Lucille La Seuer came out of a poor home. Abandoned by her father and raised by a mother that had to struggle to make ends meet, Lucille saw a way out of her dreary life by becoming a dancer with dreams for going far in show business. Little did she know she would go on to become one of America's movie icons in a career that expanded more than fifty years after she became Joan Crawford, a screen goddess without rival.
"Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Film Star", conceived and directed by Peter Fitzgerald, follows Ms. Crawford's life in detail. We are given direct accounts by people that knew her and are still around to tell us. The documentary is narrated by Angelica Huston.
Joan Crawford was a woman larger than life. As an ambitious woman, she knew from the beginning she had to create her own persona in order to carve a niche in the movie industry. Louis B. Mayer was the man who saw her possibilities and quickly hired her to be part of the MGM family.
Ms. Crawford's ambition was boundless. She knew that by marrying Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was her entry into the inner sanctum of most of Hollywood's best people's homes and parties. She transformed herself into the creature one saw in her films. In order to appear more respectable, she adopted a boy and a girl. That girl being Christina, who went to tell it all in her famous book about her adopted mother, "Mommie Dearest", in which one learns about another facet of her character. In fact, Christina talks openly about her adoptive mother quite openly. Ms. Crawford went to adopt three other children, of whom one didn't hear much about.
The interviews with some of the people that knew her well proved to be one of the most interesting side to the documentary. Vincen Sherman, the director who worked with her in several movies, is candid about the woman and her human side. Bob Thomas shows an insight about the star. Also we see testimonies by Betsy Palmer, Anna Lee, Diane Baker, Dickie Moore, Ben Cooper, Cliff Robertson, among others that give us the picture of the woman who invented herself and went to become a dominant figure in the American cinema.
Thanks to Peter Fitzgerald for making it possible.
