Especially in this movie. She looks like she has had tons of plastic surgery. How did she get so popular in Hollywood? Sort of like Sarah Jessica Parker, but I can excuse her because of the personality. I'd probably push Joan under a bus.
Velvet Voice
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Joan Crawford is superb in this film. Sure she chews the scenery but it's never less than entertaining.The Crawford legs are still beautiful and perhaps the hair is unflattering but she still looks good.Hardly hideous (or are women who aren't ingenues innately hideous?)
Throughout the movie it is reiterated that the thing Jenny Stewart cares about and only cares about is her fans and audience. Everyone else is the enemy she has to defeat( rightly or wrongly) to please them.
The character as Crawford herself was, is on the wrong side of 21(or to be more accurate 41) and is desperately trying to ignore that.Breezing out of rehearsals, admonishing the Producer, where, in the car (in a scene reminiscent of "The Damned Don't Cry") she clearly points out she is fighting not to have a flop on her hands- never quite admitting that maybe she is the reason- a bad workman always blames his tools. It is all this bravado that could be interpreted as being hideous when in fact it is being held up as something to be pitied.Stewart (and perhaps Crawford) has paid a heavy price.
There are two scenes where the woman underneath the driven performer comes out, early in the picture where Crawford is rehearsing her characters lines in bed-a scene that genuinely touched me and surprised me and at the end of the picture.
And yes there are questionable scenes. The final performance of "Two-faced Woman" left my jaw on the floor for all the wrong reasons, and could easily have me throw my copy out if not for the fact that the only person that seems to have an equal footing with Jenny Stewart/Joan Crawford in the film is Maidie Norman as her personal assistant Anne (given that Stewart is all about the fans, Anne is clearly shown as having responsibility in responding to them-making her on par with Stewart.)
If it were a man in the the same role (and I would argue that Clark Gable in "Dancing Lady" is a very similar character) we'd be rooting for him to get the girl and not noticing how work driven he was. In fact we'd admire it.
It is to Crawford's credit that we do stay with Jenny to the end of the film and delight as the ball-breaking ice-maiden finally melts.And it wouldn't be so effective and touching if she was a sweetie from the start.
As for Crawford's star power and popularity-well I don't really know what makes me like her so much. Perhaps it's when I watch one of her pictures, the last made long before I was born, I can't quite take my eyes off of her.
If Joan isn't your cup of tea then maybe her films aren't so much fun, but I unashamedly enjoy her films.
"And yes there are questionable scenes. The final performance of "Two-faced Woman" left my jaw on the floor for all the wrong reasons, and could easily have me throw my copy out if not for the fact that the only person that seems to have an equal footing with Jenny Stewart/Joan Crawford in the film is Maidie Norman as her personal assistant Anne (given that Stewart is all about the fans, Anne is clearly shown as having responsibility in responding to them-making her on par with Stewart.)"
I wondered about that myself. Sadly, Hollywood has a shameful past of depicting stars in blackface- this was about the last film in which that happened. At the same time Anne is the least obsequious person around Jenny, and she is obviously competent in her roles as confidant/secretary/personal assistant, and she's one of the few people (in the end the other is Ty Graham) whom she has any real respect for. It was very unusual for a black performer (in the early 1950's) to play such a non-servile character.
When MGM signed Lena Horne she had it written into her contract that she would not have to play degrading racial stereotypes. She won that battle, but as a result practically all her roles were walk on parts in which she sang a song or two. She was the first black performer under long term contract (and the first who NEVER played a servant) but her roles were designed so that they could be cut out of the film in southern markets without ruining the continuity of the film. I wonder if someone decided Anne's character was too "uppity" and threw in the blackface number for "balance". I wonder what Crawford thought about all of this. She grew up in Texas and Oklahoma in the early 20th century, yet had many friends and lovers of different races, and also supported the civil rights movement.
Blackface wasn't shameful until people agreed it should be shameful. Before that, it was a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment.
Let's all get off our high horses, mkay?
How did she get so popular in Hollywood?
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"Actually, the perfectly smooth and even look of that blackface make-up was down to Hollywood's first experiment in spray tan. June, hearing of this and seeing the perfect opportunity of getting back at Joan for suing June's pet production of the previous year ( the thriller "Sudden Fart") as well as getting a restraining order put on her noir project ("The Damned Don't Crap"), decided to don the tanning girl's apron and slip behind the spray machine fifteen minutes before Joan was due in to get ready for Two-Faced Woman. And of course, June had mixed her own special 'cocoa butter Brazilian' and poured it into the machine..."
"Well! Joan entered hurriedly, stripped down to her stilettos, dragged on her cig and said "Make it snappy!" while checking her gams, and with a husky "Yes, Miss Crawford", June hit the lever. Result? Chocolate Joan; and she was so stunned by the dread, familiar reek that she could barely register the fact that she'd been punk'd and had to go through that whole musical number slathered in scat and seething! When she rips off the wig at the end it was actually because she caught sight of June over by the cameras, cackling away and spoofing Joan's moves while singing "Poo-faced Woman". Oh, those girls!"
And Joan was so traumatized by the faux tan made from June's scat she had to go through an instant decontamination process (watch Silkwood for details). Worse still, she had been up since 4:00 AM and had nothing to eat except vodka on the rocks and dexadrine. Then June (posing as the tanning technician) offered her what she thought was a brownie...
I've been discovering the fresh, young Joan Crawford pictures on TCM. She's marvelous in those early works. She hadn't hardened into the "Crawford" persona and she's seems freer an less stylized.
I didn't dislike her in this film, but I can understand some of the critique. But I'm not sure it was her more than it was the studio 'machine'.
Dear Joan is never hideous! Glamorous, yes. Talented, yes. Drunk on her ass, yes. But hideous? NEVER!
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
no she was not hideous at all. do u mean her looks? well she had very striking features, high cheekbones & a strong jawline. not traditionally beautiful but still never hideous (well except for whatever happened to baby jane). she was still a nice looking woman & the hair was just the typical 50's old lady look.
ppl seem to look older back then anyway, but that had a lot to do with the fashion i think.
anyway her legs were fabulous & her figure pretty great for a middle aged woman. the dancing wasnt even bad. the hideous thing was that lip syncing! well not even the lip syncing but the actual voice they chose, it didnt fit her speaking voice. i love joan crawford & i'm in my 40's but i try to watch all these classic movies. watching this movie for 1st time on TCM only because joan is in it. i know this is an old post but i just had to say something.
I agree, the voice over singing and lip synching was cringe worthy. I have never thought her beautiful but the thing that was so bad in this movie was that horrible lipstick, smeared all over her face. Especially in the black face number (wtf?) She did look hideous.
shareThe first time she 'sang', I was a little distracted, did my head snap around! Could they not find a voice, that at least suited her? I fast forwarded through the musical numbers, there is only so much leeway I am willing to give!
shareCrawford was an extremely good-looking woman in her younger years, but as she got older she started using garish makeup plastered an inch thick all over her face and I think it made her look awful and frightening.
shareI love this movie and love Joan Crawford's look.
Dammit Carol Sue, where is the vodka?!