Joan Crawford was born on March 23, 1905. She seemed so much an actress of her time; it's hard to imagine her as anything but the woman she was, when and where she was.
One of the things she was? The quintessential flapper. Those art deco sets probably won't convince you that everyone lived like that back then, but they'll make you wish they did. Crawford's flat-footed dancing may make you fear that everyone did dance that way, however. The remarkable thing is, she actually was considered something of a dancer, and was even later partnered up with Fred Astaire. Fortunately for Astaire, there were other partners out there more suited to his style.
If Crawford was the quintessential flapper, she was also the quintessential Other Woman. In The Women, an absolute classic of cattiness, well, she takes the cake (and the heroine's husband, at least for a while). Watch this clip through to Crawford's final, deadly line: The Women
Of all the clips one could watch, this next one is a personal favorite of mine for too many reasons to enumerate. Well, aside from one, to wit, Mommy Dearest.
Most people don't go out of their way nowadays to seek out Crawford pictures. But some of them are very worth watching. Put together a triple feature of Grand Hotel, Mildred Pierce (speaking of quintessentiality, Joan Crawford was also the quintessential actress to play the part of a woman named Mildred), and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? You will see the span of Crawford from sexpot to working dame to has-been. What a trip!
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