Mister_Smith Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 What is this obsession with that old child-beater? You keep trying to foist her off on us. I don't like her. Never did. She never had any subtlety. She bulldozed her way through every movie she ever made. Enough is enough. Please find someone new to promote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Considering that she had a longer and busier film career than just about any other leading actor, TCM is going to, without even trying, be showing a lot of her films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 TCM is always going to push someone like Joan Crawford. So expect more and more Joan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traceyk65 Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverrocks Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 I really like Crawford and her persona in her young movies in the silent era and early sound era but like her much less in her older movies with her heavy heavy makeup and increasingly meaner (at least to me) persona. Liked her in black and white but not in color. A great actress and one of a kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I'm not "sick and tired" of her, but admittedly I'm not a big fan. I've seen a good number of her movies now but nothing really grabs me about her. I thought she had great chemistry with Gable and I like seeing them together but I don't focus on her acting, per se... I keep reading on these boards that "Sudden Fear" is a terrific movie and it's coming to me in the mail from Classicflix, so I'm looking forward to seeing it to see if my opinion changes... I liked "Strange Cargo", but again it could be more because of the Crawford/Gable teaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrroberts Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 "Mister Smith" may be Bette Davis in disguise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 LOL. I like Bette Davis movies (or "Mister Smith" movies?) more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougieB Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 The one which changed my opinion wasn't "Sudden Fear" It was "Flamingo Road". 'Sudden Fear" requires that you buy Joan as a top Broadway playwright. I was much more willing to buy her as a carnival girl with the guts to get out, even though she was too old for the part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I haven't seen this one yet, Dougie. I'll have to check it out. She was good in "Baby Jane" too, but in my mind Davis comes through stronger in it, more "center stage". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I enjoyed seeing some of her early 30s movies last week when I was off. Though they all run together. Dance, Fools, Dance was good.....She didnt have much of a choice in vehicles in her early days........Shearer and Garbo got all the good dramatic parts......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo2 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I actually think Joan is underrated. In many of her movies she is terrific in my opinion.The movies may be melodramatic, but I think her "star" performances work in movies ranging from "Rain" to "Autumn Leaves" Love her in her Oscar winning part in "Mildred Pierce" as well as "A Woman's Face" "Possessed" (with Van Heflin) and certainly in "Grand Hotel among others.. An over the top film such as "Johnny Guitar" should have the kind of intense performnce that she brings to it. She lets Bette Davis chew all the scenery in "Baby Jane" and if you ask me, Joan gives the better performance - I know - nobody asked me. As many movies as Crawford made, there are for sure weak performances (subtle isn't always her forte), but when she's good she's very, very good. OK and yes, when she's bad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougieB Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I agree with a lot of your choices. In "Autumn Leaves" she underplays almost eerily, since it's not what we're used to with her, yet the performance works overall. Same with "A Woman's Face". I think what puts some people off is that she and the material she chose (or accepted) often seems so mismatched. From the 1950's on, Joan often seemed a little too old, a little too glammed-up or a little too intense for the roles she played. Not that actors haven't accepted inappropriate roles since Day One, just to keep working. But Joan always seemed so committed to those roles and, even though that should be seen as a positive for an actor, I think the blame often fell on her and not on the moviemakers. But there's nothing like full-throttle Joan to get your pulse racing. Sometimes it's a little like watching a Godzilla movie, but there's nothing like watching one of the great scenery chewers in action, logic and common sense be damned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 It looks as if the current trend on these boards is that everyone and everything is either underrated or overrated. Nobody and nothing is correctly rated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo2 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Lol. Good one, Finance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverrocks Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 THE BRIDE WORE RED (1937) -- Heartily enjoyed this Joan Crawford/ Franchot Tone romantic movie. Had not seen it before. Been watching quite a number of Crawford SOTM movies this month. My formerly not-so-good opinion of her has changed to very positive. RAIN (1932) last night was excellent as have been many of the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I've been into studio-era movies for over 2 decades but it is only in the last 3 years or so that I became a big time Crawford fan. Yea, she was in some stinkers, but she made a lot of movies and one can find a lot of gems there also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagoldenage Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 How many of her films have you seen that you're able to make such a general comment on someone who had such a long career? