Ferocious Ambition: Joan Crawford’s March to Stardom Robert Dance University Press of Mississippi, 2023 Joan Crawford was born Lucile Fay LeSueur in 1905*, in San Antonio, Texas. Her father left immediately. She went to boarding school, but had to cook and clean in lieu of tuition. She lasted one semester at Stephens College in Missouri. Her passion was dancing, but she was never trained. How, one might wonder, did Crawford become a movie star? Answering that question is the most interesting part of Robert Dance's biography. I think her formula was something like 1. Make friends with as many people in filmmaking as possible. 2. Study what they do and absorb knowledge like a sponge. 3. Cultivate a relationship with moviegoers. To accomplish 3, Crawford made herself extremely available to photographers and journalists. She also answered much of her fan mail personally, nearly until her death. It took her years to work her way up from extra (and Norma Shearer's body double) to star. (In contrast, Greta Garbo arrived at MGM the same year Crawford did and was immediately given a well-paying contract and starring roles.) My impression is that Crawford was very likable for much of her life, and she did have lifelong friends who had nothing but praise for her. Sometime in her mid-forties, though, she seems to have become anxious about her status. She started drinking 100-proof vodka regularly as a crutch. She was still capable of being friendly, but she also began to hold grudges. (Okay, she disliked Norma Shearer before then.) Robert Dance gives his readers the full tour of Crawford's life, with an emphasis on her career. It's an excellent guide to her movies, with some behind-the-scenes stories. The book is also packed with beautiful black-and-white photographs. Unlike many celebrity biographers, Dance makes an effort to be objective about his subject. If he had a bias, it was slightly anti-Crawford; he never missed an opportunity to denigrate her dancing skills, and I think he was too credulous about Christina Crawford's memoir. But overall, it's a high-quality biography that I recommend. * Crawford insisted she was born in 1908, but this was a lie. #bookstr #biography #filmstr #JoanCrawford

Ferocious Ambition

Robert Dance’s new evaluation of Joan Crawford looks at her entire career and—while not ignoring her early years and tempestuous personal life�...

“Latin America's slide toward authoritarianism points to the long-term cost of allowing political majorities to undermine the rule of law.” #ElSalvador #bukele #bitcoin

Reason.com

The Bukele model means security without liberty

El Salvador stands at a crossroads between popular sentiment and adherence to constitutional principles.

Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, 1945) [N]or let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. — Hamlet, Act I, scene V "There's nothing wrong with Ellen. It's just that she loves too much." Poor Ellen Berent. She loved her late father very, very much. (Apparently the relationship was close; her adopted sister Ruth says, at one point, that Mrs. Berent adopted her, not Mr. *and* Mrs.) On her way to scatter Dad's ashes, Ellen meets Richard Harland, an author who reminds her so much of her father that she asks him to marry her. Well, okay, she didn't so much *ask* as just announce the engagement, but he goes along with it. Ellen promises Richard, "I'll never let you go. Never, never, never." The problem is that Richard wants to maintain relationships with friends and family members. Ellen wants herself and Richard to have no one else but each other. She refuses to hire servants, because, she tells Richard, "I don't want anybody else but me to do anything for you." Unfortunately Richard wants his younger brother, recovering from polio, to stay with them. Even worse, he invites Ellen's mother and sister to visit them at their vacation home in Maine. And he wants to spend valuable hours writing his next book, instead of with Ellen. It's all going so wrong. So Ellen, well, handles the situation. Leave Her to Heaven is a sort of Technicolor noir, although the beginning of the film seems more like a love story or family drama. Gene Tierney does a wonderful job making Ellen charming and witty, except when her mask slips and her eyes turn dead. Yet the performance never feels like a split personality. It's just that Ellen's notion of love is possessive, and she can't resist doing the wrong thing to keep Richard all to herself.

