Product Description
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Joan Crawford Collection Vol. 2 (DVD)
TORCH SONG (1953): Musical comedy legend Jenny Stewart, who has
been hardened by the worst life has to offer, finds romance when
blinded war- veteran Tye Graham becomes her new piano
accompanist. STRANGE CARGO (1940): When eight prisoners escape
from a New Guinea penal colony, they are picked up by another
escapee named Verne and his girl friend Julie. Among the
fugitives is Cambreau, a soft-spoken, messianic character who has
a profound effect on his comrades. SADIE MCKEE (1934): As working
girl Sadie McKee, Joan Crawford wears a maid’s uniform. And as
any Crawford fan knows, she’ll shortly swap her white apron for
black sable – even (or especially) if it means heartbreak along
the way. In this rags-to-riches tale, Sadie wins the affections
of the singer (Gene Raymond) she loves, the tycoon (Edward
Arnold) she marries and the lawyer (Franchot Tone) she grew up
with. That’s a lot of on-screen romantic fire, not all of it may
be due to acting ability alone: The year after Sadie McKee was
filmed, Crawford became Mrs. Franchot Tone. FLAMINGO ROAD (1949):
Life in a small Southern town heats up when a sexy, savvy dancer
is stranded there by a traveling carnival. She wins the hearts of
two men and gets a taste of local politics when she butts heads
with a corrupt sheriff. Apparently Crawford only accepted the
role after Jack Warner ordered rewrites and spruced up the
production. A WOMAN'S FACE (1941): Anna Holm is scheming con
woman and blackmailer, a bitter woman shut off from society
because of a disfiguring . The rtunity to undergo an
operation to remove her s presents her with a choice: open
herself up to a whole new life or return to her old ways and the
only life she's ever known.
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Those looking for heavy doses of melodrama, good old-fashioned
storytelling, and--of course--more Joan, look no further. The
Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2 offers up a fine assortment of
some of Crawford's popular second-tier titles that helped secure
this unstoppable actress well-deserved seat in the court of
Hollywood royalty. Spanning from 1934 to 1954, the five films
take viewers on a journey over peaks and valleys of Miss
Crawfords tumultuous but often spectacular career and permits a
glimpse into the stars adeptness to the changing times of movie
making. The first film, 1934s Sadie McKee, captures a radiant
Crawford, still riding high as the queen of MGM, playing the
eponymous poor cooks daughter who struggles to keep her
principles intact through her rocky romances and unexpected rise
to riches. Nobody plays an unlikely do-gooder like Crawford, and
this splendidly entertaining film is one of her finest. 1940s
Strange Cargo features Crawford as a dive-bar singer and frequent
co-star Clark Gable as a gritty prison escapee joining forces to
flee a remote island. A religious parable, jungle adventure, and
prison escape movie in one, Strange Cargo maintains suspense and
action surprisingly well. A Woman Face (1941) is beautifully
directed by one of cinemas best, George Cukor, who provides
Crawford with one of her most accomplished dramatic roles: Anna
Holm, a woman whose face is horribly disfigured as a child.
Annas physical appearance drastically alters her destiny, and
becoming full of spite and bitterness, she turns to a life of
crime. When the rtunity to correct her s presents itself,
the story takes a sharp turn into suspense-thriller and courtroom
drama territory, eventually making its way to a totally
improbable and predictable but equally exciting finale. Flamingo
Road (1949), which went on to become a nighttime television soap
opera in the 80s, sees Crawford as Lane, a hardened carnival
dancer who finds herself stranded in a small town facing crooked
men and parochial hypocrisy. Lanes a tough cookie and
unsurprisingly manages to cross the bridge from rags to riches
while triumphing over her foes in a delicious reversal of
fortune. The story may be hackneyed, but Crawfords histrionics
provide a juicy good time. This was her first foray into playing
roles that are clearly too young for her, yet her portrayal is so
earnest one simply doesnt dare question the rather enormous leap
in realism. Like pieced-together leftovers from much finer
musicals, 1953s Torch Song is the weakest movie of the bunch but
still worth a gander. Here, Crawford plays an embittered and
aging musical stage star whose unlikely romance with a blind
pianist might turn around her lifetime of heartache. The film
probably isnt one of her career highlights but offers up some
surprisingly poignant, all-too-real moments.
Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2 comes with an abundance of
extras including several interesting featurettes covering her
career at Warner Brothers and her work with Clark Gable as well
as several entertaining old-fashioned cartoons. Theres also some
amusing Torch Song outtakes of Crawford aspiring to sing. (Once
youve heard them you may understand why her voice was dubbed.)
Many of Crawford's characters have been described as being only
slight manipulations of the real Joan; a tough woman looking for
a little respect and trying to make it in a mans world. This
collection should help vindicate her efforts. -- Matt Wold