Did people really think Joan Crawford was the most beautiful woman in the world?

No explanation needed.

Her face did not become "scary" until the 1950's. She was quite beautiful up until she acquired the caterpillar eyebrows and giant mouth and severe hairdos. And those scary pop eyes. Check her out in her early starring roles such as Grand Hotel. And throughout her MGM years. And even into her Warner's years. She was beautiful in Humoresque and even playing a psycho nurse in Possessed in 1947. Not sure what happened to her to make her get so gothically guignol in mid-life. But she did.

She looks like a different person with the toned - down eyebrows and lips.

Google "Joan Crawford" "George Hurrell" and you'll see what people were talking about.

Joan was a stunner in the 1930s, with her big blue eyes and flame red hair. And she had PRESENCE, which is something that mere photographs couldn't capture. You'd have to watch her 1930s films to understand. By the 1940s, in those Warner Bros pictures, she was still beautiful, but had started to look hardened and a bit masculine.

She really was a beauty when she was younger. But she became so harsh looking as she got older, probably due to all the smoking and drinking. Both usually destroy your looks.

She had been beautiful. What was she thinking with those ginormous eyebrowns in her later life? Awful.

She knew how to work it.

Ok, thanks, I can kind of see it in the younger pictures, she just seemed to go over the top as she aged trying to stay looking young I guess. I saw her in Mildred Pierce the one she won the Oscar for and I guess she was older by then but I just thought, "Really? What is the big deal about her?"

She had a perfectly shaped nose. And that meant a lot in close ups.

Those severe 1950s hairdos were unforgiving.

Harriet Craig:

Queen Bee:

Remember, she started out in silent pictures. Here she is in playing 'Nanon' to Lon Chaney's 'Alonso' in 1927's (pre-code) 'The Unknown'.

[quote]Alonzo is an armless knife thrower and gun shooter for a circus---or so he appears. He is actually a burglar with his arms intact. He and his accomplice, Cojo (a little person), are hiding from the police, and Alonzo views his disguise as perfect, especially since it keeps from view an unusual deformity of his left hand that would immediately give him away as the burglar. Nanon, the daughter of the circus owner, is the target in his act. Although Alonzo is in love with her, Nanon's father despises him. Nanon is attracted to Malabar, the circus strong man, but she is also repulsed by his uninhibited sexual advances and desire to touch and hold her. Apparently her phobia extends to the touch of any man. Alonzo feeds her fears in the hopes that Nanon will fall in love with him since he is "armless." Because Zanzi discovers Alonzo really has arms, Alonzo kills him, but Nanon witnesses the killing without seeing Alonzo's face; however, she does see the telltale deformity of his left hand. ...

As vain as Joan was why would she think her increasingly hard look with overgrown eyebrows and hair starting in the 50s and onward would look attractive?! Compared to the stunner she was before that. Alcohol will take a toll on anyone's looks (as it did of course on her)but she could've helped her appearance too by the less is more MO

Watch her in A Woman's Face. An early one. Before she became JOAN CRAWFORD. Before she developed all her acting ticks.

This article is worth a read.

[quote]Miss Crawford did not grow old as other women do, nor did she become a dehydrated version of her former self as other movie queens are apt to do. Age could not wither her nor custom stale her infinite monotony. Instead, her face appeared to undergo what geologists term a process of denudation. As the tides of youth receded, the implacable ambition upon which the critics remarked in her early films emerged slowly like s smoldering volcano arising from the sea. The cheeks became more hollow, the eyes more prominent, and the mouth took on the permanent curve of lips that are determined not to cry. Toward the end of her life, she looked like a hungry insect magnified a million times—a praying mantis that had forgotten how to pray. Even her springy posture started to resemble the stance of a brave soldier facing death.

Bitch could dance too.

"Feud" is 90% made up, OP. It's characterization of Crawford is ridiculous.

Sequins, again.

R19, Yes, she sure could. Thanks for that clip.

She seduced Jackie Coogan when he was 17 and she was 34. He always remembered her fondly. She was quoted saying that what always liked about Clark Gable was that he had balls. I think she did, too.

[quote]At the time, Cooper was 17. Crawford, fresh from her marriage to Tone, was 34. As he tells it, Crawford was friendly with Cooper’s mother, and allowed the teenage Jackie to play badminton on a court she had installed on her property.

