Classic and James Bond films unite
Flamingo Road (1949) begins with Joan Crawford's narration about the town in which her character, Lane Bellamy, will try and carve out a life for herself. About the places and people that make it what it is, but especially Flamingo Road, the street reserved for the wealthy and successful. The place that she tells a… Continue reading The Crooked Road to Success: Flamingo Road (1949)
The year that Mannequin had its nationwide release, Joan Crawford was featured on the list of actresses termed as "Box Office Poison". It was a list that featured Katherine Hepburn, Kay Francis, Norma Shearer and John Barrymore, to name but a few. It was a list that is now largely seen as being inaccurate, or… Continue reading The Working Man: Spencer Tracy in “Mannequin” (1937)
Strange Cargo (1940) is not an easy film to describe. It has elements of drama, romance, adventure and tragedy. It is all these things, but it does not fit neatly into any of these genres. It could perhaps be compared to I Was A Fugitive of a Chain Gang, with its frank depiction of prison… Continue reading Into the Wilderness: Clark Gable in “Strange Cargo” (1940)
Joan always adored her fans. They were her life and the reason she carried on acting and producing memorable, touching and brilliant performances for her entire career. For Joan, improving her craft was for her audience, as she knew they would be there long after she had gone, different audiences over different periods. And because… Continue reading The Queen Rests: A Wrap up of the Joan Crawford: Queen of the Silver Screen Blogathon
Although Our Dancing Daughters (1928) is the film that is often cited as Joan's star making role, she herself said that it was her starring in The Unknown that really taught her to act. According to IMDB , Joan Crawford always considered The Unknown (1927) a big turning point for her. She said it wasn't until working with Lon… Continue reading The Perfect Joan Double Bill: The Unknown (1927) and Berserk! (1967)
In a career that spanned almost fifty years, Joan starred in almost every type of Woman's Picture, and played almost every kind of part in the genre, as well as starring in almost every other kind of genre, and playing almost every type of role in those genres, too. But Joan's later films are often… Continue reading What A Dame: Joan’s Four Essential Later Performances
Erica and I are utterly thrilled that Gwenda Young, the author of Clarence Brown: Hollywood’s Forgotten Master, has written a post for our Blogathon. Please direct all of your comments for this post to Gwenda by twitter or email at, @y_gwenda and gwendayoung@gmail.com. So without further ado, here is Gwenda's incredible post about Joan and Clarence Brown: “Let’s… Continue reading Joan and Clarence: A Match Made in Nitrate
Joan Crawford is one of the most famous and identifiable faces of the classic film era. It's difficult to gauge the extent of her impact on popular culture because it has been so wide and varied. Along with her supposed rival Bette Davis, and her friend Barbara Stanwyck, she has become synonymous with strong, often… Continue reading Announcing the Joan Crawford: Queen of the Silver Screen Blogathon
I'd like to preface this by saying that although I've been a classic film fan since I was a small child, I've only been active in the classic film Twitter community since the end of last year, and I only started my blog this year. So I still have many films to discover. And while… Continue reading My Top 15 Classic Film Discoveries for 2018
Born in 1889, Marjorie Burnet Rambeau started her stage career at the age of twelve. Before that, she had performed in saloons, singing, dancing and playing the banjo, whilst dressed as a boy. Her mother made her cross dress in order to avoid the avarice advances of men in Nome, Alaska, which at that time… Continue reading A Mother’s Memory
Pale Writer 