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. Hi, Bruce.
    Have you seen many Joan Crawford films since you wrote this originally? Eight is a low total considering how available her films are.

    Regarding her top 10 box office, I have more than I haven’t:7.

    First, my favourites;

    Grand Hotel
    Mildred Pierce
    The Women
    The Last Mrs. Cheyney
    Possessed (1931)

    My favourites don’t always make the most money as you see.

    Although I have seen them, I have never cared for either Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or Johnny Guitar.

    I have tried to get through some of her other horror films like Beserk, but I can’t.

    In regards to you rankings, I have seen:
    All of her top 5
    9 of her top 10
    11 of her top 15
    14 of her top 20
    16 of her top 25
    24 of her top 50
    27 of her films overall

    As I’m a fan of some of costars, I’ve seen many of her Robert Montgomery and Clark Gable films.

    The lowest ranking film I have seen in full is Torch Song.

    Joan would not want to hear this, but I have always preferred Bette Davis……

    Flora Breen Robison

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora….thanks for stopping by ….on my old website this was a Top 5 page….it battled my Bette Davis page for 4th place…I got a kick out of watching the stats come in….when I finally turned that website off….Davis got 4th place by ony 5 views over Crawford….fun with numbers….it is the little things in life.

      Since my original comment I have seen 3 more Crawford movies….for a total of 11. Of her Top 10 box office hits I have seen 6. Of her Top 10 critical hits I have seen 6 as well….and on my rankings I am at 8.

      I have seen 3 of your favorites….Mildred Pierce and Grand Hotel are all-time classics. I have seen both Possessed movies….though I like the older one more than the one you like. I want to see the rest of your favorites….I can get my hands on The Women…but I have never seen The Last of Mrs. Cheyney….so that one might be harder to watch.

      I enjoyed Johnny Guitar a lot more than you did. I can understand why you might not like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. 27 Crawford movies…that destroys my number…I will have to go and get Steve’s tally…..his tally is buried in all of these comments. One of the benefits of this new tables is the ability to sort…so if you only want to see the Gable/Crawford movies….just type in Clark Gable in the search box and up they pop.

      I am sure Bette Davis appreciates the support….as do I when it comes to comments from you on my new website. Thanks again!

      Reply

      1. Tally count…Flora 27….Bruce and Steve at 18 combined…..me at 11 and Steve at 7…you win that hands down.

        Reply

  2. Thanks for the shout out to The Joan Crawford Chat Room-much appreciated! It’s too bad there doesn’t appear to be any information about the movie They All Kissed The Bride (Joan’s loan out to Columbia [?] to replace Carole Lombard, who had just died in a plane crash).

    Reply

    1. Hey Ricoh V….the Joan Crawford Chat Room shout out is much deserved. As for They All Kissed the Bride….it was her 28th biggest box office hit in North America…..her 35th best reviewed movie….was not one of her 12 Oscar nominated movies….and finished in 35th place in my Cogerson Movie Score ranking….which takes all three categories into account. The only missing info is worldwide box office and profit margin%. Columbia is one of my weak spots when trying to find information on older movies.

      Reply

  3. When I was 15 my family and I went to New York City and Joan Crawford was at a movie theatre selling movie tickets to one of her movies (do not remember which one). I was surprised at how regular she looked as she had freckles on her face and not one bit of glamour. It was morning or early afternoon. I was disappointed at how she looked as I was definitely expecting GLAMOUR. I have seen many of her movies and I have watched Mildred Pearce about six times or so and have enjoyed it each time. She had some very good roles in her lifetime. I did not know that she had adopted FIVE children. THANKS AGAIN FOR ANOTHER GOOD SITE. The video was entertaining as well.

    Reply

    1. Hey BERN1960….interesting story about her selling tickets….that would be cool if they did that today. Glad you liked the video.

      Reply

  4. It amazes me how high The Gorgeous Hussy ranks. Its in the top ten. And its not a popular choice with Joan fans today. It made alot of money back in 1936. When I watched the movie not to long ago. I noticed the movie totally switched gears, from in the beginning it was going to be about Joans character then the movie really became about the Barrymore’s character Andrew Jackson. She really became the co-star. Looking over her movie grosses, she really made MGM a ton on money. Sad what they did to her at the end of her career there. Glad she had the last laugh.

    Reply

    1. ey Jeff. If you sort by “critic audience rating”…The Gorgeous Hussey plummets to 57th place….that is pretty low….so I think more than verifies what you say about Joan fans not liking the movie very much….its high ranking (19th overall) is only due to the box office which was a Top Ten hit for her. Yes indeed she kept MGM happy for years…but the movie business is brutal especially for women as they age. I have not seen The Gorgeous Hussey but your comment has me interested in seeing it.

      Reply

      1. Bruce it really is a good film. I’ve watched it 3 times. The last time I watched it I really paid attention to it and really did enjoy it. Joan is totally mis-cast in the role and all the male leads are forgettable except for Barrymore. Its like they wanted to really make the movie about Andrew Jackson and decided to throw Joan in the mix just to pull the Joan fans into the theater. It worked obviously. I liked the story of Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel more than I was paying attention to Joans character.

        Reply

        1. Hey Jeff…..I am sold….it is not only on my list of movies to watch….but movie up quickly…plus I know you get a very young James Stewart in the movie too.

          Reply

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