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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225 thoughts on “Joan Crawford Movies”

  1. I have just belatedly picked up this revised table.For those who admire Joan as I do the additional worldwide stats are welcomed as information of great historical interest [Steve winches and then rolls his eyes].

    By my own manual calculations the grand total of the 59 figures in the table come to just short of $8 billion, which is very respectable for those classic era days when foreign grosses were not nearly as buoyant as they are today – on average just around 50% of the domestic gross.

    It pleases me also that Joan deserves to be credited with movie grosses as much as almost any other great star of those times and more so than many of the latter, as in almost every movie that she made during her heyday she was the top-billed lead performer.

    She was in fact in that select band of female performers in the classic era who could churn out the stand-alone hits [others who come immediately to mind are the likes of Betty Grable, Deanna Durbin and as a child performer Shirley Temple]; there are even fewer of such women stars around today.

    “We can be CERTAIN that Alan Ladd was a massive box office star for a while in the forties and early fifties because none of his films in those years actually ever lost money and there was nothing in most of them apart from him.”

    I must also commend this site for being able to draw together an amazing volume of 59 worldwide grosses for ANY star of the classic era; in any other movie site but this one you would be lucky to find 9 global grosses for an individual performer let alone 59. Well done Team Cogerson.

    Reply

  2. Bob, I thought this titbit from The Divine Feud might interest you and other Crawford fans.

    In April 1940, when Strange Cargo was previewed, Joan attended the showing and experienced a definite sense of achievement concerning her performance. There was one fault with the film, however: in the opening credits the name of Clark Gable came before hers. Her contract forbade this, and she asked that the prints of the picture be recalled and retitled, so that her name was first. Joe Mankiewicz, the producer, tried to explain that Gable had first billing in his current picture, a little epic called Gone With the Wind.

    His immense popularity as Rhett Butler would help them sell Strange Cargo, especially if his name came first. “I don’t give a sh*t about Rhett Butler or Gone With the Wind,” said Joan. “I’ve got a contract. Either change it or I’ll talk to my lawyers.” Telegrams were sent to Harry Rapf, who called L. B. Mayer, who called Joan.

    It was such a minor matter, Mayer tried to tell Joan. She had been billed second in her last picture, The Women, and she got the best notices. “That was different,” Crawford said. I needed that role. This time you needed me. You asked for Joan Crawford. You got Joan Crawford. And Joan Crawford always comes first on the marquee.”

    Reply

    1. HI STEVE

      1 Great stuff! I was aware that Joan got into arguments with everyone who counted about the Strange Cargo billing but I didn’t know the detail of it that you have now given me. Thanks for sharing it. Of course Myrna would never have been in a position to wage those kinds of arguments.

      2 Also you may have at last explained to me with your comment about my Joan and the marquees what else apart from the actual screen STUDIO non-promotional material could include – ie the marquees – though I don’t see how Joan and her studio could have enforced the marquee billing everywhere as John astutely pointed out and John gave the example of Bruce Dern in his own home town getting billed above The Duke in The Cowboys. Bruce boasted about that in an TV interview in which The Duke joined him and Wayne roared with laughter when Bruce revealed the arrangement.

      2 Bruce and I have just been discussing how Tom Hanks on at least 3 occasions accepted 2nd billing to stars who were probably of lesser status than himself – one of them certainly was – and I get the impression that Tom is a nice guy who maybe feels so secure in his abilities and stardom that he doesn’t always have to beat a big drum for himself by demanding 1st billing. Nice to see.

      Reply

  3. Some more titbits from the book ‘The Divine Feud’ – When Clark Gable signed up for Idiot’s Delight in 1939, Joan Crawford was desperate for the lead female role, she pleaded with Louis B. Mayer to cast her in the film but he refused. The role was already taken by Norma Shearer. “The role calls for an ex-chorus girl and that’s me!” Joan cried. “Norma can’t sing, can’t dance and furthermore the bitch is cross-eyed!” But Shearer still had a lot of sway at the studio after her hubby Irving Thalberg died.

    Reply

    1. HI STEVE

      1 Joan told friends in later life that to realise how handsome Gable truly was he had to be seen in person and without his moustache.

      2 I think Crawford also implied, rightly or wrongly, that after Thalberg died Norma used the casting couch to still get her way. Certainly by that time of Idiot’s Delight she wasn’t the star that Gable was and yet as I’ve said before got billed above him in that movie.

