Want to know the best Joan Crawford movies? How about the worst Joan Crawford movies? Curious about Joan Crawford’s box office grosses or which Joan Crawford movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joan Crawford movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which one got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Even though Joan Crawford (1904-1977) was voted by the American Film Institute as the 10th greatest film actress, I have to admit that I have not seen many of her movies (fourteen to be exact). So how did I write a movie page that ranked all of her movies from 1st to 78th? Lots and lots of research is the answer.
Well the first place I started was IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and saw she had lots of acting credits. Then I read two of her biographies….Not The Girl Next Door by Charlotte Chandler and Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spoto. Next I was lucky enough to find this Best of Everything Joan Crawford tribute page on the internet which was jam packed with tons of hard to find box office information from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Using the information that I had collected from these sources I was able to finally write this page.
Her IMDb page shows 103 acting credits from 1925-1972. This page ranks 78 Joan Crawford movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.
Joan Crawford Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
78 Joan Crawford Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- The highlighted movie links take you to that movie’s trailer or a small clip of the Joan movie.
- Sort Joan Crawford movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Joan Crawford movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joan Crawford movies by yearly domestic box office gross
- Sort Joan Crawford movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Joan Crawford movie received.
- Sort Joan Crawford movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Joan Crawford Table
- Twenty-seven Joan Crawford movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 34.61% of her movies listed. Mildred Pierce (1945) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Joan Crawford movie grosses $80.50 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 36 of Joan Crawford’s movies are rated as good movies…or 46.15% of her movies. Johnny Guitar (1954) is her highest rated movie while Trog (1970) was her lowest rated movie.
- Fifteen Joan Crawford movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 19.23% of her movies.
- Three Joan Crawford movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 3.84% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 47 Joan Crawford movies scored higher than that average….or 60.25% of her movies. Mildred Pierce (1945) got the the highest UMR Score while Trog (1970) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joan Crawford
1. Joan Crawford’s birth name was Lucille Fay LeSueur. The only movie that lists her birth name is Pretty Ladies (1925). How she got the Joan Crawford name comes from Bob Kale. “Her name was voted on by the public in a movie magazine. The public’s first choice was Joan Arden. Since there was already a Joan Arden already making movies….they had to go with the second choice…..Joan Crawford. She initially hated the name because she thought it was to close to “crawfish”.
2. Joan Crawford was nominated for 3 Oscars® during her career….winning one time for 1945’s Mildred Pierce. Her other two nominated performances were for 1947’s Possessed and 1952’s Sudden Fear. She amazingly was never nominated for a Golden Globe®.
3. Speaking of Possessed….she is one of the few actresses to appear in two movies with the same name that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Possessed (1931) was about a factory worker and was a romantic movie…while Possessed (1947) was about a woman that is obsessed with a man and how that obsession leads to murder.
4. Joan Crawford was married 4 times in her life. Marriage one was to actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (an actor), marriage two was to Franchot Tone (they appeared in 8 movies together), marriage three was to Phillip Terry (an actor) and finally she was married to Alfred Steele (CEO of Pepsi-Cola). Many of her movies at her request/demand had Pepsi placement in them. Joan Crawford adopted five children. The three girls were Christina, Cathy and Cynthia. The two boys were both called Christopher …although one of the two boys was reclaimed by his birth mother. Christina authored the book…Mommie Dearest….which was turned into a movie starring Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford.
5. Joan Crawford appeared in two all-star movies….1929’s Hollywood Revue and 1944’s Hollywood Canteen. Both roles were cameos and were not included in the rankings. It should be noted that Hollywood Revue was the first time Crawford’s voice was heard in movies….while Hollywood Canteen was one of the biggest box office hits of the 1940s.
6. One of Joan Crawford’s last project was one of Steven Spielberg’s first projects. She appeared in the TV movie Night Gallery, which had 3 segments (she starred in the 2nd segment, directed by Spielberg) and aired in November of 1969. The actual TV show did not premiere until over a year later, in December of 1970.
7. According to Quigley Publications…..Joan Crawford was a Top Ten Movie Star from 1930 to 1936. She was ranked #1 in 1930, #3 in 1931 and 1932, #10 in 1933, #6 in 1934, #5 in 1935 and #7 in 1936. By the end of 1937 she was considered “box office poison”….without a doubt a case of …”what have you done for me lately”.
