In 1952, Joan Crawford closed out her Warner Brother's contract with This Woman is Dangerous.
Beth Austin (Ms. Crawford) is the leader of a gang that pulls major
heists. Their latest involves the robbing of a casino. She controls
her henchmen (David Brian and Philip Carey as Matt and Will Jackson),
but Beth has a problem - she is going blind, and needs immediate surgery
to prevent it. She heads to the hospital of Dr. Ben Halleck
(Dennis Morgan), the only physician capable of performing this delicate
surgery. And, of course, she falls in love with him.
The
commentary provided by Robert Osborne in the introduction informed us
that Crawford's considered this her worst film. It is rather silly, but
certainly not the worse thing SHE had ever done. She's actually pretty
good in it. We did find Philip Carey (as Will) rather amusing. His
bug-eyed mania was VERY overstated, from an actor we've always found to
be rather an UNDER-actor. Ditto David Brian. This is not the acting
one would expect from the person we had so recently seen in Flamingo Road. He's really over-the-top crazy in this.
We
enjoyed Dennis Morgan (also at the end of HIS contract with WB), but
the actor who was a breath of fresh air was little Sherry Jackson as Susan
Halleck, Dr. Halleck's young daughter. Crawford seems so comfortable
with the child; she becomes easier and happier in the scenes with her.
On top of all the sturm and drang of the soap opera plot, the innocent home-life of this little girl considerably lightens up atmosphere.
Here is an interesting scene from the later part of the film. It won't give away any plot, but it does show Crawford when she is nails the scene (plus some wonderful cutting on the part of the editor, James C. Moore:
We're
not sure if we would recommend this, but it is has its moments. So you
might want to give it a try. If only to see the one Joan Crawford
loathed!!
In 1950, Joan Crawford was back at Warner Brothers (and with director
Vincent Sherman for the second time) in a fairly turgid gangster movie, The Damned Don't Cry. Told in flashback, as on Lorna Hansen Forbes flees to her parents house following the discovery of a murdered man, we learn that Lorna was actually Ethel
Whitehead. Living in relative poverty in her parents home, with her
husband and small son, Ethel's life has few pleasures, thanks to her
penny-pinching husband (Richard Egan). When their little boy is killed
suddenly, Ethel leaves her husband, landing work as a dress model,
gradually becoming a call girl to make a few extra dollars. Her life's
direction changes again when she meets accountant Martin Blackford (Kent Smith); thanks to Ethel's intervention, Martin becomes enmeshed with gangster George Castleman. And
so it goes. Quite frankly, we found this movie WAY too long. The
section that introduced Lorna's life story for example, when we see the
death of her son, was totally unnecessary (and could have been briefly
outlined within the body of the movie). Also, Crawford is not really
convincing here. Her speech pattern is very peculiar. She seems to
think that she needs to change the way she talks with each small change
in her life: the housewife has a quiet, precise speech; the whore talks
like she just escaped from a Damon Runyon novel, and Lorna adopts the
pronunciation of the Vanderbilts. All very bemusing.
It was nice
to see Richard Egan (in a very small part as Ethel's miserly husband);
David Brian (as George Castleman) was used to much better advantage in
the previously discussed Flamingo Road. Steve Cochrane as gang
member Nick Prenda was interesting to watch, as was Kent Smith as the
loyal Martin. But all-in-all, we've seen better movies. Here's a trailer to give you an idea of the film's marketing:
We'll be back shortly with another Crawford film from the 1950s.
