Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star (2002)

Absolutely brilliant

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I love classic Hollywood films of the golden era and not surprisingly I also love biographies of that talk about these stars. Unfortunately, most of them frankly leave a lot to be desired. They usually only talk about the good points of the celebrity or only discuss their films and as a result, you get a very one-dimensional view of the person. Occasionally, you also get some that are all dirty--and once again you only get a one-dimensional portrait. I was absolutely thrilled when I watched "Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star" because it managed to do something quite rare--balance the great talent with the human being. As a result, it's one of the best celebrity biographies I've seen.Angelica Huston narrates this made for Turner Classic Movies film. It combines her nice voice with some lovely interviews, photos and film clips to talk about her life from birth to death. You get a discussion of her major films as well as her personal life--and this is where the film shines. While it does talk quite a bit about her abuse of her children and affairs (and there were many), it tried to explore WHY--what about her caused her to be so screwed up and out of place off-camera. And, it seemed less angry in doing so. So, despite many clips of Christina Crawford discussing her mom, it did not come off as a recapitulation of "Mommy, Dearest". Plus, it balanced this with genuine respect and admiration for her talents and tenacity. Together, all these factors create a rich tapestry--and make it a must-see of fans of the genre. See this one.By the way, as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had a bit of a rivalry, I should point out that the TCM biography of Crawford was superior to the one they produced on Davis. It was longer, more complete and more interesting--warts and all.

I can appreciate both Joan Crawford's intense drive over a very long career and her messy personal life as being totally believable in one person. I love watching her 'act' in any movie, whether it's 'Mildred Pierce', 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane', 'The Damned Don't Cry' or even 'Trog'. Her every move, every look, every word wasn't left to chance for her.She had something captivating although, except for some of her early 'looks' I didn't think she was as beautiful as she was portrayed in her films. She had a skinny, boyish figure, not at all feminine. Surprisingly, she became a handsome woman in her later years when the effects of alcohol weren't too apparent.One thing rarely, if ever mentioned, is Crawford's voice. She could sound witchy in one scene and lower it to sound worldly and wise in the next. And those eyes. You knew exactly what she was thinking. She was 'living' those parts she played.In her interview with the young British guy, I was impressed when she acknowledged that everything she learned in life she got from the movie business. She said that if she didn't know a word in a script, she would look it up. Surprising honesty for a 'big star'.To me, it was both sad and admittedly entertaining that her alcoholism affected her later years. She still had a hard work ethic and I couldn't understand why she couldn't find roles for an older actress as some others her age did, like Olivia de Haviland and Joan Fontaine, etc. I guess her problem was that she wanted to maintain that 'Joan Crawford' persona from an earlier time and it was the 1960s, after all.I would have loved meeting her and talking about 'her' and her career even though I can believe that she might have been a real horror as a mother. She was hard on herself and I assume just as hard on her children. After 'Mommie Dearest' came out, I was eating some weird dish made with tofu and said "I think this is the kind of stuff Joan Crawford ate". He deadpanned, "She probably made her kids eat it".

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.

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