that it had nothing better than TROG to offer to Joan Crawford at this point in her life/career - the same Joan Crawford who had helped make the industry what it was! And the fact that she was so desperate to work at the only thing she knew that she would do something like TROG...
"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker
how is it anybody else's fault? this wasn't exactly a studio production that she was under contract and obligated to make, she went into it voluntarily.
any filmmaker, even for a stinker like Trog, would've been happy to have a star like Joan on their project (and probably still are since that's one of the only reasons this movie is even remembered), so you can't blame them for casting her.
frankly, she could've stopped at Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and ended on a high note. or, her career could've ended dramatically different if she had done Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte after that with Bette Davis again, but she backed out of that and instead chose to make B movies after that.
The success of BABY JANE actually tainted Davis and Crawford - neither was ever taken quite as seriously again by Hollywood - certainly neither of them were offered the kind of scripts Kate Hepburn was offered in the 1960s.
"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker
I kind of agree with that. It seems like Bette did some good TV work (haven't seen any of it, but it looks respectable). And something like "Dead Ringer" has some campiness to it but is really a high class thriller in comparison to Joan's "Strait Jacket" from the same year.
shareHarold you old fig, you really need to get over it. Also there are thousands of fans like myself who would probably never have even heard of Joan Crawford, if it were not for TROG.
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I agree, very sad ending for such glorious career. It's incredible the same actress made Mildred Pierce, Humoresque, Daisy Kenyon and many more. I can't believe that's the only thing they offered her. A real sad ending. Bette Davis had more luck even though she also made a few camp films too, but none of them as bad or low as Trog.(i haven't seen her last film, Wicked Stepmother though, looks pretty bad too). I believe she still could have done something, Trog was only made in 1970, she would still live for another 7 years. I wonder if years later she thought about Trog and that it would be her last movie. It hurts because it's Joan Crawford and not anyone else. If it weren't for Joan, no one woould know this movie. Anyway, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff and co made heaps of films like this.
Other actresses who finished in not-so-good movies:
Joan Fontaine in The Witches (1966)
Olivia de Havilland in The Swarm (1978)
Elizabeth Taylor in The Flintstones (1994)
Jane Fonda in Georgia Rule and Monster-in-Law (2005,2007)
Who's to say that we've seen the last of Joan, Olivia, Liz or Jane.
Have you forgotten Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy. It is possible for elderly women to give spectacular performances and even win an academy award.
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