8. Joan Crawford and Bette Davis simply hated each other. Their feud lasted for decades and is legendary in the history of Hollywood. Somehow they managed to actually act in a movie together….1962’s Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?. Then again I guess the fact that their two characters in the movie hated each other as well…made the acting pretty easy for them.
9. Joan Crawford was Fred Astaire‘s first on screen dance partner. The two appeared in 1933’s Dancing Lady. Others in the cast….Clark Gable, Franchot Tone (her 2nd husband) and the Three Stooges.
10. One of the best collection of Joan Crawford fans can be found on Facebook at Joan Crawford Chat Room. If you are a Joan Crawford you have to join this group….it is easily the best movie group on Facebook that I have come across….and I am in many Facebook movie groups.
Check out Joan Crawford‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
This is the 3rd home for my Joan Crawford movie page….but this is a brand new You Tube video…made especially for my new and hopefully final home for my Joan Crawford page.
But Wait…We Have More Joan Crawford Movie Stats…How About Adjusted Worldwide Grosses on 59 Joan Crawford Movies
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
HI BRUCE
1 Thanks for your interest in the exchanges between John and me. As John is unlikely to apologise to you for our getting carried away on the subject I’ll apologise for both of us. However your knowledge and instant research facilities are so unparalleled that they always give me new aspects of a matter for consideration – and unfortunately for your other readers usually provide me with fresh arguments to advance!
2 I agree with everything that you say about Crawford and billing but in a way in proves my point. She wouldn’t have gotten away with excluding other big stars from her movies if she hadn’t been able to carry them without such stars.
3 That she had such a long-run of stand-alone successes demonstrates her enormous box-office pulling power in the way that Day/Grable/and albeit to a much lesser extent Elvis were able to show theirs whereas the jury will probably always be out on a number of performers who were usually surrounded by big names.
4 It is probably true of Gable, Tracy etc that had they shared top billing with other of the greatest Legends of their own ilk their films would have made EVEN MORE money but they like Crawford had the clout to impose their own conditions once their contracts came up for renewal’ though as I’ve mentioned before Lou Costello pressed for Costello & Abbott and was told to get lost ! However I’ve nave now said all I CAN say about the Crawford/Loy matter and I will henceforth just privately mentally note any further comments from others on the subject.
4 Your rising to the bait again about Superman Returns reminded me of a scene from Shane where as you know land-grabber Ryker has brought in gunslinger Jack Wilson to help him crush the homesteaders and Wilson later murders Torrey by goading him into a duel. Before that Torrey goes into Ryker’s bar and creates a fuss but Ryker cautions Wilson to be patient saying “We can get HIM to draw anytime.” You’re faster on the draw than Torrey was of course!
As always entertaining and informative exchanges with you and have a god rest of weekend BOB
Cogerson
“as John is unlikely to apologize to you”
I’m sorry. Sorry. Sorry for everything. Or whatever. Honest. Everyone who knows me will tell you I am nothing if not sorry.
Hey John….no apology needed…..we all have one thing in common…the love of movies….I think it is cool that we all think differently on subjects….it would be boring if we all agree…..so keep bringing your thoughts to the game…..there is plenty enough room for all of us to play….lol
Hey Bob….good points throughout….lots of different ways to look at the same stats….I think almost all of the UMR classic pages are on all-time classic stars…..so trying to figure out who is the best….is pretty hard….in the end….they are all in the Hall of Fame. Good to know the Loy/Crawford is going dormant for awhile….but I think like Superman Returns…it will surface again. Thanks for all the great feedback.
I notice there is a long discussion of Joan versus Bette.
It might be obvious to everyone else, but what is that Joan was rarely, or never, the “Queen of the Lot”–MGM in the 1920’s had Gish, Garbo, and Shearer. Joan was just a starlet on the way up. During her peak in the 1930’s, she was still behind Garbo and Shearer (and billed under them when they were in the same movie), and in popularity might well have fallen behind Loy and Harlow. In 1940 Hepburn came to MGM. And there was also Greer Garson. MGM was always loaded with female stars.