[quote]Jackie recalled: “The court was right off the pool house, and one day, sweaty from an hour of exertion, I went to the pool house with Joan. I was thirsty, she poured me a Coke. As she bent over, I looked down her dress.

[quote]“‘You’re growing up, aren’t you?’ she said….I made a move toward her, and she stood up, looked at me appraisingly, and then closed all the drapes. And I made love to Joan Crawford. Or, she made love to me.”

[quote]The affair lasted for about six months on and off, after which Crawford bestowed a final kiss on her teenage paramour with the admonition, “put it all out of your mind, it never happened.” Cooper did exactly the opposite – he cherished the memory of the steamy encounter with the star until the day he died in early May of this year, at age 88.

God that hair @ R14 would make anyone hideous

[quote]I went to the pool house with Joan. I was thirsty, she poured me a Coke.

BLASPHEMER!

She was very attractive and sexually alluring to heteros, but she was hardly the most beautiful woman in the world. Not even in Hollywood.

Ava Gardner was.

Uh, no, R25.. Joan is masculine. So maybe a "man's man" would find enough femininity in there to find attractive.

Crawford was classically beautiful, not pretty. She had strong and masculine features, beautiful bone structure, a perfect nose and jawline and of course lovely expressive eyes. She was beautiful the way Garbo was beautiful, in a severe kind of way. Most important, her face moved beautifully - she found the light and was actually very expressive when she was younger. She wasn't a good actress, but she sure gave good close-ups. There are many actresses who take beautiful photographs but were less stellar in motion. Of course Vivien Leigh and Ava Gardner were gorgeous women with their coloring and more feminine features. Well into her forties Crawford's face was awesome. I say this as someone who can't stand her or her movies.

This video is extremely well done, it showcases a lot of JCs appeal.

She didn't do herself any favors with her styling as she got older but given she drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney her entire adult life it's remarkable how well she managed to preserve her looks. Compare her to her contemporaries Bette Davis and Lucille Ball. Neither aged as well as she did.

She got a lot of dick. Some rough trade too. That does a lot to counter the effects of the booze and ciggies.

R27, Thanks for that video. Beautiful.

Thick raised eyebrows, dark red lipstick and severe masculine hairstyles were a thing in the early 1950s

Don't see the beauty in her at all. She was frightening ugly as she aged too! I actually find Bette Davis more appealing. Maybe the personality helped Bette. I was watching some old videos interviews on Letterman etc. woman was a hoot!

Lovely

That's pretty messed up Joan, he looks 14.

Why would the idiot OP think "people" believed Joan Crawford was "the most beautiful woman in the world?" I've never heard that said anywhere.

Also he must have hit puberty on the tennis court with Joan because he had just finished playing Tom Sawyer, where he looked about11.

Clearly the idiot R35 hasn't seen Feud where Bette Davis asks Joan Crawford what it was like to be the most beautiful woman in the world and everyone is raving about Joan's beauty constantly.

Butch ya are, Blanche...ya are!

Ava Gardner was a successor not a competitor, beauty-taste wise. In Feud when they talk about their old beefs they're talking about their EARLY careers. Just saying. Not saying that Feud is accurate or anything.

Clearly the idiot at R37 doesn't know "Feud" is fiction. What an idiot!

If you read "The Divine Feud," the book in which "Feud" is based, Bette came to Hollywood when Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr were the most glamorous, most photographed couple in Tinseltown. Crawford may not have been the most beautiful, but she was stylish and glamourous, which gave her an aura of goddess-like beauty. And Bette, fresh from New England, looking plain and unsophisticated, was intimidated by that. It's like being the school misfit being both resentful and in awe of the popular football hero or cheerleader.

I thought she was striking but not beautiful.

Chic

Did women groom "down there" as they do nowadays?

What did Jacky Cooper find when he went muff-diving with Joan? Wild like the Amazon rain forest? A landing strip? Smooth as a cue ball? Neat and trimmed like a golf course?

R44, I'm more interested in what Joan might have found in Jackie's trousers. Apparently he was quite the ladies' man, even from a young age.

Thanks for asking, OP. I've wondered, too, since I'm more familiar with her later work.

She was one of George Hurrell's favorite subjects - the other two being Jean Harlow and Joan's nemesis (and the woman who gave Hurrell his big break) Norma Shearer. Joan photographed well, she had huge eyes and near-perfect symmetry to her face...she was stunning. Her only flaws were her freckles, which could be covered with makeup, and her teeth, which MGM got fixed for her. Her face was compelling, as much as Garbo's or Dietrich's.

