Count me in as one of those people who finds herself undeniably interested in Crawford's films despite having seen them before, though I don't have any use for her later films (post-
The Best of Everything are not something I ever wish to behold once again, though I have sometimes thought that Joan could have done well in more supporting roles). The entire run-down of movies on the TCM schedule for Joan Crawford's month can be seen
here.
Of course there are the Essential Joans (the run of Warner Bros. doozies from the masterwork
Mildred Pierce to the sublime
Humoresque and along the tawdry
Flamingo Road all the way down to
This Woman is Dangerous are my go-to J.C. flicks for sheer, unalloyed entertainment), but some of the ones that I found were most revelatory and worth exploring for fun and insight were her late MGM movies, especially when I can change the plots in my head while watching them and gauge how tightly wound the leading lady was while filming.
Aside from the phenomenal
A Woman's Face (1941), [which might be her best ever], I really got a kick out of
Above Suspicion (1943), since no one in their right mind would pair
Crawford with Fred MacMurray, would they? Especially since Fred is supposed to be a Cambridge-educated professor, but they are a frisky couple, despite the absurdness of the plot. Yet here's one that I only recently discovered that I loved:
Above: Joan Crawford appears a tad indifferent to John Wayne in Reunion in France, but she clearly felt warm for Philip Dorn's suave form in this scene.
Reunion in France (1941): Joan and John Wayne? No, that's not terribly credible, though the Duke tries hard to melt her iceberg of a character. Yet, there
is a spark between Parisian Joanie and Philip Dorn, who plays her collaborationist main squeeze. Before coming into his own later, director Jules Dassin cut his teeth on this and other movies at MGM (see 1942's
Nazi Agent sometime for a really good Dassin-helmed B flick starring Conrad Veidt as twins!).
Do you have any favorites among Crawford's films?