      3 As the saying goes “What goes around comes around,” because Bette Davis seemed to feel that Joan too used that legendary couch and if situations in the mini series Feud reflected accuracy Bette may well have been right!

      Reply

    2. Hey Steve….that is a funny line from Crawford on Shearer….having seen that movie….and not liking it all….I am thinking Crawford might have been correct…she and Gable would have made a better movie. That was one of Shearer’s last movies….as her career was over by 1942. Thanks for sharing another tidbit from The Divine Feud.

      Reply

    3. Hello Steve, Hello Bruce,
      I have always heard about the feud between Norma and Joan, simply because Norma got all the good part by her position of wife of Irving Thalberg, even if Crawford was a huge box office for MGM except in 1937, with that story of box office poison among Dietrich, Garbo , Hepburn etc
      But to day nobody care about that feud because Norma is really in the shadow in Europe, sure!, in USA, i dont know but i think she is in the same way;
      As Gloria Swanson said, ther is not a lot of shining star, but you always recognize a star when she go down in a stair, that the stairs which move, not the star.
      To day, may be it the difference between the two ladies;
      See you
      Pierre
      May be it is the difference to day between the two ladies;

      Reply

      1. Hey Pierre…..thanks for sharing your thoughts on Norma and Joan. I like the quote by Swanson. As always I appreciate reading from the viewpoint of Europe. It gives me a more worldwide opinion.

        Reply

  4. 1 HI STEVE Thanks for the feedback. It’s good to see some reference to billing, a subject that has not got much attention since John provoked all of those quarrels about the issue.

    2 Crawford made 8 films with Gable and in all of them her name came first everywhere except in Strange Cargo the last of them. By the time of that film thanks to GWTW Gable was probably the biggest star on the planet [whatever Tracy thought] and initially Louis B Mayer wanted to give Clark complete top billing in Strange Cargo but Joan camped outside his office until a compromise was agreed whereby Clark would be billed first on all promotional material and Joan would take the top spot on non-promotional material [however they defined that] and on the screen.

    3 Subsequently Gable got a new contract that guaranteed him top billing across the board so there were no more Crawford/Gable pictures. Tracy got a similar contract so there were no more Tracy/Gable pictures either.

    4 Regarding Garbo and Shearer they initially had more prestige at MGM than Joan. That particularly mystified me in Garbo’s case because as Bruce’s tables demonstrate her box office was abysmal and nowhere near that of Joan or most other major female stars of the time. However as Wikipedia emphasises Joan outlasted both Greta and Norma who made their final movies in 1941/42 whereas Joan carried on with continual hits until the mid-1950s and then sporadically until 1964’s Strait Jacket which although not a big grosser made money because of modest costs.

    5 However that was a rather sad box office swan song for Joan because gimmicky director William Castle had her appearing out of the blue among live theatre audiences and swing a rubber axe at them. Her very last flick the awful Trog saw Crawford drinking heavily on set and even sleeping on it overnight.
    6 Anyway between the pair of us you and I have maybe given The Work Horse a little bit of help in expanding his site’s store of Crawford/Davis material. However next for me is-
    “Come, Come beautiful Katie
    Out for a drive with me!”

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob……good to see you talking about billing….it has been awhile…..lol. Glad Steve’s Joan video was well received by you. You are 100% correct Joan outlasted Norma and Greta by decades. In fairness to Garbo….her movies did decent in North America….but pretty impressive overseas. Thanks for the help in expanding our Crawford/Davis material….it is appreciated.

      Reply

    2. Bob, in the book I’m reading Joan was excited about meeting Greta Garbo when she was cast in Grand Hotel, but was let down when snooty Greta said she “vonted to be left alone!” and had little contact with her co-stars. Joan ultimately resented her.

      From IMDB trivia – Joan Crawford often tried to talk to Greta Garbo, and would say “Hello, Miss Garbo” whenever the two would pass each other in the hall. Garbo never responded, so Crawford gave up and stopped saying anything. This led to Garbo stopping Crawford as she walked silently past her, and asking, “Aren’t you going to say something to me?”

      Reply

      1. Hey Steve….awesome behind the scenes story involving two movie legends…Greta and Joan…thanks for sharing it.

        Reply

  5. 1 HI STEVE Hats off to you! It’s refreshing to be allowed for once to write about one of my own top 3 all-time favourite actresses instead of being confronted by something about one of Bruce’s “pets” like Myrna or Joel.