[quote]And Bette, fresh from New England,

I take that back. I forgot that Bette came from the New York stage, and was once part of George Cukor's theatre troupe for one season. But she was stubborn and refused to listen to Cukor's critiques and direction, which pissed off fellow troupers Louis Calhern and Miriam Hopkins, who begged Cukor to sack her.

Plus when she was younger she was thin as a rail and could wear anything. I think the still camera loved her more than the movie cameras.

"Did women groom "down there" as they do nowadays?"

Probably not. Bald pussies were not in fashion back then. I've seen some nude photos of Louise Brooks, a brief movie star from the twenties who much later became a cult figure. In one of them you can plainly see her crotch and it is covered in a luxuriant bush.

I heard some women did bleach their pubic hair in early eras. Supposedly Marilyn Monroe did that; she wore a light of white dresses and never wore underwear, so she had to bleach her pubes to keep it from showing through.

There have been dozens of Crawford threads on DL in the many years I've been here but it's nice to see one coming to the defense of Joan's beauty in her early years on screen.

I don't know how anyone with eyes can look at those stills and clips from around 1932-1936 and say Joan wasn't exceptionally beautiful.

Joan Crawford was very jealous of Jean Harlow. I guess she would be; Harlow was much better looking. And she had perfect skin, whereas Joan always had to cover up her freckles. During her time Harlow was considered "the most gorgeous creature in Hollywood."

Joan

She was a hot little number in the 30s. Gillian Anderson looks. But like her.

Is that the real Mamacita in the photo at R54 ?

[quote] She was very attractive and sexually alluring to heteros, but she was hardly the most beautiful woman in the world. Not even in Hollywood. Ava Gardner was.

They were not really at their most beautiful at the same time, so the comparison in pointless.

Ava Gardner did not even arrive in Hollywood until 1941, when Joan was already over-the-hill by Hollywood standards.

She was always criticized for having a 'theatrical manner', yet she had no experience of the theatre (unlike Bette). Can you imagine what she might have done, with her resonant voice and fickle features, if she had been tutored in stage acting? Her acting range wasn't the greatest, but in 'Rain' and 'Humoresque' (worlds apart), I think she showed she had acting chops, but her style was very different from what we now consider great acting. She inhabited some of those parts in ways that made them real. To say she wasn't a great actress dismisses her real work.

When Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis asked Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford last week what it felt like to be the most beautiful girl in the world, she was not talking about Joan in the 40s or 50s, or even in the late 30s.

The era when Joan Carwford was a great beauty was in the late 20s and early 30s. And it is true there were any women as beautiful then. That was when Bette davis was coming up as an actress--before she really made her mark with her Oscars for "Dangerous" and "Jezebel"--and yes, she would have been very intimidated by a woman this glamorous and beautiful.

[quote]; Harlow was much better looking. IN MY OPINION Fixed it for you r53. I don't think Harlow was considered a classic beauty...Hurrell said that she was very photogenic but "physically imperfect", referring to her deep-set eyes, short chin, heavy forehead and somewhat bulbous nose. But like most photogenic people, she had symmetry to her face, which meant she could be photographed from any angle. That got Harlow over, combined with her startling platinum blonde hair, alabaster skin and shapely frame. But if you take her features apart bit by bit, she was not a beauty.

[quote]; Harlow was much better looking. IN MY OPINION

Fixed it for you [R53]. I don't think Harlow was considered a classic beauty...Hurrell said that she was very photogenic but "physically imperfect", referring to her deep-set eyes, short chin, heavy forehead and somewhat bulbous nose. But like most photogenic people, she had symmetry to her face, which meant she could be photographed from any angle. That got Harlow over, combined with her startling platinum blonde hair, alabaster skin and shapely frame. But if you take her features apart bit by bit, she was not a beauty.

Jean Harlow, makeup free; kind of plain, yes?

Harlow was not a beauty. Fellow blonde comedienne Carole Lombard, however, was beautiful.

Bette was gorgeous.

You could recreate the image at R31 with Diane Lane -- she always had something of the same highly structured look, very high cheekbones, if not quite so severe.

And that's an almost Garbo-esque image of Lombard at R63.

