by Jennifer A. Harris

Created on: January 25, 2010

Whether it’s a recent release of a blockbuster tentpole film or a black-and-white classic from the golden years of Hollywood, the movies of both eras have in one thing in common: the stars.  Their larger-than-life personas, their glamorous good looks, their ability to make us laugh or bring tears to our eyes and sometimes, just their mere presence on the silver screen, remain a huge part of what draws us, the audience, to the theater.  When the stars die, it’s their work on celluloid that helps keep them alive years long after their deaths.  Joan Crawford and Hattie McDaniel are the movie stars who have passed on and whose particular brand of cinematic magic I miss.  

Joan Crawford – Smart, tough, funny and determined.  Those traits could describe just about any of the characters Joan Crawford portrayed in her movies.  They were definitely traits Crawford herself possessed.  What I loved about the women Joan played were their ambition, their tendency to go after what they wanted, and their doggedness in getting it.  They refused to accept their humble beginnings as a life sentence of poverty.  From her earliest breakthrough role in the silent movie “Our Dancing Daughters” to her Oscar-winning turn in “Mildred Pierce”, Crawford, just like her motion picture counterparts, used everything she had to achieve success: her distinctive beauty (large expressive eyes, high cheekbones, lips and luminous skin), her street smarts, and tenacity. 

Even though Crawford became known as a great movie star, she was also a very good actress.  To her credit, she never relied on just her celebrity to sell a film. Crawford always felt indebted to her fans and worked to give them the best she had.  It showed in the great performances she delivered in her movies.  Her work ethic was most likely the result of the hardscrabble life she had growing up.   She once said, "I wanted to be famous, just to make the kids who'd laughed at me feel foolish. I wanted to be rich, so I'd never have to do the awful work my mother did and live at the bottom of the barrel-ever. And I wanted to be a dancer because I loved to dance... Maybe the illusions, the daydreams, made life more tolerable, but I always knew, whether I was in school or working in some damned dime store, that I'd make it. (Funny, but I never had any ambition whatsoever to become an actress.)" 

Crawford maintained

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