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 "Bulldozed"? That seems to describe an actress who regularly "chewed the scenery"? That doesn't seem to describe Crawford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcmgem Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 The Joan Crawford spate of movies has been great in following her career--acting and role choices--throughout her life. One of the reasons I sooo appreciate TCM is that one can do this in a relatively short period of time with so many actors. It adds another dimension to watching so many wonderful movies. Joan Crawford is not my favorite actress, but I feel that I can look at her performances in different ways having seen the grand retrospective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Couldn't agree with you more. We see Joan from the 20's until the 60's, in drama, noirs, urban comedies etc... Yea, some films are only so-so, but most have something to offer and some show what the Hollywood studio system was designed to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbabe Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 i am a fan of Ms. Joan although i have to say my favorite is Garbo and Joan loved her acting too and her beauty and Davis once said that Garbo was a witch before the camera, praising her acting skills, each of these ladies possess their own qualities, show some respect for them and in this case for Joan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyM108 Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I wouldn't put Crawford in the class of Stanwyck or Davis, but other than those two I can't think of another actress who's been in so many enjoyable movies, all the way from silents such as The Unknown to classic horror films such as Whatever Became of Baby Jane? and Strait-Jacket. One particular thing I also like about Crawford is that almost all of her best remembered films are set in the present, firmly rooted in contemporary life. Very few of these idiotic costume dramas and period pieces for her, thank God. However insane and melodramatic some of her roles may be, they're almost always a product of her time and place. How many other actresses can claim as many first rate dramas in their repertory? Sudden Fear Rain A Woman's Face Possessed (the 1947 film) Paid The Damned Don't Cry Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Mildred Pierce The Women* Flamingo Road That's hardly a complete list, either, but I think the point is clear. *a movie in which she zinged one of the great comic lines ever to the gossipmongering Mrs. Fowler, as played by Rosalind Russell: *"Do come again, Mrs. PROWLER"* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arturo Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Joan Crawford had a.distintly modern persona during her long.reign as a star. After.the poor.reception of THE GORGEOUS HUSSY in 1936, MGM and Joan realized this, and she never again did a costumer while.at the studio or elsewhere. While not.one.of my top favorites, i consider.myself.a.Crawford fan. I respecf.her accomplishments,.and her.ability to reinvent herself by sheer will power, in order to remain on (or.return to the) top. I enjoy movies from every period of her career, no matter how unbelievable.the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer5 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I love "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" ! The fact that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford loathed each other makes the film even more amazing. Knowing that Joan loaded her clothes with extra weights when Bette had to drag her body really adds something to the scene. Hearing the anecdote about Joan making a point to ask Davis' opponents (in the 1962 Best Actress Oscar race) if she could accept their award, if they were unable to attend. Then the fact that she got to brush past Davis (waiting in the wings) while saying "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept" and then walks onstage to accept Anne Bancroft's Oscar is hilarious. Plus, Bette Davis is bats--- crazy in that film. I love it. Poor Joan spending half the film just trying to get downstairs is heart wrenching. You're rooting for Joan to free herself of Bette; but at the same time, are on the edge of your seat waiting to see what Bette will do to Joan next (or maybe that's just me, haha). I wait in suspense to see what awful thing Bette will put on Joan's dinner plate next. Then the end of the movie is fantastic and sad at the same time. I just watched this movie last Thursday on day 1 of my snow/ice induced imprisonment. It was just as amazing as it was the first time I saw it. I also have a soft spot for Faye Dunaway's over the top portrayal of Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest." I know the film is completely ridiculous; but the campiness is what I love about it. I also probably also took away the wrong message from this movie; but I felt really bad for Joan Crawford and didn't feel much remorse for Christina. I don't really know why. NO WIRE HANGERS, EVER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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