I am enjoying Feud. And I love Jessica Lange as an actress. But Feud seems like "The Joan Crawford Show," co-starring Bette Davis.

Cause in the end Crawford was a lot more interesting.

Crawford had a facelift in the early '50s, for her MGM comeback role in Torch Song. The doctors ordered her to quit smoking/drinking while she recuperated. Donald Spoto, in his Crawford bio suggests she didn't and that she went back to work far too early. Not sure what effect this had on her face but she certainly lost her delicate, refined looks. From here on her face looked as if it was made from concrete. Of course the eccentric hair/eyebrows look didn't help.

re R22 and R36, Jackie Coogan and Jackie Cooper are two different actors. And neither of those guys in R36 's picture is Jackie Cooper. Jackie Cooper was 17 in 1939 and this is a poster for a movie he did that year.

She was breathtaking in "The Women".

I'd hit that, R70.

I would too. He has big dick face and looks like he maintained a clean hole too. For yesterday standards anyway.

r51 - It's called making the carpet match the drapes.

Was Jackie Cooper's career usurped by Mickey Rooney? Or did he just outgrow the roles and Mickey was there to take over?

Funny that one had a May/December fling with Joan and the pother with her arch rival Norma Shearer. Iw onder if they compared notes? And by "they" I guess I mean either of them.

r58 - She either asked or was asked to audition to replace Margaret Sullavan in The Voice of the Turtle. Apparently she gave an assured stage-worthy audition. They wanted her but she turned them down. She had no interest in doing theater either out of boredom and/or (most likely) stage fright. She did the audition just to prove to herself that she could have done/gotten it.....had she wanted.

in jean Harlows later years the bloating, fashion, stress from her personal life and awful makeup really got to her but in the late twenties she knocked Joan out of the park and the public liked her more

Joan Crawford in her prime blew harlow out of the water. Harlow had an ugly face with a cleft chin and was rather fat.

R76, Really? Thanks, that's something I didn't know, and it's fascinating to me. I watched a video of Joan on Youtube in what is indicated to be her first TV interview, and the host made it clear that Joan was nervous appearing on live TV, so I guess stage fright might have been an issue. I guess is seems so unexpected in someone who otherwise seemed so fearless.

Joan's big eyes and her mouth and nose and defined cheekbones weren't masculine. The shape of her face (long rectangle with a large jaw) was.

R80, R81, Thanks! The Youtube clip that R27 shared showed she actually could handle some light comic parts, too. It's a shame that both 'Mommie Dearest' and 'Feud' highlight the older Joan.

r77 - Jean Harlow had "later years"? Really?

Jean Harlow was a knock out I don't think anyone who was "not a beauty" would have been the premiere sex symbol of her time. And if you take anyone's features "apart bit by bit" you're probably not going to find a beauty; everything about a person's face combines to create attractiveness or not. Of course Harlow was better looking than Joan Crawford; Crawford was JEALOUS of her!

R85, Very interesting. Harlow was never my cup of tea, but I would never argue with another person's preferences. I did find this (which is quite funny):

[quote]Joan Crawford could be quite nasty as a mother, and according to David Stenn, author of "Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow" (Doubleday), she was a mean rival too. Crawford was the reigning sexpot of MGM until Harlow sashayed along, and Crawford, Stenn says, became insanely jealous of the platinum-blond Harlow. Producer David O. Selznick played on that when Crawford balked at making "Dancing Lady," a movie she considered beneath her. "Joan, I don't know if you can play this part," he told her. "It's kind of tarty. It's more Jean Harlow's style." She replied, "I was playing hookers before Harlow knew what they were, so let's not hear any talk about style because I know more about that than she ever will!" According to Stenn, Selznick "held his laughter until Crawford left his office."

Interesting about Joan's Broadway stage audition. I've never heard that.

It seems so odd to me that acting on Broadway never interested her, especially as she made her home in NYC from the 1960s onward. And her age might not have been such an issue in casting. I suppose she might have suffered stage fright but perhaps she just thought the repetition night after night would be boring?

Can you imagine the goings on in the mid-1930s when MGM regularly hosted Joan, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Jeanette MacDonald and Eleanor Powell (among lesser others)?

Just scheduling the daily costume fittings and morning hair and makeup appointments must have been a nightmare.

