TV and Movies

[Oznell]

11:00 a.m. Eastern TCM:  "Flamingo Road"--   Friday is a bit of a "Joan Crawford Day".  Can't cover everything, but a few highlights include "Flamingo Road."

It's set in the South, with Joan in her element as a wrong-side-of-the-tracks entertainer who comes up against some powerful political men.  She loves and loses and rises and schemes;  there are lurid surprises and lashings of melodrama.  Has one of my underrated faves, Zachary Scott, and also Sydney Greenstreet.

12:45 p.m. Eastern:  "This Woman Is Dangerous"--   Joan portrays a complex personality who heads up a crooked enterprise, but sudden illness brings her into the orbit of hunky, renowned medical specialist, Dennis Morgan, and well, a woman can change, can't she? Fun fluff, and the Joan-esque melodrama we've come to love...

2:30 p.m. Eastern--  "Torch Song"--   This might be my favorite.  Very campy.  Joan is an ultra-glam but lonely and embittered Broadway star.  Sophisticated blind pianist and Brit, Michael Wilding, becomes her new accompanist, with predictable fireworks to follow.  Slowly, his calm, mellow demeanor starts to get to her, and she wants to know more, but is not sure of what he wants.....    Joan's high style Fifties apartment is worth the price of admission here...

4:15 p.m. Eastern--  "Queen Bee"   Joan is an autocrat who is rotten to the core, and horrid to those around her, including darling Barry Sullivan.  Not a favorite, but offers certain juicy soap opera satisfactions, perhaps. 

6:00 p.m. Eastern--  "Autumn Leaves"--   A sweet, lonely woman (Joan?!)  meets a gorgeous, troubled young man, Cliff Robertson, who seems to offer a chance at marriage and happiness.  This challenging union gives Joan a chance to be noble and resourceful in the face of unforeseen forces working against the couple....

[Oznell]

Michael Wilding and Joan Crawford have an early "skirmish" in a Manhattan restaurant in "Torch Song":

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1189489/Torch-Song-Movie-Clip-You-Mean-Like-A-Girdle-.html

[Witchy Woman]

Love Joan C in almost anything.  Have not seen Queen Bee in a while -- Mildred Pierce is one of my favorite.

When she was very young, her looks were much softer - same for Bette Davis -- but, I guess that is true of all of us.

Joan was a force of nature, as was Bette

[Oznell]

Yes, @Witchy Woman, and it didn't help that as time went on, Joan seemed to favor that heavily stylized make-up.  If she hadn't gone quite so far with it, and had not gone for those aggresive eyebrows, I'm sure she'd have retained more of the softness of her youth...

Too bad during this mini-fest they are not showing "Female On the Beach".   That's probably my favorite of her "later" period....

[Mz iMac]

@Oznell

"12:45 a.m. Eastern:  "This Woman Is Dangerous"

Should be p.m.

=========

Queen Bee is my favorite JC movie.  I grew up hearing "No 2 queen bees can live under the same roof.  One of us gotta go or is going to get killed.  It ain't gonna be me" when I was a teen smelling myself.

[Oznell]

Ha, thanks for catching that boo boo,  alert @Mz iMac!  I'll see if it will still let me edit and fix it....

[YorkieonmyPillow]

Joan Crawford and Michael Wilding --- the ODD COUPLE, if there ever was one!  😳

[Oznell]

I know, @YorkieonmyPillow, I wonder who thought that up?!  And I wonder if Joan's reputation as one who wanted to romance all her leading men off-screen, held true in this case.

Come to think of it, he married Elizabeth Taylor and fathered her two boys, so he certainly had experience with tempestuous women...   Maybe they were initially drawn to his air of stability, or something...

[Oznell]

Well, I budgeted my time so I was only going to try to catch the "Torch Song" part of the Crawford minifest today.  But "This Woman Is Dangerous" is roping me in for the second time-- I did see it fairly recently for the first time, but a second viewing brings more nuances-- or so I tell myself, ha.  I'll try to multi-task during it...

Besides, was there ever a movie title that better summed up its star?

[YorkieonmyPillow]

  Christina Crawford wrote that her "mother" was EXACTLY like the "Queen Bee" character at home!!!

  *shudder*

  How about that slap on the stairway (Queen Bee)?  Ouch! 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i-0Ew5rslc

  (Although come to think of it, the one Veda gives Mildred was pretty good.......LOL) 

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hd15nSDZrM