Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star

Aug 1, 2002

1h 27m

★ 6.7

Overview

In this documentary on the life of Joan Crawford, we learn why she should be remembered as the great actress she was, and not only as "mommie dearest." caricature she has become. Friends, fellow actors, directors, and others reminisce about their association with her, and numerous film clips show off her talent from her start in silents to bad science fiction/horror movies at the end of her career.

Genres

Documentary

TV Movie

Production Companies

Turner Entertainment Co.

Fitzfilm

Turner Classic Movies

Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Anjelica Huston

Self (archive footage)

Joan Crawford

Self - Actress

Diane Baker

Self - Playwright / Crawford Historian

Charles Busch

Self - Actor

Ben Cooper

Self - Daughter / Author, 'Mommie Dearest'

Christina Crawford

Self (archive footage)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Self - Co-Star, 'Berserk!'

Judy Geeson

Self - Actress

Virginia Grey

Self - Key MGM Hairstylist (archive footage)

Sydney Guilaroff

Self - Director / Friend

Herbert Kenwith

Self - Actress

Anna Lee

In 1928, as the talkies threw the film industry and film language into turmoil, Chaplin decided that his Tramp character would not be heard. City Lights would not be a talking picture, but it would have a soundtrack. Chaplin personally composed a musical score and sound effects for the picture. With Peter Lord, the famous co-creator of Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, we see how Chaplin became the king of slapstick comedy and the superstar of the movies.

3.8

Montgomery Clift

Jan 1, 1983

A documentary incorporating footage of Montgomery Clift’s most memorable films; interviews with family and friends, and rare archival material stretching back to his childhood. What develops is the story of an intense young boy who yearned for stardom, achieved notable success in such classic films as From Here to Eternity and I Confess, only to be ruined by alcohol addiction and his inability to face his own fears and homosexual desires. Montgomery Clift, as this film portrays him, may not have been a happy man but he never compromised his acting talents for Hollywood.

6.0

Vivement Truffaut

Jul 12, 1985

A tribute to the late, great French director Francois Truffaut, this documentary was undoubtedly named after his last movie, Vivement Dimanche!, released in 1983. Included in this overview of Truffaut's contribution to filmmaking are clips from 14 of his movies arranged according to the themes he favored. These include childhood, literature, the cinema itself, romance, marriage, and death.

No Image Available

0.0

Le Club: Claude Jade

Apr 11, 2001

No overview available.

6.5

Monsieur Truffaut Meets Mr. Hitchcock

Aug 5, 1999

When Francois Truffaut approached Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 with the idea of having a long conversation with him about his work and publishing this in book form, he didn't imagine that more than four years would pass before Le Cinéma selon Hitchcock finally appeared in 1966. Not only in France but all over the world, Truffaut's Hitchcock interview developed over the years into a standard bible of film literature. In 1983, three years after Hitchcock's death, Truffaut decided to expand his by now legendary book to include a concluding chapter and have it published as the "Edition définitive". This film describes the genesis of the "Hitchbook" and throws light on the strange friendship between two completely different men. The centrepieces are the extracts from the original sound recordings of the interview with the voices of Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, and Helen Scott – recordings which have never been heard in public before.

7.5

Daredevil vs. Spider-Man

Feb 11, 2003

Spider-Man and Daredevil team up to fight Kingpin.

7.3

Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend

Nov 13, 2022

The portrait of the last cowboy Hollywood legend dives into the 65 years of an extraordinary career in Hollywood, highlighted iconic films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Gran Torino all the way to Cry Macho in 2021. It is no small task to cover more than 60 years of cinema history, especially when it is trying to surveyed with such breadth and diversity: TV star, international star, controversial icon, contested director, filmmaker with a capital F, Eastwood has been through it all, experienced it all, and it is first of all this romantic trajectory, this true American pastoral that the documentary wants to tell with all the passion it possibly can.

7.0

Omar Sharif: Citizen of the World

Feb 15, 2020

Several high-budget epic films became Omar Sharif (1932-2015) a film star. He was an actor, but also a bridge player, a womanizer, a bon vivant; he was a man full of contradictions, who enjoyed card games more than movies; he was an eternal nomad who spent half his life in a hotel.

6.5

Salaam Cinema

Apr 14, 1995

Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

6.7

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe

Nov 30, 1966

The Legend of Marilyn Monroe is a 1966 American documentary film chronicling the life and career of actress Marilyn Monroe. Directed by Terry Sanders, and narrated by John Huston.

7.5

Irrésistible Gary Cooper

Jan 21, 2020

No overview available.

7.0

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

Oct 12, 2004

Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.

7.4

Frank and Ollie

Oct 20, 1995

Before computer graphics, special effects wizardry, and out-of-this world technology, the magic of animation flowed from the pencils of two of the greatest animators The Walt Disney Company ever produced -- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Frank and Ollie, the talent behind BAMBI, PINOCCHIO, LADY AND THE TRAMP, THE JUNGLE BOOK, and others, set the standard for such modern-day hits as THE LION KING. It was their creative genius that helped make Disney synonymous with brilliant animation, magnificent music, and emotional storytelling. Take a journey with these extraordinary artists as they share secrets, insights, and the inspiration behind some of the greatest animated movies the world has ever known!

5.2

Cannes Man

Jun 3, 1996

Film producer Sy Lerner makes a bet with a fellow film executive that he can turn any nobody into a star at the Cannes Film Festival. A New York cab driver who is visiting the festival is chosen as the test subject to settle the bet and Sy uses his skills of hype and manipulation to try and turn the cab driver named Frank into the talk of the town. Many celebrities make cameos throughout the film.

7.9

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind

Jan 19, 2018

A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.

3.5

Daniel Brühl: Breaking Bad

Feb 19, 2023

A portrait of the Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl, a versatile performer capable of moving easily from the gentlest to the darkest role.

6.4

Decasia: The State of Decay

Jan 24, 2002

A meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.

6.4

Bald: The Making of 'THX 1138'

Mar 1, 1971

The film features a conversation between Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, producer of THX 1138. They discuss Lucas' vision for the film, including his ideas about science fiction in general and in particular his concept of the "used future" which would famously feature in his film Star Wars. Intercut with this discussion is footage shot prior to the start of production of THX 1138 showing several of its actors having their heads shaved, a requirement for appearing in the film. In several cases the actors are shown being shaved in a public location. For example, Maggie McOmie is shaved outside the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, while Robert Duvall watches a sporting event as his hair is cut off. Another actor, Marshall Efron, who would later play an insane man in the film, cut off his own hair and was filmed doing so in a bathtub.

0.0

Walking with Pasolini

Sep 29, 2008

A documentary about Pier Paolo Pasolini and his film 'Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma'.