Despite her start playing tarts and floozies and flappers and shopgirls, Joan, once she transformed into Grand Lady of the Silver Screen, could be quite shady to other starlets who were liberal with their bodies. Those who flaunted the goods like Harlow and Monroe and even Mamie Van Doren were subjected to Joan's withering criticisms about their lack of propriety.

I've never once seen a substantiated quote from Joan regarding Jean Harlow. Is there one?

Jean Harlow was stunning and honestly if she'd been healthier and lost all that damn bloating she really would've been able to give Marilyn Monroe a run for her money Unlike Joan jean was made for the moving camera she had much more life to her and wasn't at all stiff unlike moss crawfish...

Sorry on the phone it's impossible o type :/

Jean Harlow had a terrible accent or voice...it did not go with her looks.

"I've never once seen a substantiated quote from Joan regarding Jean Harlow. Is there one?"

Well, here's one. It's from "Bombshell; the life and death of Jean Harlow", by David Stenn:

Another of Crawford's outbursts occurred during "Dancing Lady", a musical she considered beneath her dramatic skills. Aware of this, producer David O. Selznick provoked Crawford on purpose. "Joan, I don't know if you can play this part," Selznick told her. "It's kind of tarty. I think it's more Jean Harlow's style."

Crawford bristled. "Look, Mr. Selznick," she snapped, "I was playing hookers before Harlow knew what they were, so let's not hear any talk about style because I know more about that than she ever will."

I fucking love Joan and her shitty attitude. I would have so gotten along with her.

She couldn't act for shit.

Joan Crawford was at her most beautiful in the early 1930s. She was breathtaking.

Joan also couldn't hold a candle to Lombard.

R98 why was Carole Lombard never styled as a sex symbol? I always found her more beautiful, sexier than Harlow.

R91 in that photo, she kinda resembles Angela Lansbury as her mother in that Carroll Baker HARLOW film.

Oh r100 .....THAT Harlow movie.

"Why was Carole Lombard never styled as a sex symbol? I always found her more beautiful, sexier than Harlow?"

Maybe because she was at her best as a comedienne, and comediennes weren't really considered sex symbols. Harlow could do comedy (and she could do it very well) but the characters she tended to play were very sexual types, hookers, loose women, golddiggers, etc. With Lombard, her roles weren't as much sexual as comedic. She's primarily known for the screwball comedies that were so popular then. She tried some dramatic roles, and she wasn't bad in them, but audiences wanted to see her be funny, not serious. Anyway, she was a great beauty who was very good at comedy, and that was and still is rare.

R85, do people have to agree with you all the time? I'm the one who posted Hurrell's quote. I can't believe that you got you tampon all twisted like that. Go home until you can learn to play with others.

If anyone has a tampon twisted, it's you R103. I suggest you try to extricate the bloody thing, because you're obviously in extreme distress.

Eat tacks r104.

In the late 1920s, when she was involved in someone else's divorce scandal for having an affair with the husband, Joan was known in the popular press as "The Hollywood Venus."

[QUOTE]Did people really think Joan Crawford was the most beautiful woman in the world?

Joan was known as being very attractive & very glamorous but not the most beautiful woman going. I was surprised to see that no one mentioned Hedy LaMarr who was brought to MGM in the late 30s and who was known as 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World'.

She's beautiful in the way drag queens are beautiful. She's basically the drag queen template.

It's Hedley

Young Joan was gorgeous. Didn't F. Scott Fitzgerald call her the perfect flapper, or something like that? As she aged into her 30s and 40s she became what was known as a "handsome woman." In her old age she basically became a mask of eyebrows, lips and helmet hair.

I doubt even Joan Crawford knew who Joan Crawford was. She made her up as she went along. Suppose If after Mildred Pierce and Humoresque, Joan might have died doing something noble like Carol Lombard was when she was killed. As soon as the news broke to the press, Joan would have joined the Pantheon of tragic Celebrities dying too young. All the awful movies she made after that would be erased. Perhaps Miriam Hopkins, who hated Davis with the heat of a thousand suns, would have been the perfect Blanche. The whole Pepsi episode would not have Happened. Christina and Christopher might have found loving families. I doubt, "Mommie Dearest" would have ever been published. Had she been a Christian Scientist when she started her career, there would have been no drinking or smoking. Those 2 things ruined her looks prematurely.

I never thought she was a great beauty.

"Feud" was pure fiction.

I never found her even remotely beautiful. Her face is too hard.

