Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford

by Donald Spoto

Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn (to name only two of Joan’s generation) were actresses with admirable skills and keen intelligence, but sometimes they could be seen acting, and just as often their performances were diminished by a convenient and easily recognized set of tics and mannerisms. But Joan Crawford was rare among her peers. She very infrequently made a false move in any scene in any picture: virtually everything she did on-screen was right for the moment—she was her technique. Colleagues may have found her increasingly difficult, even imperious—but no one ever turned down the chance to work in one of her pictures. She behaved like a star, but she was a great deal more. With the passing of decades and the unfortunate image created by Mommie Dearest, it became unfashionable to suggest that Joan Crawford was, in simple fact, one of the few truly great actresses in the history of American film.