Joan Crawford in Film Noir: The Actress as Auteur
Probably the least explored aspect of Joan Crawford, the actress, has been her body of work viewed through the lens of her expertise as an auteur of her own abilities. Since her notorious personal life, revealed in her daughter Christina Crawford’s explosive memoir, Mommie Dearest, has overshadowed much of her work, channeled it into camp celebration of her peccadillos, and orchestrated a departure from her actual film canon, author David Meuel has attempted to reconstruct her filmography with salient insight into her abilities to foster her own projects, to remain relevant in a constantly changing entertainment environment hell-bent on promoting younger women and older power brokers, and to ensure her professional survival.
Harry Rapt, an MGM talent scout had been impressed because she had that rare thing—“personality.” Crawford’s screen magnetism cannot be discounted even from her earliest offerings, and she realized that she had to “learn as much about the business” as possible. Those insights would provide her with a lifelong career that had as many ups and downs as an enthusiastic teenager at a Taylor Swift concert.
With an in depth revisit of the plot and crucial elements of Crawford’s film noir offerings, Meuel relates details about pre-production involvement, Crawford’s choices concerning her leading men, her directors, her cameraman, and her script changes. The compromised women featured in her films confront murder, larceny, bigotry, narcissism, infidelity, thievery, and a litany of evil intent.
Meuel revels in the constant revisionism of Crawford’s approach to stardom, reveals the “ageist attitude” of Hollywood’s elite movers and shakers, and how Crawford would constantly be “reloading” for a new era.
While analyzing Mildred Pierce, Humoresque, Autumn Leaves, Daisy Kenyon, Sudden Fear, Queen Bee and others, Meuel focuses on Crawford’s attention to detail, expertise about how a film might eventually be a success, and the ongoing interest in stories featuring women in metamorphosis highlight Meuel’s deft disclosures. After reading Meuel’s detailed renderings of the actress as auteur, readers can approach The Films of Joan Crawford with renewed enthusiasm not tempered by her myriad personal issues.
Christy's Inkwells 