Joan Crawford Movies

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 and Clark Gable in 1934's Chained...her 9th biggest box office hit.
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in 1934’s Chained…her 9th biggest box office hit.

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

  1. 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.
  2. An average Joan Crawford movie grosses $80.50 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. 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.
  4. Fifteen Joan Crawford movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 19.23% of her movies.
  5. Three Joan Crawford movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 3.84% of her movies.
  6. 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.
Joan Crawford in 1954's Johnny Guitar
Joan Crawford in 1954’s Johnny Guitar

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.

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225 thoughts on “Joan Crawford Movies”

  1. Just added Steve’s massive Joan You Tube video to this page. Currently it has the top spot on the page…..that is pretty expensive real estate Mr. Lensman….lol.

    Reply

    1. Top of the page! ooh mucho apreciado Bruce!

      50 films is a lot for one video, but as your chart demonstrates I still had to leave 28 films out. I hope Bob is not too upset. I did manage to include Trog if that’s any consolation. I mean how could I leave Trog out? Should be in everyone’s collection. 😉

      Reply

      1. Hey Steve….this is a very popular page for us….hopefully it will generate some views for you. Funny about Trog…..yes you had to include that camp classic. You can see Trog on the trailer in the above table. Good stuff.

        Reply

  2. I’m glad to see that more people are looking back and studying her body of work and finding out she was a better actress than originally thought. It’s a start to undoing some of the damage to her reputation. I know Joan was no saint. And I will never know what really went down with Christina. But that book blew her reputation all to hell. I know child abuse is no laughing matter. But I feel Christina had an axe to grind with her mother. People will disagree, and that’s okay. If Joan was alive and in good health when the book was published. She probably left Tina in a pile of ashes after she was through with her. Just a thought.

    Reply

    1. Hey Stan…..thanks for the feedback. I agree that book (and the movie) really damaged her reputation. It is a shame that it was published AFTER her passing. It is real easy to make claims when you are the only one alive. I have always thought the truth was in the middle. But having an evil mother sells more books than having a mother you butted heads with. Happy New Year.

      Reply

  3. 1 HI BRUCE Quite right not to join in a debate about the All Time Female Box Office Great because depending upon the weight you put upon one or more of a variety of factors you can come to conflicting conclusions. For example alas for my Joan when purchasing power is taken into account as calculated by the US Bureau of Labor Stats, more modern stars like Liz Taylor and Julia Roberts might come out on top particularly as today’s stars like Julia enjoy a much more buoyant foreign market than the Greats of yesteryear. Willis’ ones have been very impressive as you have well demonstrated. Anyway I certainly can’t gripe about the treatment you have now bestowed on Joan.

    2 I don’t think that any praise could be too flattering for the way in which you and your wife have “brought this siteInto the 21st century” as the saying goes. Not only has the site great depth but the diversity is astonishing at times. Take for example your roster of directors the like of which I have seen on no other movies site. I am being neither hyperbolic nor patronising when I say that in my opinion this site more and more deserves to take its place in history alongside the likes of Variety [but not Joel!] as a recognised authoritative source on movies and box office information. Please convey my admiration to the other half of the DYNAMIC duo that maybe now deserves to rival Batman and Robin in movie folklore!

    3 My one disappointment is that among directors there is no profile of Frenchman Charles David who directed my Deanna in Lady on a Train and then married her, a marriage which lasted until his death 50 years later.

    4 Humorously I should say that until last year I didn’t know what Charles David looked like. In her unique post-career 1983 interview with celebrated film historian David Shipman Deanna said that she couldn’t wait to leave the set in her day to get out of the “teenager” clothes that they made her wear. She confessed to Shipman that she wanted to display more of her adult feminism as like most young women she was very keen to date normally – between her 3 marriages that is!

    5 Accordingly as my Deanna with her exceptional looks and obvious intelligence could presumably have had her pick of suitors I had jealously presumed that Charles would be a replica of one of those great French screen lovers such as Louis Jordan, Alain Delon or Chevalier in their day. Instead it transpired in the only photo that I have ever seen of him [with Durbin at their 1950 wedding reception] he looked to me like Woody Allen! Still in his wedding suit Charles was at least certainly more “dashing” than Harrison Ford today despite Steve’s ambitions for the latter in that direction. Anyway have a good weekend and keep up the great work and don’t let Steve’s quips about you being as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel get you down!

    Reply

  4. 1 This dynamic new-look page is a fitting tribute to perhaps the REAL “Most Successful Female Box Office Star of All Time” when stand-alone pulling power is given due weight.and
    certainly Crawford is from my perspective a deserving choice to receive the first complete update using the new facilities and added information now available which really make this site even more comprehensive than before.and an especially long and prolific career like Joan’s probably requires the treatment that this site now provides

    2 Certainly this site is the most entertaining, informative and elaborate movie site that I have ever come across and the way it is continuing to show progressive improvement is a fine testament to all the hard and dedicated work that has gone into its construction and maintenance. There is a lot to immediately take in with this new Crawford page but doing that will be a labour of love for me and I look forward to more completed updates.

    3 Meanwhile I’ll content myself with recording that I’m pleased that many of my own personal favourite provision have been retained such as the “ready reckoner” and the rest of that particular summary as well as the Possibly Interesting Facts. Flora was certainly right to raise the alarm when that section was initially excluded from the first flushes of the revamp.

    4 Incidentally I personally disagree with Bruce’s statement that the dynamic dimension is “not important” to his readers and viewers. That the site is now armed with such a progressive facility has a hand-down benefit for people like me who are greatly interested in all that the site has to offer.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob
      1. Thanks for all the kind words….they are greatly appreciated.
      2. I have too many pages to update with you about who is the “REAL “Most Successful Female Box Office Star of All Time”….lol….but I will say….Ms. Crawford’s fans are a lot more attentive than the M.L. fans.
      3. I actually thought I had this page done….but WoC….took a look at the links…and went back to work….so you will see there is no a “reverse” table on the movie pages…..on movies like The Women the amount of links is pretty impressive.
      4. Just got through updating those Crawford movie page links for the second time today…..I am sure I will be dreaming about Joan tonight.
      5. The ready reckoner and interesting facts are here to stay….their absence was more to do with time than an update issue.
      6. Glad you are enjoying the dynamic pages as well….I just realize from a presentation page…the dynamic is not offering much in eye appeal.
      7. WoC….has given up trying to make the “Search” box work….so people will have to do Control F to find stuff…..apparently our tables are too complex for the search box to work.
      8. Thanks again for the kind words and support.

      Reply

  5. The first page to be completely updated. So what do you get? (1) The page is now dynamic….not important to you….but very important to us. (2) Some major Oscar nominations are now listed directly on the table. Joan had three Oscar nominations and one win…you will see each is identified here as well as all the Joan movies that received Best Picture nominations. (3) Box office ranks are now based on the movies in our database versus the Variety rankings. (4) There are now page links for 50 plus Joan movies….most of those links take you to the trailer of the Joan movie along with some other pieces of trivia. A few movies small clips of the movies were used. So….this is what we hope to get all of our pages to look like.

    Reply

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