Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Page #7

stupid wire hangers?''

And l remembered that...

...Grandmother had to take

a job in a laundry...

...when Mother and Hal

were very, very young.

She made a deal with the laundry owner

that she would work in the laundry...

...if she could move in

with her two children and a cot...

...to the backroom to live...

...because she had no money to live

and no place to live.

They were basically homeless.

And one of the things

that a child could do most easily...

...was to put those clothes

on the wire hangers.

l know she hated that laundry

with an absolute passion.

lf you think logically back...

...that is a place that phobia about

wire hangers could have come from...

...because where else

could it have come from?

lt was really quite sad.

Humoresque continued her ascent...

...at Warner Bros.

as a prestige star there...

...and led to films like Possessed, which

she was nominated again for an Oscar.

You're not going to marry her.

You're not good enough for her.

Don't you think

we should sit down quietly...

...and think up a little better reason

for you to shoot me than that?

l explained it to you, how important

it was for you not to leave me again.

l don't think you're that good a shot.

-You can't stop me.

-Oh, yes, l can.

Let me go. l'm going to tell him.

Possessed afforded Crawford the

opportunity to play the sort of roles...

...Bette Davis had monopolized

at Warner Bros.

In fact, the role was

originally given to Davis...

... who went on maternity leave

and had to decline.

Although Crawford's career

was on the upswing...

... the same could not

be said for Davis.

There must have been

something of a rivalry.

By '46, Davis had crested and was

on a series of worse and worse films.

Crawford was still doing

big movies there.

That must have stuck in Davis' craw.

After Louella Parsons reported Bette's

was the most beautiful child on Earth...

... Crawford arrived at the studio

with not one...

...but two brand-new infants.

l think the record shows Joan Crawford

was not the mother of the year.

But she'd also have these enormous

birthday parties for them...

...with merry-go-rounds

and pony rides.

l think there was a human need there,

too, that she wanted to be a mother.

Joan returned to the screen the following

year in another melodrama...

...playing the sort of tough role

that she was now famous for.

lt's a golden period for her as an actress

where she really did...

...a whole series of really

first-rate melodramas.

l'm not a carnival girl anymore.

Sure been acting like it

with young Carlisle.

l'm not running.

Do you understand that?

l've never denied you anything.

Anything money could buy.

That wasn't enough, was it?

Things are going to be different now.

Crawford had a sense of humor

about her new image...

...as evidenced by her work in

lt's a Great Feeling.

Get out before l kill you!

-What's that for?

-l do that in all my pictures.

Self-respect. That's something you tell

yourself when you got nothing else.

The Damned Don 't Cry is kind of...

...definitive Joan Crawford. lt's almost

every one of her images rolled into one.

She runs the gamut. lt's so much fun.

She's so committed to this

rather tawdry vehicle.

The night we started, you gave me 20.

l learned from Grady,

it should've been 50.

-This straightens out the bookkeeping.

-lt does more than that.

lt closes the books.

l'm getting myself a new partner.

While you're at it, better get

a couple of other new items.

lf you'll excuse the expression.

She was wonderful to direct.

Before we started the picture...

...we went to a projection room

one night.

We were looking at Humoresque,

and l said:

''My God, that's a very sexy outfit

you've got on. ''

And she said, ''Thank you. ''

Then she took my hand...

...and she sort of put it on her breast.

Well, l thought

that was kind of strange.

She was ready for me

to take her on the floor...

...of the projection room,

for God's sake.

That began an affair that ran

for over three years.

She once said

that's the perfect woman.

Can be a lady in the parlor

and a whore in bed.

When we went to Palm Springs,

l was gonna live in one place...

...at the racquet club,

and Joan, l thought, was in the other.

When l got there,

l found out that she had arranged...

...for us to have adjoining rooms.

But l wasn't trying to parade it,

you know what l mean.

l wanted to keep

the whole relationship quiet.

lf it was a young director, she always

liked to have an affair with him...

...because she felt that that way he

belonged to her and she belonged to him.

Joan wanted me to get a divorce

and marry her...

...but l also knew

that that wouldn't work.

All of the time l've been figuring out

what it is about women like that...

...that makes it so difficult for them

to remain married to one person.

There's a constant need for approval,

a constant need for admiration...

...a constant need

to be in the public eye.

Bette didn't trust men,

and neither did Crawford.

l had to tell my wife.

She said, ''What could l say?

l don't want you to sleep

with Joan Crawford?

lf l was a man,

l think l would feel the same way. ''

My wife was a remarkable woman.

Harriet Craig was about this woman

that cared more for her house...

...and the way things were,

than she did about her husband...

...or anybody else around.

That was true, in many ways, of Joan.

lt was what she had read

was the proper way to live.

That was one of her failings.

Joan was preparing lunch

for the children.

And then Christopher came in,

and she started bawling him out.

The poor kid was sitting there

with tears in his eyes.

l said, ''Joan, don't humiliate him

in front of people,'' you know.

And she says, ''l told you once not

to interfere with me and my children.

And if you don't like it,

you can leave right now. ''

So l got up and l

started out of the kitchen.

And as l went through the kitchen door,

she tripped me, and l damn near fell.

And l grabbed myself with the side of

the door, and l turned around angrily...

...and smacked her right in the face.

l knocked her on the kitchen floor.

When we were breaking up, we had

some argument about something.

She was inebriated, and she said,

''Goodbye, Vincent''...

...and dropped the phone.

And l got worried...

...because l thought that she might

do something emotionally-

You know,

attempt suicide or something.

She had taken an overdose

of sleeping pills.

Whether it was enough

to have killed her or not, l don't know.

Or maybe it was an act.

l just never knew,

and l never found out.

Let's hop into an imaginary sleigh...

... to the home of one of the foremost

actresses in America, Joan Crawford.

Well, l once spent Christmas Day...

...in Joan Crawford's house,

and it was so funny.

And her children waited until 1:00

in the afternoon to open their presents.

They were like jittery beyond-

You can't imagine.

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