    2 I mentioned that in the great Crawford-Davis feud Bette was supported by Olivia [“Livy”] DeHavilland. One reason that Livy gave for being sympathetic to Bette’s cause was “We both have our Joans to contend with. You have Crawford and I have sis Fontaine.” Joan C for her part had the help of Hedda Hopper in taking on Bette. It seems that Hopper hated Davis as much as Crawford did possibly because Bette was sympathetic to persons and communities not approved by Hedda.

    3 It was for example Hedda who bad-mouthed Bette with members of the Academy when the latter was competing for the Oscar after, unlike Joan, being nominated for Baby Jane. In tandem with malicious phone calls against Davis, Hedda master-minded the 2nd whammy by which Joan accepted the Oscar on behalf of the eventual winner, Anne [Mrs Robinson] Bancroft for The Miracle Worker. Davis was devastated not only by being overlooked for the award but by seeing Joan waltz off with “an Oscar” which whilst not Crawford’s own apparently took some time to get into the rightful hands of Bancroft!

    4 As in the Davis case I have again settled for picking at random 13 posters from a fairly larger number of equal quality. Berserk, This Woman is Dangerous [considered by Joan to be her worst film] the racy one with Big Jeff in Female on the Beach. Reunion in France with The Duke, Chained, Strait-Jacket, the 2 from Rain, Autumn Leaves, Flamingo Road Sudden Fear, Baby Jane, and Johnny Guitar with a very butch Crawford – reviewers at the time suggested that the rivalry between her and Mercedes McCambridge in the film was like a confrontation between two men.

    5 Great stills were the opening movie magazine cover, the posed one of Joan with Greer and Robert Taylor, the lobby card for the Gorgeous Hussy, Sadie Mckee, the raunchy Crawford/Gable one, the lobby card for Strange Cargo, Joan showing us her legs in Our Dancing Daughters and the par excellence Baby Jane duo.

    6 You and WH are more or less agreed on her 5 best reviewed films if we take into account that he has two tied at No 5 but he includes The Unknown instead of your Grand Hotel in his 5. I haven’t seen The Unknown and didn’t like Grand Hotel so I’ll pass.

    7 I thought the Crawford video was of equal standard to the Davis one but as I prefer Joan I’ll give her video 98.1% the extra 0.1% being for “personal satisfaction”! Certainly the prominent billing that Joan gets on almost all your posters confirms how great a star she truly was in her heyday. A treat for Crawford idolaters like me!

    Reply

    1. Thanks Bob, I just popped in to pay my little tribute to Dorothy Malone when I saw your comment. The generous rating, review, info, trivia, comment, observation and evaluation is much appreciated. Glad the pictorial content met with your approval.

      I wanted Bette and Joan to have equal sized videos with the same number of films which is only fair, but I did get slightly carried away with Joan’s stills and lobby cards I think hers is about half a minute longer than Bette’s. Joan is more photogenic than Bette, but I have to admit I found Bette quite cute in her younger days especially in that last photo on Bette’s video.

      According to the book I’m reading ‘The Divine Feud’ Joan became a star way back in the late 20’s long before Bette’s star started to rise. Her ‘overtly wild and vigorous dancing’ in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) gave Joan instant stardom. People wanted to see more of this ‘gal’.

      I have Grand Hotel on DVD, it is a little archaic now but I enjoyed it. I think it was the first of it’s kind – the all star movie extravaganza – Garbo, Crawford, Beery and the two Barrymores.

      Three movies scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Baby Jane, Mildred Pierce and Grand Hotel. Three more scored 9 – Johnny Guitar, Humoresque and The Women. Four more scored 8.

      Highest rated at IMDB is Baby Jane. Highest rated at Rotten Tomatoes is Johnny Guitar. Highest rated on Bruce’s critics chart is Johnny Guitar followed by Baby Jane. On the UMR chart it’s Mildred Pierce followed by Grand Hotel.

      Looking at the posters on the video – Crawford was top billed on 42 of the 50 films listed which is quite impressive. She couldn’t get top billing over Gable, Garbo or Norma Shearer.

      Reply

    2. Hey Bob…you have not seen The Unknown?….and I thought you were a Joan fan…..lol. Actually think I read somewhere that the movie is lost…..or in some horrible shape….either way….The Unknown might not be watched by many more people. Good breakdown on Steve’s Joan video. Educational and entertaining…what more could you want?

      Reply

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