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What is Plex? Is it membership based? Do you have to purchase the movies?
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It's a personal streaming platform. Some years back, I converted my (very large) DVD/Blu-Ray collection to digital format. Others, I've purchased in digital format or acquired through, ahem, more creative venues. Plex allows me to watch those digital films from my PC on my TV, tablet or phone.
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It's amazing how Joan Crawford still fascinates the public, myself included. She got into the movies back in the 1920's and movies are still being made about her. Of course much of that has to do with Mommie Dearest, but still, JC had the "extra" factor. The talent, glamour, the rumors, the flattering stories, the time period, and that raw, unyielding ambition all conspired to make one helluva broad, that's for sure.
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And that's the point that no one ever makes: when you're a diva like Crawford or Davis, vengeful memoirs from your grown children really only enhance your image.
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Yes! It just adds to the legend. Memoirs by bitter children of celebrities keeps these stars in the limelight to some degree. Joan fought a lot of monsters on Hollywood, and in some way she's fighting death.
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Whatever the truth is between Joan and Christina, I appreciate Joan for what she was as an actress. I enjoyed her onscreen as much as anyone I’ve ever seen. I must’ve seen Mildred Pierce 50 times in my house growing up with my mother and grandparents. I think it’s one of the finest movies ever made and Joan is a big reason for that.
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I poked around Youtube last night looking for Joan's final acting role in THE SIXTH SENSE (1972), but could only find the edited for syndication 30 minute version; so I skipped it. Instead I watched two TV appearances from the early 50s. Being made in '53 and '54, I had hoped these would fit in thematically with Joan's Warner's era or even the tough-as-old-boots image she adopted in the mid-50s. Unfortunately, not. Every so often Joan seemed to have aspirations to being "noble". There's nothing technically wrong with her performances -- sometimes she's quite good here -- but if I wanted Greer Garson, I'd watch Greer Garson. On the plus side, she looked better than she did in movies of the same period; minus the severity of her hairstyle.
This one was a bit better, aside from the shoddiness of having the steering wheel on the wrong side. Joan abandoning a kid into the clutches of a presumed killer to save herself was kind of funny, even if certainly unintentional.
This one was a bit better, aside from the shoddiness of having the steering wheel on the wrong side. Joan abandoning a kid into the clutches of a presumed killer to save herself was kind of funny, even if certainly unintentional.
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Isn't that a good little video? There's one for Bette Davis too I think.
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Joan plays, ostensibly, twin sisters -- one good and one evil -- living in Victoria Barkley's house in a 1961 episode of ZANE GRAY THEATER, produced by Aaron Spelling.
The finale seems particularly stupid:
The finale seems particularly stupid:
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Sheesh. The twist was obvious 5 miles away. Maybe that kind of melodramatic hokum could have worked in a full movie, but it's pretty hard to pull of those kinds of shenanigans in a mere 23 minutes.
Without the harsh make-up she wore in movies around the same time, Joan was still a beautiful lady even as she was creeping up on 60.
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Lil tidbit: Dunaway was beat to playing Crawford by a year; Barrie Youngfellow played Joan in an obscure TV movie from 1980, THE SCARLETT O'HARA WAR.
Seeing the clips of Crawford from the late 30s in that filmography montage made me do a second glance on this casting; honestly, it's not bad. I can definitely see Joan, without the heavy makeup Dunaway and Lange needed.
The movie is a mediocre oddity and very factually dubious, not the least in having Crawford as one of the main contenders for the role. I know her name was kicked around, but I don't think she was ever a top candidate. Nor, for that matter, do I think she particularly wanted it; she flopped pretty badly in her previous costume picture, THE GORGEOUS HUSSY.
Seeing the clips of Crawford from the late 30s in that filmography montage made me do a second glance on this casting; honestly, it's not bad. I can definitely see Joan, without the heavy makeup Dunaway and Lange needed.
The movie is a mediocre oddity and very factually dubious, not the least in having Crawford as one of the main contenders for the role. I know her name was kicked around, but I don't think she was ever a top candidate. Nor, for that matter, do I think she particularly wanted it; she flopped pretty badly in her previous costume picture, THE GORGEOUS HUSSY.
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I have THE SCARLETT O'HARA WAR as a bonus in the collection I got on GONE WITH THE WIND on sale for like twenty bucks one year. I thought Barrie Youngfellow was serviceable as Joan, even if the story itself was obviously fabricated. Joan was never a serious candidate for Scarlett, just as you said, but apparently the audience voted for her as one of the top five picks around 1936. Selznick never really considered her for the role.
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Yes, Joan was ~36 in 1939 -- way too old to play Scarlett. But then Tallulah was even older than that!
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So you're saying Joan was born in 1903?
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Despite the other years you see -- a decade older than Vivien Leigh.
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I believe Christina put Joan's birth year as 1904; Joan herself apparently used 1906 in the early part of her career before shaving a few years off to 1908. For a lady who'd now be pushing 120, I'm not sure how much a few years here or there matter. Joan's claim of 1908 stretches credibility a bit, though; that would put her screen debut at the age of 17, after kicking around choruses for some time before that. (But, I guess, not impossible. Ann Miller was apparently 13 in STAGE DOOR and lied about her age to get the part. Unless she later lied about lying about her age ...)
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I've never heard Crawford's birth year listed as 1903. The most common I see used are 1904 and 1905.
But apparently Christina was also unsure of Mommie Dearest's real age. On one of the appearances she did on DONAHUE (or one of those shows), she said her mother was either 71 or 72 when she died. I believe I heard Joan herself say once in an interview that she was born in 1908, and I think one of those legends of entertainment mini-documentaries once used 1908 as her year of birth.
According to the 1930 census, Ann Miller was born in 1923, so therefore she was 13 in STAGE DOOR in 1937.