The Films Of Joan Crawford

Secaucas, New Jersey: The Citadel Press, 1973. Third Printing . Trade Paperback. Good. 8 1/2" X 11. Swiller, Al - Design. 220 Pages. Trade paperback that is square and free of marks and stamps. Covers show edge and corner wear. Joan Crawford was a typically American film star. She was American in that she projects enterprise, resiliency, and drive in her performances. She is also American in that she hangs on to her gains. She was a leading cinema personality for forty-three years through eighty films-and for ten of those years she has also been a successful businesswoman. Among her on-screen images: the shopgirl who aspires to better things; the ambitious prostitute who seeks respectability -- and the man to help her get it; the lady-thief who assumes the manners and mores of the aristocrats she is fleecing; the stenographer who wants to rise from a drab life on a ladder of men; the stranded carnival girl who seeks a haven; the man-shark who steals the husbands of less aggressive women. Miss Crawford is also expert at portraying screen characters in the throes of romantic passion. She has gone colorfully mad because her love was not returned. She has been hurt because she chose to love a heel. She has been a factory girl entranced by a seedy chiseler. She has been a hard-boiled, emotionally insulated stage star softened by love. Other Crawford roles: A physically afflicted woman who must learn the rules of life and love from the ground up. An unloving wife who prizes her well-kept house above her husband. An overly indulgent mother who makes an emotional monster of her child. A rich widow with a penchant for handsome beach bums. A lonely spinster who marries too hastily and discovers her young husband is a psychotic. A self-centered magazine editor in love with a married man. A domineering, sadistic head nurse in a mental hospital. Each of the 80 films she made beween 1925 and 1968 are presented here in text and photographs.