Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star

This is a highly entertaining, fascinating, outrageous, and sad documentary about Joan Crawford. Say what you want about her, Crawford was an amazing woman who came from nothing and with loads of ambition pushed her way to the top. Twice after her career sank to the bottom, she was able to rebuild it. Vincent Sherman, her daughter Christina, Cliff Robertson, Betsy Palmer, Liz Smith and others held nothing back when talking about the star: the multiple affairs she had with directors, her treatment of her children and husbands, and the antics that went on during the filming of Baby Jane, which were mind-boggling. Also touched on were her alcoholism, which caused her problems in later life, and her miserable childhood, which was the cornerstone of all of her problems.

Crawford's only self-identification seems to have been that of a film star, and her self worth was tied to it as well. She was smart, hard-working, glamorous, and, with the exception of her daughter, those who knew her and appeared in this documentary admitted there was something likable and even vulnerable about her. Ultimately, though, her life played out like a bad B movie. You could see the end coming from a mile away.

Joan Crawford's life and film career are discussed here along with interviews with co-stars, directors, old flames and ofcourse, daughter Christina. Rare pictures and interviews make this an extra special treat which includes pictures of her father, Joan as a child and the last picture taken of her in April, 1977, one month before her death from cancer. Also included is a rare interview on a 1960's television talk show and guest appearances as well. A must-see for any Crawford fan! ***1/2

JOAN CRAWFORD: THE ULTIMATE MOVIE STAR is far from being a glowing tribute to the film star, as most of these comments seem to suggest. It shows just how sad, how tragic her life really was behind all the glamorous facade of Hollywood phoniness.

Like Bette Davis, her personal life was a mess. Both of them had bad relationships with their fathers resulting in a lifelong distrust of men, which killed any chance for happy marriage relationships. Joan went about choosing men to marry based on her own insecurities as a woman from a dubious background who wanted to learn from the men she married and cultivate herself with knowledge she otherwise would not have.

We learn that her marriage to DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. was an open marriage that lasted about four years; her marriage to FRANCHOT TONE was happy as long as they stayed in the Hollywood limelight and again she was educating herself because he was a worldly, sophisticated mate, but again the marriage fell apart because of infidelities in another open marriage; she had torrid romances with most of her leading men, including director VINCENT SHERMAN, always willing to talk about his affairs with the many actresses he directed.

Nor are the comments about her--not just those by Christina Crawford--on the positive side all the time. I'd say half and half. A word of praise followed by the "but she always had to be in control" kind of statement, from people who knew her, like LIZ SMITH, BETSY PALMER, CLIFF ROBERTSON, MARGARET O'BRIEN and others.

Far from being a paean to her glory as "the ultimate movie star", it's really more of a "warts and all" confessional that fans of Crawford seem to be in denial about. Her life off screen was full of venom and hateful feuds with just about every co-worker, all the while giving the viewers a few chuckles about how she slapped everyone in films because--well, "because I do that in all my films".

So you have to take the good with the bad, all the way through this documentary, which is essentially a tribute to Crawford's longevity as a name above the title film star. The only one who looks worse than Crawford is Bette Davis, whose cruelty during the aborted filming of HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE reached new lows, even for Bette. Those two divas really hated each other.

It's definitely a monument to her longevity, but can't exactly be looked at as a glowing tribute to the actress or her thespian abilities. The kindest, most perceptive comments on the real Joan seem to come from Hollywood columnist BOB THOMAS.

Almost painful to watch are the clumsy dancing sequences showing how she made her start in early MGM films, just about the clunkiest exhibition of dancing ever performed on camera. She looks like a dancing windmill. It's a howl.

But, hey, it's the Joan Crawford we all remember from the '40s that really counts. She left a rich legacy of film noir/soap opera stuff that became legendary: MILDRED PIERCE, HUMORESQUE, POSSESSED and some of the lesser Warner films (FLAMINGO ROAD, THE DAMNED DON'T CRY) in which she came into her own.

But behind all that glory, it's really an awfully sad success story when it comes right down to it.

Trivia note: I loved the perceptive comment by BETSY PALMER who admits feeling sorry for children in any marriage involving actors/actresses. "Beware. We're a different species," she says with a mischievous grin.

This is certainly one of the best documentaries I have seen on any movie star and on Joan Crawford to begin with. Not many have been done on her, especially one which includes a lot of detail about her life and interviews from many different people associated with her and her films (the best are Christina Crawford and OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS co-star Anita Page). Included are clips from nearly all of her films and many never before seen photographs. Check this out if you are a classic movie fan or a Crawford fan, for sure. TCM will likely re-air this in a few months.

Lucille La Seuer came out of a poor home. Abandoned by her father and raised by a mother that had to struggle to make ends meet, Lucille saw a way out of her dreary life by becoming a dancer with dreams for going far in show business. Little did she know she would go on to become one of America's movie icons in a career that expanded more than fifty years after she became Joan Crawford, a screen goddess without rival.

"Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Film Star", conceived and directed by Peter Fitzgerald, follows Ms. Crawford's life in detail. We are given direct accounts by people that knew her and are still around to tell us. The documentary is narrated by Angelica Huston.

Joan Crawford was a woman larger than life. As an ambitious woman, she knew from the beginning she had to create her own persona in order to carve a niche in the movie industry. Louis B. Mayer was the man who saw her possibilities and quickly hired her to be part of the MGM family.

Ms. Crawford's ambition was boundless. She knew that by marrying Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was her entry into the inner sanctum of most of Hollywood's best people's homes and parties. She transformed herself into the creature one saw in her films. In order to appear more respectable, she adopted a boy and a girl. That girl being Christina, who went to tell it all in her famous book about her adopted mother, "Mommie Dearest", in which one learns about another facet of her character. In fact, Christina talks openly about her adoptive mother quite openly. Ms. Crawford went to adopt three other children, of whom one didn't hear much about.

The interviews with some of the people that knew her well proved to be one of the most interesting side to the documentary. Vincen Sherman, the director who worked with her in several movies, is candid about the woman and her human side. Bob Thomas shows an insight about the star. Also we see testimonies by Betsy Palmer, Anna Lee, Diane Baker, Dickie Moore, Ben Cooper, Cliff Robertson, among others that give us the picture of the woman who invented herself and went to become a dominant figure in the American cinema.

Thanks to Peter Fitzgerald for making it possible.