When Crawford went to WB, Bette was the obvious queen of the lot. But here something interesting happened. Joan won an Oscar and in the late forties got the choice roles over Bette.
Bette ended up leaving WB first.
My reading is that Bette actually is considered the bigger star today by those who so consider her because of landing the All About Eve role, and that she was billed over Crawford in Baby Jane. Interestingly, Crawford was quite used to taken second billing.
Not a particularly big or important issue for me, but I just wanted to comment on what I see as the major difference in their classic era careers. Bette was the queen of the lot on a lot w/o many top female stars. Joan was, well, in conflict with some super-nebulas her whole career.
Cogerson
I noticed I mistyped taking as “taken” in the second to the bottom paragraph. Is there a way for me to edit my posts after I have posted them.
Sorry no edit fix on your side….I can fix it the next time I am on my real computer….my iPad does not work well with my web page when I am in the edit mode.
HI JOHN
1 Super article on Davis and Crawford but the debate about who was the bigger star will probably never be settled with guys like Bruce Cogerson accepting their own opinion as the definitive one !!
2 However I do think that it is maybe a bit unfair to hold over Joan the fact that Bette was first billed in Baby Jane as I understand that arrangement was part of a two-picture deal whereby Joan was to get first billing in the second movie. The latter was meant to be Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte which the two of them actually started filming but from which Joan had to withdraw because of illness and was replaced by Olivia DeHavilland.
3 Also if you read through the Bette/Joan cast lists and posters in Wikipedia you will see from the point where Joan became a star from say 1930 until Baby Jane in 1962 she was denied top billing in only three movies Grand Hotel, The Women and Best of Everything whereas Bette took second billing many times between 1930 and 1962 for example –
1/Spencer Tracy & Bette Davis in 20,000 Years in Sing Sing
2/ Paul Muni & Bette Davis in Bordertown
3/ Paul Mun &/Bette Davis in Juarez
4/Errol Flynn & Bette Davis in The Sisters
5/James Cagney & Bette Davis in The Bride Came COD
6/Edward G Robinson & Bette Davis in Kid Galahad
7/Leslie Howard & Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage
8/Leslie Howard & Bette Davis in The Petrified Forest
9/Alec Guinness & Bette Davis in The Scapegoat
10/Glenn Ford & Bette Davis in Pocketful of Miracles.
11/James Cagney & Bette Davis in Jimmy the Gent
12/Leslie Howard & Bette Davis in It’s Love I’m After
13/Robert Stack & Bette Davis in John Paul Jones.
And there are others.
BOB
Hey Bob…thanks for sharing the Davis movie billings.
Hey John…..you have made some great points. The Joan/Bette debate has gone on for years and it probably will go on forever. To me this is like arguing who is the greatest QB of all-time. Tom Brady has his supporters and Peyton Manning has his….to me both Joan and Bette are both great.
I agree with you that Bette is the bigger star today…but they both still have huge followings. Statistically Bette has the edge….but Joan is not far behind. Having read a little bit of Bob’s comment….not thinking Joan was comfortable with second billing at all. Another great comment, John. It is greatly appreciated.
Cogerson
Sorry I didn’t respond to your October 3 post earlier, but re-reading this popped out at me.
“To me this is like arguing who is the greatest QB of all-time. Tom Brady has his supporters and Peyton Manning has his . . .”
Being much older, I can tell you. It is Otto Graham.
Hey John….better late than never…your Otto Graham opinion is duly noted. I think my dad agreed with you…as for me? Just glad you did not say Montana or Brady…lol.
STEVE [Joan Crawford video]
1 I enjoyed Joan most in her 1950s movies including the routine Female on the Beach where she demonstrated her star power by dictating that matinee idol Jeff Chandler would be her co-star. Reportedly she urged her agents to secure her Mr Mumbles in possibly the Clift Robertson Autumn Leaves role but they are said to have cautioned her that such a demand would be “unrealistic”.
