Monday, January 19, 2015

Joan Crawford

When I put up a video of MILDRED PIERCE last week, I got several negative comments about Joan Crawford. And I have to agree, she was one actress I never took to. And when I look over her output on IMDB, I see that I have never seen the majority of her work. I think WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE is one of the few I am sure I have seen in its entirety. Even when she played perfectly nice or even noble woman, something felt off. Her style of acting was too emphatic for me.It was always clear she was acting--but naturalism was late to come to movies perhaps.

What Joan Crawford movie stands out for you? Or do you shy away from her as well. Here is her output on IMDB.

6 comments:

Deb said...

I really like her as the gold-digging second wife in "The Women" and as the career woman in love with a married man in "The Best of Everything". I think her style was often so over-the-top that the studios didn't always know what to do with her.

Roger Allen said...

Mercedes McCambridge in Johnny Guitar out-overacts Crawford. As with Davies in Baby Jane, she's at her best when acting is a kind of warfare.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, THE WOMEN is one of her best parts. Ha. I haven't seen that shoot-out in years, Roger.

Anonymous said...

I admit, I've never been a Crawford fan. But ...Baby Jane is a fine film.

George said...

Joan Crawford is not an actress that audiences warmed to. I liked her performance in THE CARETAKERS.

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, my wife Sue and I had dinner with Joan Evans, who was Joan Crawford's goddaughter and named for her. She talked quietly about Crawford, telling how much she loved and admired her godmother. Joan Evans was here to work with Sue about reprinting her father's autobiographical account of growing up on a hardscrabble ranch near Billings, considered a Montana classic. Her father, Dale Eunson, and her mother, Katherine Albert, were screenwriters at MGM. John was the last of Sam Goldwyn's contract players. Joan Evans changed and warmed my whole perception of Crawford.