IMDb

Leave Her to Heaven (1945) ⭐ 7.6 | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance

1h 50m | Approved

“Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality [for adolescents] when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for.” #trans #GenderDysphoria #teens #suicide https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940.full

Confidential published loads of B.S., so you shouldn't believe anything it printed. But I had to laugh at the item about Raúl Castro on the cover of the November 1962 issue. Keep in mind that this was just one month after the Cuban missile crisis. #ConfidentialMagazine #tabloids #history #cuba #trans

Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932). I’m ambivalent about this film. On the one hand, it’s full of pre-code spectacle: gladiators, pygmies, barbarians, and African animals, all fighting in the Coliseum. There are naked women (with strategic cover) and nearly naked men. There are unmistakable hints of male and female homosexuality. There are also anti-code elements that make me uncomfortable, such as implied bestiality and the off camera murder of a child. On the other hand, DeMille still had to face municipal censors, and the implicit deal seems to have been that they would allow his perverse picture to be shown if it propagandized Christianity. That hurts the film as a drama. The Christians in the movie are all virtuous, of course, in contrast to the pagans. To be sure, some of them are reluctant to be martyred, but most of them don’t have a choice. The one who does have a choice, Mercia, holds fast to her ideals, refuses to renounce her faith, and never even seems tempted. The only conflicted character is Marcus, the Prefect of Rome. For 98% of the movie he wants to save Mercia for himself, but doing so would defy Nero and therefore risk his own death. That’s a dilemma, but not an emotional one. I’m still glad I saw Sign of the Cross, however, because of Claudette Colbert, who played Poppea Sabina, Nero’s wife and empress of Rome. She gave a good performance, as did Charles Laughton as Nero, but that wouldn’t have been enough to save the film. Thank you, costume designer Mitchell Leisen. #filmstr #movies #PreCode

IMDb

The Sign of the Cross (1932) ⭐ 6.8 | Drama, History

2h 5m | Approved

Every day is #PresidentsDay . 🙄

Rain (Lewis Milestone, 1932). Contemporary critics gave Rain negative reviews, and not enough tickets were sold to make United Artists a profit. Joan Crawford was embarrassed by her performance. Modern critics say they were all wrong; Rain is great, and Crawford is great in it. I agree. The movie was adapted from a W. Somerset Maugham short story, originally titled "Miss Thompson" but later renamed, well, "Rain." It was previously adapted for stage and as a 1928 silent film (Sadie Thompson, with Gloria Swanson in the lead role), and would later be remade under the Hays Code (Miss Sadie Thompson, with Rita Hayworth). A ship's passengers are temporarily stranded in Pago Pago, American Samoa, because of an outbreak of cholera. Two of the passengers are a missionary, Alfred Davidson, and his wife. Another is Sadie Thompson, a Honolulu sex worker. Unfortunately there is only one boarding house for all of them to stay in, and the incessant heavy rain keeps them in close quarters. Sadie immediately scandalizes the Davidsons by entertaining US Marines in her room. Mr. Davidson tries to put a stop to the sinning, but Sadie angrily rebuffs him. From that moment forward, Davidson's mission is to make Sadie repent and convert to his faith. As his tactics become increasingly coercive, Sadie's vulnerable side is gradually exposed. See it for Joan Crawford's performance. You might be offended if you're a religious zealot. #filmstr #movies #JoanCrawford #PreCode

IMDb

Rain (1932) ⭐ 6.9 | Drama

1h 34m | Approved

Fancy a big house Some kids and a horse I can not quite, but nearly Guarantee . . . a divorce I’m going to end the #ValentinesDay song lineup with the same artists I began with: #Zero7 and #Sia . This one is about doomed love. #tunestr #music

For only you, love lingers ‘Til the end of time Do you remember the way? #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #KristinaTrain

I've got a crush on you, sweetie pie All the day and night time, hear me sigh I never had the least notion that I could fall with so much emotion I don’t know why #AnnaMariaAlberghetti isn’t as well-known as she once was; her voice is divine. Seriously, listen to her sing this Gershwin standard. #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay

Sharks gotta swim, and bats gotta fly, I gotta love one woman till I die. #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #TomLehrer

They say the poisoned vine breeds a finer wine Our love is easy #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #MelodyGardot

There are no mistakes now baby We did the best we could It takes what it takes and sometimes It takes much more than it should #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #PattySmyth

So here we are, and I don't know what to call it 'Cause love, love is such a funny promise Commitment is impossible, forever is a lie But that still leaves you and I #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #MariaMcKee

But way back where I come from, we never mean to bother We don't like to make our passions other people's concern And we walk in the world of safe people And at night we walk into our houses and burn This song hits me close to home; I tear up when I listen. #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #DarWilliams

You know how to let go When I can stand on my own Don't let go now My favorite #LoneJustice song. You will hear from #MariaMcKee again today. #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay

You talk to loners You ask, “How’s your week?” You give love to all And give love to me This is my favorite song from Zero 7 and Sia. It’s just an unironic declaration of love. #tunestr #music #ValentinesDay #zero7 #sia