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. Hello Bob,

    I think AFI made his list of greatest stars in terms of worldwide popularity. In the case of Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day for exemple, the first was less popular in USA, but she’s european actress. Furthermore she had much more success in Europe. In France, in Italy or in Spain, Sophia Loren was very very popular. Doris Day was not really popular in France, little in Spain and in Italy. Audrey Hepburn was the american actress who had the largest number of big success in France (movies over 3 millions admisssions).

    For the Germany we have little numbers of the box office, but since 1964 the Hauptverband Deutscher Filmtheater awards a prize for all the movies that exceed three millions admissions. Sophia Loren gave one price with Professionals, but Doris Day or Audrey Hepburn no.

    In Japan during the 1960’s and the 1970’s Sophia Loren and had four movies in the top ten by year : El Cid, Fall Of The Roman Empire, The Professionals and Cassandra Crossing for the first. Audrey Hepburn had three movies in the top ten by year : Charade, My Fair Lady (two yearsin a row) and How to steel a million. Doris Day none.

    Finally, Once Upon A Time In West is the sixth biggest success of all-time in France with 14.9 millions admissions. Butit was one of the biggest success of all-time too in Germany with 13 millions admissions. And My Fair Lady is in the top 100 of all-time in UK with 8.9 millions admissions.

    So I think, with a worldwide vision, the AFI’s list is not very bad.

    Reply

    1. I’m sorry. I made a big mistake. It’s not Sophia Loren played in Once Upon A time In West, but Claudia Cardinale of course. I do not know what happened in my head yesterday.

      Reply

      1. Many people make that mistake Laurent as they look a bit alike as the current photos on Wikipedia will demonstrate.

        Best wishes BOB

        Reply

      2. I just watched a Claudia Cardinale movie yesterday….All Roads Lead To Rome….I actually did not recognize her for the entire movie…it was only when I did an IMDb search on the movie that I realized who she was. Just sent you over 1000 1960s box office grosses.

        Reply

        1. Thank you Bruce. I just received it. I’ll translate the other titles and I’ll send you my file for the rest of the sixties soon.

          Reply

      3. Laurent,

        It was also Claudia Cardinale in The Professionals.

        *I wonder if the female lead had much to do with the success of Once Upon a Time or The Professionals. Male orientated action movies. Had Sophia been cast, they would still undoubtedly have been big hits, but probably these movies would have done well with any of the many Italian glamour girls of the sixties. There were a lot of them.

        Reply

  2. GOOD EVENING HERE BRUCE

    To avoid monopolising your Recent Comments flag-up window this is an omnibus reply to points I found interesting in your own responses to my last 4 posts. As always I have enjoyed and learned from the exchanges back and forth.

    1 JOAN/BETTE Normally when comparing accomplishments I concentrate mainly on actual career achievements as post career popularity can arise from topicalities that may have no relevance to basic artistic and commercial achievements and which can course prove to be historically transient. In the latter respect you have mentioned how Joan and Bette have been continually leapfrogging each other in your readers’ attentions.

    2 LADDIE/NEVADA SMITH. McQueen did well to successfully play a prominent character who had recently been portrayed by another famous actor in a blockbuster hit and of course the 1966 movie gave Steve the chance to do one of his beloved escapes ! Some other great one liners in The Carpetbaggers, for example “The money vultures are after Nevada Smith.”

    3 UNCREDITED DIRECTOR DUKE I suspect that many really big stars often use their clout to exert behind-the-scenes influence. DeNiro/Bud all but took over the direction of The Score (2001) according to co-star Edward Norton; and apparently Burt and Kirk binned, and then locked themselves to rewrite, the initial script for Gunfight at OK Corral (1957). The Duke was one of three directors of The Green Berets (1968) though this time he was credited.

    4 JEN ANISTON You have just given me a most accurate summing up of her status in show business.

    Best Wishes BOB

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. Comment as much as you want….all those years of not commenting….you have 100s and 100s of pages to comment on for the first time….lol.
      2. Joan/Bette…..I get a kick of watching their view stats…Bette had been pulling away….and then Joan turned on the gas and has almost caught up with her again….good point about their post career popularity.
      3. Nevada Smith….I am now even more eager to see The Carpetbaggers…especially after you listing this good lines from the movie.
      4. Yep….it happens all the time…Kurt Russell says he did that with Tombstone…my question is why has Kurt not directed anything else…because I love that western.
      5. Glad you like my Aniston thoughts.
      🙂

      Reply

      1. One final thought on post career popularity, Ronnie was one of the most popular US Presidents ever and remains a legend today but it would be ubsurd to say that he was a bigger movie star that the Duke or the King !!

        Best Wishes BOB

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob.
          1. Good point. But I think film legacy has a lot to do with how a star remains known…even with years going by.

          Reply

          1. BRUCE:
            1 Certainly without sound career legacy a classic star is not going to get onto many contemporary lists of All Time Greats! but my concern is that current fashions and prejudices often driven by fan magazines and gossip columnists might be thwarting objective recognition of the RELATIVE greatness of stars of the bygone decades.