The only person who thinks she is beautiful is the same old queen who thinks Liz Taylor and Caitlin, oops I mean Hedy Lemarr are beautiful.

No by a long shot. Dolores Del Rio was consider the world's most beautiful actress.

"The only person who thinks she is beautiful is the same old queen who thinks Liz Taylor and Caitlin, oops I mean Hedy Lemarr are beautiful."

You don't think Elizabeth Taylor or Hedy Lamarr were beautiful? You're a blind, retarded troll.

"

Dolores Costello was considered beautiful at the time. She was called "The Goddess of the Silver Screen." She was a good example of a "delicate beauty."

Dolores with a bad hairdo

And finally, Dolores in her 30s (in the 1930s)

Lots of Joan's movies after "Humoresque" are very good and if not great remain highly watchable.

I saw Delores Costello on a TV show in her later life. She looked like old Sylvia Sidney.

Besides the alledged "Extacy Scene" Hedy didn't make it big in Hollywood until about 1940.

I'm still confused as to which child star Joan seduced. Was it Jackie Coogan or Jackie Cooper?

All of them.

As a lesbian I would ABSOLUTELY say Joan Crawford was beautiful. I never like to state definitives, but I would say she is ONE of the most beautiful women to have ever existed. It's not just the looks, but also the confidence, the sultry voice (without a painful accent such as Hepburn, Davis, or Kelly), the posture, the lesbian energy and most of all: the glamour! Women like her don't come around every day. Men like their Kardashians, but they are a dime a dozen. Joan Crawford is unique. She is alluring in a way that no other woman is.

You guys are all traitors. Hard Joan looked just fine, she looked fab in fact. Sure she was a pretty young thing. Then she got INTERESTING.

As a non-lesbian, I agree that Crawford had a magnificent face. You couldn't take your eyes off her. When she died, Cukor wrote something about how her affair with the camera may have been more intense than any she had with a human being.

Anyone doubting Crawford's beauty and charisma needs to watch her in Grand Hotel (1932) .

I've told this story here before, but as a gayling, my mom worked with a gay guy. He was something of a mentor to me. He was good friends with one of Joan Crawford's fans. Billy was about the same age as Joan. He started writing her fan mail in the 30s, which she answered. He was president of a local JC fan club in the 1940s, and met her in person several times over the years. He had this enormous scrapbook going back to the early 30s filled with autographed publicity photos of JC. Many were shot by George Hurrell. He had a couple of albums filled with answered fan mail (ostensibly) from Joan. He even had pictures of himself taken with her, when she visited here, or when he was in CA or NYC. I remember his coffee table was this ornate display piece. It had a beveled glass top that opened to an 8" deep space lined in white silk velvet. Inside was the last autographed picture Joan sent him of herself, and an ashtray with a few of her lipstick-stained cigarette butts. Billy was a true FANatic.

She is so scary-looking that I can't watch her movies.

Because of the cosmetic dentistry done to her early on and its degradation over time had to contribute to the battle of aging she fought off in vain...Some shots of her lessened in severity in WHTBJ, but she had to be directed literally to look that way. Her extreme OCD probably led to her having an eating disorder too...

She's particularly attractive and sexy in The Women.

[quote] Clearly the idiot [R35] hasn't seen Feud where Bette Davis asks Joan Crawford what it was like to be the most beautiful woman in the world

And she's talking about the very early 1930s, when Davis was starting out as a Hollywood actress and Joan Crawford was already one of the most celebrated stars in Hollywood, and was celebrated for her beauty. They're not talking about how Crawford looks in 1966 (when the scene where Davis asks Crawford) that takes place

[quote] and everyone is raving about Joan's beauty constantly.

yeah, I just watched the entire series from start to finish again last week, and that doesn't happen. They talk about how beautiful Joan [italic]was[/italic] in her heyday, and how glamorous she still is, but they don't tell her how beautiful she is in the 60s and 70s when the series takes place (except when people are trying to flatter her to get something out of her).

Joan was one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood from @1925 to 1935, but by the time even of [italic]The Women[/italic] in 1939 she had started to lose her looks.

Damn but the DLers know their Joan Crawford. I could add nothing new to this thread and I thought I knew Crawford pretty well.

OP back when she started in the silent movie era she was beautiful. Big, pretty soulful NORMAL looking eyes. As she aged what crazy/mental illness she had.....you could see it in those huge glaring psycho eyes of hers.