James M. Cain's pitilessly observed, unsentimental novels made for three key 40s films: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce. Since the first two deal with homicide, when they brought Mildred Pierce to the screen they turned a sociological melodrama about a woman's rise to power and prosperity into a murder mystery, too. That grotesque distortion aside, Mildred Pierce remains essentially true to this story of hauling yourself up the ladder rung by greasy rung and of a sharper-than-a-serpent's-tooth daughter. (Oops! One more change. The daughter Veda -- Ann Blyth -- a coloratura soprano in the novel, becomes a hoochie-koochie singer in a bar.) Director Michael Curtiz, fresh from his labors on Casablanca, helmed the project with a few more flashes forward and... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Joan Crawford - Jack Carson Director(s): Michael Curtiz DVD Release Date: Released the 04 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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George Cukor, Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," had his hands full with the all-female cast of this 1939 film adaptation of the Clare Boothe play. The story finds a group of catty, competitive friends destroying reputations at social gatherings. The dialogue sparkles, Joan Crawford's performance as a husband stealer is still a classic, the film looks wonderful in Cukor's hands, and the Technicolor fashion-show scene is a one-of-a-kind Hollywood experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info About This DVD Actor(s): Norma Shearer - Joan Crawford - Rosalind Russell Director(s): George Cukor DVD Release Date: Released the 02 July 2002 This item is currently not available.
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"Any man's my man if I want it that way." The speaker could only be Joan Crawford, as a wicked man-eater terrorizing her Deep South household in Queen Bee. Crawford's the whole show in this campy 1955 melodrama, which aspires to be second-rate Lillian Hellman but doesn't even reach that level. Having trapped a wealthy Southerner (Barry Sullivan) into marriage, Crawford takes her main pleasure in making life miserable for the other women of the mansion. This is fun to watch for a while, but director Ranald MacDougall (he wrote Mildred Pierce for Crawford) can't get the pace moving, and the final comeuppance is all too predictable. Crawford was going into her final high-diva phase at this point in her career, all chalky makeup and yard-long eyebrows, and Queen ... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Joan Crawford Director(s): Ranald MacDougall DVD Release Date: Released the 18 December 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sudden Fear is one of those noir gems about a love-hate relationship between a husband and wife that's doomed from the very beginning. Jack Palance plays an ambitious actor rebuffed by playwright and heiress Joan Crawford. He later romances and marries her before falling under the dark spell of ex-girlfriend Gloria Grahame. When Palance and Grahame plot to get her fortune, the evil scheme backfires with ironically twisted results. Palance has no idea how much his wife truly loves him, and she has no idea how sinister he truly is. It's a fascinating if contrived film, with wonderful nuances and sensitive performances by the three leads. --Bill DesowitzMore Info About This DVD Actor(s): Joan Crawford - Jack Palance - Gloria Grahame Director(s): David Miller DVD Release Date: Released the 12 October 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's brash! It's grotesque! It's a blistering display of psychological terrorism! One of the blackest comedies ever made, this 1962 thriller rejuvenated the careers of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and played heavily on their own Hollywood legends, incorporating film clips from their earlier stardom to add depth and realism to a severely twisted tale of sibling rivalry. Davis plays the former child star turned wrinkled hag Jane Hudson, whose sister Blanche (Crawford) eclipsed her star in Hollywood, and has been paying for it ever since. Now confined to a wheelchair, Blanche is held prisoner in the musty mansion she shares with Jane, who terrorizes Blanche with maniacal control (and dead rats for dinner), and embarks on an absurd campaign to revive her career, curly-haired wig and all. A... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Joan Crawford Director(s): Robert Aldrich DVD Release Date: Released the 25 September 1997 Usually ships in 1 to 2 weeks
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