L'esclave du gang

Joan Crawford portrays a young woman on the edge of poverty who decides to change her life for the better. Unfortunately, she thinks that money is the answer to every problem. A smart drama, though formula most of the time. An excellent cast includes David Brian, Steve Cochran and Kent Smith. This is a film worth seeing.

5 years after "Mildred Pierce" and Joan Crawford is at it again. Again, she is poor and is willing to climb to the top no matter what. In this film, she becomes involved with organized crime and becomes a real pro in being used to infiltrate other wayward mobsters.

From poverty to that Mildred Pierce mink, Crawford gave a truly memorable performance. She will stop at nothing to get to the top.

Along the way, she seduces timid accountant, played masterfully by Kent Smith, to join the mob only two realize that the two of them are trapped.

Another favorite co-star of Crawford, David Brian appears as the head mobster who is against violence but must come to grips with it when renegade hood, the always terrific Steve Cochran, seduces Crawford and then goes after her when he discovers that she is a Brian stooge.

This is a gripping film-noir at its best.

Loosely based on Virginia Hill (Bugsy Seigel's moll), Director Vincent Sherman's film gives it a melodramatic gloss adapting it for star Joan Crawford. Enough of the essential underworld nastiness survives to edge it into Noir territory. Crawford plays Ethel, an unhappy housewife to an oil worker (Richard Egan). Fed up, Ethel moves to the big apple to start her life anew. She ends up as model for a fashion house, earning extra "tips" by wining and dining the firm's clients after hours. Along with the company's accountant Martin (Kent Smith), the pair end up meeting the head honcho for a crime syndicate, the oily George Castleman (David Brian). The pair finagle their way into Castleman's graces through Martin's ease with figures and Ethel's figure* (and her clawing to the top, wiles). On 'assignment' to the West Coast to keep tabs on a renegade operative in Castleman's organization, Nick Prenta (Steve Cochran), Ethel becomes further entangled. The screenplay and production are very slick. The acting smooth. DAMNED is a well done and smoothly entertaining film. Crawford gives a standout performance as the social climber who seemingly will stop on nothing to get what she wants, no matter who she has to hurt along the way. Cochran is charismatic as the Bugsy Siegel stand-in. The casting of the ultimate milquetoast Kent Smith is a master-stroke, perfectly setting up the character's story arc. David Brian has an icy frightening glare which Cinematographer Ted McCord amplifies, at one point making his eyes glow like something out of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED! DAMNED DON'T CRY is a fine example of sunlit Noir (although there are plenty of dark scenes) and an interesting cross-over with gangster crime pictures. Using Frank Sinatra's real Palm Springs pad as Prenta's hang gives it that much extra verisimilitude. Keeping all the other superlatives in mind, this is still Crawford's picture. Her avaricious Ethel is Noir classic. Of course, any similarity to the actresses real life persona is strictly intentional!

* P.S. One aspect of the film that is the elephant in the room is that the viewer has to accept that Crawford's physical beauty is such that it makes every man she meets melt in front of her. She was an attractive woman, particularly in her earlier years, but, by the time of DAMNED she was hitting her mid-40s. Watching men drool as if Gene Tierney, Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth had strided into the room is a bit much.

The Damned Don't Cry finds Joan Crawford on a roller-coaster ride from poverty, to riches, to notoriety and then to God knows where. Her fate is by no means clear at the end of the film.

Joan is an older version of the shop girl she played in her MGM days. She leaves her hard working, but dull husband Richard Egan after their little boy is killed in a traffic accident. She has beauty, but little else in the way of work skills. The answer is obvious, become a model.

The modeling gig gets her involved with the mob and she's soon trading up men from accountant Kent Smith, to mobsters, Steve Cochran, and David Brian. Along the way Joan acquires riches, polish, and a new name and identity of a wealthy Texas oil heiress. That's only befitting the position of mistress to the gangster elite.

With Virginia Hill's testimony before the Kefauver Committee and the spectacular death of Bugsy Siegel a couple of years earlier, the recognition of the characters played by Crawford and Cochran would have been easy for the movie-going public. In fact I'm surprised Steve Cochran never got to play Siegel in a biographical picture long before Warren Beatty did his film. Cochran would have been perfect in the role. Of course it was probably too close to Siegel's demise and a lot of Hollywood people might have been burned a bit.

David Brian is a sleek version of Lucky Luciano who was not as polished in real life as Brian is here. But beneath the polish, Brian's a deadly man although he would not be doing his own work if he was really Luciano at that stage. And Kent Smith in the Meyer Lansky part is really quite the stretch.

Crawford pulls all the stops out in The Damned Don't Cry. Her fans and others will really love this film.

I have to say that this is one of my very favorite films. A truly entertaining movie. Briefly, Joan Crawford plays a good woman who's world is turned upside down by a tragic event. She decides to climb her way out of poverty by using everyone she comes in contact with and falling in with a lot of shady characters. She makes her way to a life of glamour and wealth, only to see it all fall apart when her bad karma comes back to haunt her. For all the Joan Crawford jokes - this is actually quite a good movie. The dialogue is crackling and all the actors are very good. Joan does not go over the top and gives a convincing portrayal of a woman who has lost her moral compass - but then regains it in the end. There are of course some melodramatic moments, but not too many. The production values are top notch - lots of location shooting - mainly in Palm Springs, to really get you into the setting of the film.

I would classify this film as a film noir - it starts out as who-done-it and features noir stalwart Steve Cochran. If you are looking for an entertaining flick - you can't go wrong with this one!