Product Description

The Joan Crawford Collection features classics from the star whose career spanned more than 40 years. "I never go out unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door." - Joan Crawford

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6219 in DVD
• Brand: CRAWFORD,JOAN
• Released on: 2005-06-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: 1.25 pounds
• Running time: 580 minutes

Features

• The Joan Crawford Collection featuresics from the star whose career spanned more than 40 years. "I never go out unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door." - Joan Crawford Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 012569708105 UPC: 012569708105 Manufacturer No: 70810

Amazon.com
The Joan Crawford Collection brings together a potent group of films from Crawford's career renaissance: her Warner Bros. run of the late 1940s, beginning with Mildred Pierce. Four of the titles are from that heated, noirish streak, including Crawford's 1945 Oscar-winning turn in Mildred, a great Hollywood example of an actress's persona meeting the zeitgeist moment. In this adaptation of the James M. Cain novel, Crawford plays a sacrificing mother perfectly willing to claw her way to success for the sake of her ingrate daughter. Michael Curtiz directed, snapping Crawford out of a long career slide.

Humoresque (1946) was promptly given the top-drawer treatment, and it's a truly epic melodrama about a restless society woman who takes up the cause of a young violinist (John Garfield) from the slums. Possessed (1947) gave Crawford a thorough workout as a woman in complete obsessive breakdown from various romantic traumas. What Crawford lacks in subtlety she makes up for in sheer will, which suits the character well (and brought another best actress Oscar nomination). The Damned Don't Cry (1950) is a film noir smash-up, with Crawford as a low-rent dame who brazens her way into becoming a fur-lined mobster's moll (it was loosely inspired by the Bugsy Siegel-Virginia Hill story). It's overripe but entertaining.

1939's The Women, an MGM picture, doesn't fit the mood of the collection, although it has its fans. George Cukor directed this catty version of the Clare Booth Luce play, which has an all-female ensemble cast; Crawford is in very good form as a bad girl. The movie's reputation is somewhat beyond its actual witchy charm. (Packaging gaffe: the photo on the back cover is from Seven Women.) DVD extras tend toward smallish documentaries, save the absorbing 90-minute career profile The Ultimate Movie Star on the Mildred Pierce disc, an even-handed study that includes frank revelations from director-lover Vincent Sherman and the "wire hangers" story from adopted daughter Christina. Sherman contributes a commentary on The Damned Don't Cry. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

It's About Time!
Finally, Joan's best performance on DVD - Possessed (1947). And what a plus to see Humoresque and The Damned Don't Cry included. But with Mildred Pierce (which we all own already) and The Women currently out on DVD, why not finish out Joan's collection with the films she did in her five years at Warners; ie, Flamingo Road (in which she double bitch slaps Sidney Greenstreet to hilarious effect), Goodbye, My Fancy (Joan as a congresswoman - we need her more than ever!), and This Woman Is Dangerous (which is not nearly as bad as you have been led to believe). I guess we wait. And wait for Harriet Craig (Columbia) and Daisy Kenyon (20th Century Fox) as well.

Could've been better!!
Don't get me wrong because i'm really glad they released a boxed set of joan crawford films, but i don't get why they include 2 films that were already on dvd with the set. those were the women and mildred pierce. sudden fear and flamingo road would've been excellent choices instead. i hope one day they release a 2nd boxed set with her movies from the 30's. movies like strange cargo, possesed(1931), dancing lady, sadie mckee, etc.

Calling All Crawford Fans! Where's Volume 2 ?
While the release of The Joan Crawford Collection was an eagerly anticipated event in mid 2005 along with the Bette Davis Collection issued at the same time, nearly a year and a half has passed.Bette now has volume 2 & all we've seen on the Crawford front from Warners is Dancing Lady in the Gable boxset.Am I the only Crawford fan who has noticed this slight?Am I the only one who wants more?I don't have to tell you all the titles,but for instance how about a boxset with Flamingo Road,A Woman's Face,Susan and God,This Woman is Dangerous& Paid. Throw in some of her silents as extras(Like the Garbo set),follow up with a Gable/Crawford set(at least 7 more films)&let's get the show on the road!