but she would have been far too old, for one thing. I've read the book and I didn't think Karen Holmes was "slightly older" than Milt Warden. But if so, Crawford was (if born in 1904) close to a decade older than Burt Lancaster. The beach scene that was so steamy with Deborah Kerr would have been awful with 50+ year old Crawford. And her simpering self-pity would have been all wrong for Karen Holmes.

‘The Women’ is my favourite role of Joan’s, and you know there had to be delicious tension with Norma. Her cameo slapping Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson in ‘It’s a Great Feeling’ always makes me laugh.

I’m in a few of those JC (Joan Crawford aka Jesus Christ) fan groups on FB. The admin stans are super serious and cult-like. They go after anyone who dares to besmirch St Joan. They infiltrated several other groups that made fun of Joan or dared to be pro-Tina and had them taken down by reporting for any possibility violation. Cut-throat fans not to be messed with! Joan would be proud.

I remember in the 70s there was a punk song called "Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Grave". I thought that was funny.