            2. Many people feel that for example the AFI list has credibility problems by placing John Wayne outside the Top 10 males and Audrey Hepburn as the No 3 female; and certainly I think that it is sentimental airbrushing to suggest that Audrey fine performer though she was is a greater legend than say Liz Taylor, Judy Garland and especially Monroe who was the only actress to be included in Time magazine’s 100 Greatest People of the 20th Century.

            3 Also I can see no objective basis for ranking Sophia Loren in the 25 Greatest Screen Legends to the exclusion of for example Betty Grable and Doris Day. In almost all of her top grossing films Loren is billed second or less and more that half of her movies have been considerable flops a situation unlikely to change even with say a 50% update of her grosses.

            4 Grable and Day on the other hand had each strings of stand-alone box office successes and in their different heydays virtually owned Quigley. Conversely I can find no Quigley entry for Loren or Audrey Hepburn and Wikipedia suggests Loren has never enjoyed top popularity in America The criteria that you mention for inclusion in YOUR Top 25 list of actresses such as Loren and and for giving A Hepburn a high position is at least a basis by which you can defend your selections but nobody knows what fine-tuning criteria AFI used.

            4 Anyway we’re almost into September and that is the month when the Belfast
            count-down to Christmas starts so that it will not be long before I start Dreaming of a
            White Christmas; and I will therefore leave the last word in this post to the nephew of a woman who has an affinity with that type of Christmas “I want to be remembered for more than one summer’s blockbuster.”

            Best Wishes BOB

          2. Hey Bob
            1. That would be a justified concern.
            2. The AFI list is a fun list…..but hard to take serious. I think they should do what I did….create a second list…and fix some of the errors. That way they would get to the Top Screen Legends…..get the legends in the correct place.
            3. Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn were unknown when 1950 arrived….yet all of the are listed in their list that says a person had to make a movie before 1950.
            4. I agree Loren….should not be on their list…and by having her on the list….somebody like Irene Dunne or Myrna Loy are not on the list.
            5. When I was researching the Loren page…..it became quickly apparent that all of her successes were her international movies…nobody else on that list can make that claim….her Hollywood movies were generally huge disappointments.
            6. Christmas? Wow too far away. Labor Day in the states means time for kids and me to go back to school….with Halloween being on deck..
            Thanks for the comment. 🙂

  3. BRUCE:

    1 Thanks for replying twice:

    2 Agreed no contest between Davis/Crawford regarding greatest ACTRESS; but in relation to greatest STAR as The Duke** said to Dean Martin’s alcoholic character in Rio Bravo when the latter asked whether the new gun in town was as fast as Dino used to be “I sure wouldn’t like to live on the difference”:

    AFI’s LIST OF GREATEST SCREEN LEGENDS

    Both in top 10 but Winner BETTE.

    ENTRIES IN QUIGLEY TOP 10 TOP BOX OFFICE STARS

    Joan 5/Bette 4 Winner JOAN

    COGERSON ADJUSTED BOX OFFICE CALCULATIONS

    Total Box Office Gross; Bette $6.320 Bn/Joan $6.279 Bn Winner BETTE – just
    Total Average per movie Joan $80.5 mil/Bette $80.0 mil Winner JOAN – just

    3 However wouldn’t the likes of Jennifer Aniston just love to be a contender in this debate even if she was adjudged 3rd !?

    **As the Sheriff of Nottingham said in one of the many Robin Hood films “He seems to be able to be everywhere. Will no one rid me of this man?”

    BOB

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob….good breakdown on Joan and Bette….who will forever be linked together……wow those stats are indeed pretty close….especially the ones from the UMR pages…..I like the two quotes you shared. I think Bette always gets the benefit of the doubt because her legacy seems bigger than Joan’s. Bette pops up in pop culture much more than Joan. Seems even none movie fans know of Bette….not sure they know Joan….other than that lady Faye Dunaway played in Mommie Dearest.

      Not thinking there have been too many discussions that put Bette, Joan and Jennifer in the same conversation….lol.

      Reply

  4. Hey, interesting video – I could not read all the titles as it was covered up with what was under it at the beginning. It is a good site. I HAVE SEE THIS ONE BEFORE. She was a good actress but apparently not so good as a mother if you believe all you read. I HOPE THAT YOU AND YOUR BROTHER THINK WELL OF ME AS A MOM, DAUGHTER, SISTER, MOTHER-IN-LAW, GRANDMOTHER, GREAT GRANDMOTHER AND FRIEND PLUS A SISTER-IN-LAW AND as a GOOD WIFE…….GOOD PERSON ALL AROUND, eh!!!!! I TRY IN ALL CATEGORIES…….

    Reply

    1. Thanks Bern1960…..thanks for checking out the video and the page….I think you have a 50/50 chance to be remembered for all of the things you listed….I think a lot depends on the upcoming years on which way it will go….but I think you can do it….lol. You are one awesome mom!