2 As the 1930s and 1940s were undoubtedly her prime decades the bulk of your entries rightly come from them, but I am delighted to see that you’ve chosen 6 from my own preferred decade including my 4 faves in those years, Johnny Guitar, Sudden Fear, Queen Bee and Autumn Leaves
3 I also see that you, the Oracle and I all go our own way in relation to filling the top spot in that you have Grand Hotel, he has Johnny Guitar [audience/critic] and I would plump for Sudden Fear with Johnny second; but all of these are reasonable choices for the highest positions. Other things that especially caught my attention were the superb iconic poster reproduction showcasing Crawford in Humoresque,the sexy still from Dancing Lady, and that great opening sassy quote from Joan.
4 I notice too that your selected poster for The Women has Rosalind Russell above the title with Shearer/Crawford, and the story behind that is that they didn’t want her there but she did a Gene Kelly** and feigned sickness thus holding up production until they relented. Your poster for Strange Cargo faithfully reflects a compromise that Louis B Mayer imposed on his quarrelling stars whereby Joan was mentioned first on screen and the King was given top billing on all of the posters and other promotional material.
4 Anyway for Crawford fans like me your video is a most satisfying presentation, so Guns Up!
**According to Flora Gene pretended to be sick to allow Judy Garland time to recover from a genuine illness.
Thanks Bob. You’re far more familiar with Crawford’s films than I am. I was expecting Mildred Pierce to come out on top, her Oscar winner, but it didn’t even come second. Only three films received the full 10 points from my sources, Mildred Pierce, Baby Jane and Grand Hotel. Only Maltin gave Johnny Guitar a really high score, 9.
I was a little miffed that Trog failed to get into the top 30, that piece of crap is one of the few Crawford films I have in my movie collection, he proudly boasted. This is what Crawford had to say about her ‘horror pictures’ –
“I hate being asked to discuss those dreadful horror pictures I made the mistake of starring in. They were all just so disappointing to me, I really had high expectations for some of them. I thought that William Castle and I did our best on Strait-Jacket (1964) but the script was ludicrous and unbelievable and that destroyed that picture. I even thought that Berserk (1967) would be good but that was one of the worst of the lot. The other one William Castle and I did [I Saw What You Did (1965)] was the most wretched of them all and I just wasn’t good at playing an over-the-hill nymphomaniac. Ha! Then came Trog (1970). Now you can understand why I retired from making motion pictures.”
STEVE
1 Something almost weird is happening in that I had opened my Crawford post to you with the sentence “I would have been aghast had you included the awful Trog in your Top 30” but I then deleted the sentence as I realised it was superfluous.
2 Of the series of B movies Joan made after Baby Jane Trog is on the International Movie Database the lowest rated and Strait Jacket which you have included in your Top 30 is the highest rated.
3 So on this occasion IMDB, you, Our Leader and I are all singing from the same hymn sheet as he gives Strait Jacket a [for a B movie] very respectable 73.5 critic/audience rating and he makes Trog the lowest rated of all the movies on his Crawford page. Certainly there is no way that Joan would have induced Mr Mumbles to appear with her in THAT ONE !!
4 Anyway great comparing notes with u again. Sleep tight ! I will now that I know that with the expanded Recent Comments flag up box I have a better chance of waking up in the morning and finding out what the Oracle and others have been up to while I slept.
BOB
Hey Steve…if you were calculating the scores correctly Trog would have made the video for sure….lol. Actually if you used my ratings your video would have to be 79 movies long….because that is where Trog sits. Great comments from Joan about her horror movies….it was fun to read.
🙂
Hi
The whole issue about billing is fascinating. But I think for most cinema goers, it’s unimportant. Obviously for those within the industry it does matter, it’s all to do with status.
Case and point, Strange Cargo. There’s no doubt that despite the success of the women, Crawford’s stardom was starting to slide. Where Gable was at the pinnacle of his career with the success of Gone With The Wind. Without a doubt the bigger star. But probably because he had an amicable relationship with Crawford, he was willing to compromise.
I think if it had been Tracey, it would have been a different story. He had 2 Oscars under his belt and was by that time, a bigger Box Office draw than Crawford. He was one star who took billing serious, there was talk about him making the film Desperate Hours with Bogart, but because they couldn’t agree on billing, he pulled out and Fredric March took the part.
Hepburn was another one about billing, made out it didn’t matter but when they were making On Golden Pond, she insisted getting top billing over Henry and Jane.
