Joan Crawford on DVD
The Warner Archive is filling in some gaps in the Joan Crawford canon, with the welcome release of six films: “Dancing Lady” (1933), “Sadie McKee” (1934), “Strange Cargo” (1940), “A Woman’s Face” (1941), “Flamingo Road” (1949) and “Torch Song” (1953). “Torch Song” is pure camp, featuring Crawford at her most hard-boiled as a Broadway musical diva. See it if you like that sort of thing. “Flamingo Road” has its adherents.
But I’m most interested in the other four. Crawford was at her best at MGM, between 1928 and 1942. This was also when she was at her most popular. For some reason — TV broadcasts in the ’60s and ’70s, probably — the Crawford of legend has become the middle-aged Crawford. The result is that people see Crawford from the late ’40s or ’50s and then wonder why there was such a fuss over her. Well, see the MGM films and find out. “Dancing Lady” pairs her opposite Clark Gable (and in one scene, Fred Astaire) as a determined young dancer. It’s a good film with a winning atmosphere.
“Sadie McKee” is even better. First she lives with a useless singer (Gene Raymond). Later she marries a wealthy alcoholic (Edward Arnold), and this movie doesn’t play the alcoholism for laughs. It’s serious. The movie also features Franchot Tone. “Strange Cargo” reunites Crawford with Gable for an adventure story with spiritual overtones. And then there’s “A Woman’s Face” (1941), with an interesting script involving flashbacks and a murder case. Crawford plays a horribly scarred woman who gets a second chance at life when a plastic surgeon makes her look good as ... Crawford in 1941. Which was very good indeed.
Through her 30s, Crawford was one of the most sexually magnetic of screen actresses. Everything about her that made her seem mean as a middle-aged and older woman made her attractive as a younger woman. Her face had a sort of velocity and voltage to it. You will find this quality in all her early work. But there’s something about her in “A Woman’s Face,” made when she was 36, something worldly and confident, that is particularly arresting. It’s one of her best performances, too, in that she seemed to have an instinctive understanding of this woman’s bitterness and vulnerability — though working with director George Cukor surely helped, too.
Anyway, these DVDs are all sold separately. Start with “A Woman’s Face,” then try “Sadie McKee.” Then take it from there.