      Reply

      1. Hey, were you trying to make me laugh? YOU SUCCEEDED!!! I will see what I can do in the upcoming years – hopefully they will be good, long and healthy years to see you and all the family grow and mature. It is great being your mother, and all the titles I hold now or held in the past.
        LOVE YOU SON. TAKE CARE…….

        Reply

    2. 1 Joan is one of my all-time favourite actresses but apparently she was as Bern suggests a poor mother and on top of that she was reportedly very aggressive in her dealings with professional colleagues

      2 For example before Gable made Gone with the Wind he and Joan co-starred in seven movies and in all of them Joan was billed first. After GWTW they were both lined up for their 8th and final pairing and because of his greatly enhanced status from the civil war epic MGM proposed to bill the King above Joan .

      3 She is said to have responded by at first vainly appealing to MGM to reverse the decision and then by camping outside Louis B Mayer’s office until he agreed to a compromise whereby Joan’s name would come first on the screen and Clark’s on the posters. A reproduced poster in Wikipedia illustrates the latter.

      4 Her box office performance was I feel like the curate’s egg “good in parts.” 27 movies with adjusted domestic grosses of over $100 million is praiseworthy but she had 42 movies that made under $80 million after adjustment and they amount to a massive 1.76 billion.

      5 Whilst the relationship between costs and earnings is what ultimately determines the financial success of a film it is reported that in today’s market the initial broad rule of thumb for a DOMESTIC ‘hit’ is an adjusted $80-90 million. Certainly it could be argued that Joan’s total adjusted gross of just under &6.3 billion is not a vertiginous return for nearly 80 movies especially when compared with the grosses engendered by the likes of Wayne, Tracy, Stewart and Gable from their large output.

      Reply

      1. Hey Bob
        1. Good to know that Joan Crawford is one of your favorites. There are some really active and fun Facebook Crawford pages that I would recommend checking out…with https://www.facebook.com/groups/JoanCrawfordChatRoom/ being the best….and the fact that I won a Joan Crawford autograph from the page has nothing to do with my recommendation…lol.
        2. As for Mommie Dearest….there are two sides to every story…sadly she was not around to tell her side of it…..I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of the book….and the Crawford fans that think she was without error.
        3. Good behind the scenes story of Strange Cargo…..that had to be frustrating for her….to pretty much give Gable some breaks and then years later having to bow to the “King”…I will have to check out those posters.
        4. I like the stat breakdown….7 of her 27 $100 million hits were with Gable…..that is pretty impressive.
        5. I agree….and I think the fact that she did not have any monster hits..is one reason…why I normal movie fan has a hard time naming many of her movies. Only two of movies crossed the $200 adjusted mark…and The Women was a huge ensemble piece.
        One of the fun things I have been watching over the years is the views Crawford and Davis get….this Crawford page was the very last new page published at Hub Pages….on our 2nd website….Davis and Crawford were very popular…and they ended up with 20 views apart when we closed that site. Here on the third site…Bette was leading…then Joan caught up and passed her….only to fall behind Bette….it is like these two adversaries are still going at it….lol.

        Reply

        1. 1 I think you hit the nail on the head when you opined that a lot of the billing preoccupation in the classic era represented the stars exercising independence where they could in face of massive studio power over them in most other respects. Also in her Gable billing dispute with Mayer Joan made the case that it had been Crawford/Gable for 7 previous films and to change to Gable/Crawford might suggest to her fans that her star status was slipping.

          2 In the modern cinema where the big stars have greater freedom from producers the stars seem quite relaxed about billing if they are offered a large about of cash for even a supporting role as in the case of DeNiro; or if there is another star that they long to work with.

          3 For example apparently Cruise one of the biggest stars ever always wanted to be in a Redford picture so he actually accepted 3rd billing in Lions for Lambs [2007] as the Wikipedia poster reproduction illustrates. In my eyes that enhances Cruise’s status rather than reducing it as I feel that for someone of Cruise’s immense star power to
          concede billing to others is to show laudable respect for fellow thespians..

          4. Ironic how the Crawford/Davis battle for Queen of the Castle is still going on by proxy in Cogerson today. When Baby Jane came out in 1962 one columnist in referring to the Davis/Crawford pairing opined that Bette was the better actress but Joan the greater star.
          Whilst most critics would probably agree with the first part of the statement I’ve never seen any evidence to support the second contention. Indeed your tables show a virtual dead heat at the box office with each star generating adjusted domestic grosses of some $6.3 billion with an average of approx $80 mil over about 80 films

          BOB

          Reply

          1. Hey Bob…I had a lengthy comment back to your comment….and somehow it disappeared. So here is the quick version. I agree with #1 and #4…though in my book Bette was the better actress in both groups you mentioned. I liked that about Cruise…Bruce Willis did that with Newman on Nobody’s Fool and #2….as long as the stars get the big bucks…they do not seem to be worried about billling. 🙂

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