As for who was the biggest star, Crawford or Davis, I think you have to give it to Davis. From ’38 to ’46, she had a wonderful run on the box office and in reviews, many of them still standing the test of time like The Little Foxes, The Letter and Now Voyager. And of course her greatest hit in 1950, All About Eve. Later on in life when she was no longer considered box office, her name still meant something, especially on television, chat shows etc. And even the song, Bette Davis eyes keeps her name alive.
That’s not to say Crawford was a great star. By the late 50’s when her box office was starting to slip, she represented Pepsi Cola and she was really exchanging one type of fame for another. As I’ve said before The Mommy Dearest controversy will always hang over her like a cloud. But I think anyone into old Hollywood will always have time for Davis and Crawford.
Hey Chris….great points. I agree with you 100% about the cinema audiences not carrying at all about billing. My thought on the billing fights was they occurred during the studio contract days. Stars had little say in the movies the studio was making them make, the directors and the stories….but their contracts let them fight over billing…..it was almost the only power play they had….unless they were willing to go on suspension.
Bob from Belfast has made many great comments about billings. Sad that billing issues stopped the Gable/Tracy movies at Boom Town….sad that Bogart and Tracy did not reunite (they starred in Up The River when they were starting out). The Great Kate was mad when Cary Grant wanted and got top billing for The Philadelphia Story…..and never worked with him again. The previous 3 Grant/Hepburn movies….she got top billing.
I agree with you about Crawford and Gable. I also agree with you about Davis having the edge on Crawford from 1938 to 1946. I actually think the Mommie Dearest issus is fading away…..back in the 1980s he was a water cooler topic….now even Crawford the actress is barely mentioned.
Thanks for an enjoyable comment to read.
CHRIS
1 Some excellent points in your post and I think that both Bruce Cogerson [see elsewhere on this page ] and Errol Flynn have illustrated why billing was so important to stars in the Classic Era. Flynn resisted but was obliged to accept 4th billing in The Sun Also Rises after Ty Power, Ava Gardner and Mel Ferrer [see poster reproduction in Wikipedia.]. He explained later that he made such a fight over the billing because as a rule of thumb once a star’s billing slid in those days his/her fee/salary tended to follow it downward as the lower billing was taken by the film community as a signal that the star’s status was on the slide
2 Also as you say whilst strictly speaking the public did not care about who’s billed first they couldn’t help noticing whether or not their own idols got top billing and if for example a Wayne fan saw John second billed or lower he/she could conclude that it was not a true ‘john Wayne’ film and might therefore stay away. The studios naturally did not wish to put off the audiences of the stars with the biggest followings so the studios had a vested interest in ensuring that the greatest stars got suitably prominent billing
3 How seriously the studios took the matter was perfectly illustrated when Lou Costello who developed a tremendous sense of his own importance asked Universal to change Abbott & Costello to Costello & Abbott but the studio told him no as the public would notice the change and might think the A & C movies had somehow become different which could hit audience attendances.
4 The Gable/Crawford billing dispute also represented a changing of the guard in Hollywood because the 1930s had been a period in which for some reason amongst Hollywood stars women held the balance of power over men and by 1940 guys like Gable who were earning a fortune for their studios were fed up playing 2nd fiddle to the actresses and the forties therefore saw stars like Gable, Tracy, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and Hope & Crosby insist upon proper conditions.and recognition so that gradually the power balance shifted to the men..Whilst Grant was adamant about top billing in Philly Story he was giving in other respects as it is reported that he donated his salary for that movie to the War Effort [and to think there are guys like Cogerson going around saying he was mean with money !!]
5 Today it’s a different marketplace and billing doesn’t seem of paramount importance nowadays with for example a massive star like Hanks accepting second billing on a couple of occasions for whatever reason; and Cruise accepting 3rd billing after Redford and Streep in Lions for Lambs simply because he admired them wanted to work with them [Tracy didn’t admire anyone but himself !]. As the writer L.P. Hartley said in his novel The Go Between said “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”
Robert,
You can compare French, Italian and Spain box office for Doris Day and Sophia Loren on this website : http://www.boxofficestory.com/box-office-sophia-loren-c22726523.
Thanks for sharing the link…Laurent….I have often gone to this website.