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"I need sex for a clear complexion, but I'd rather do it for love." ~ Joan Crawford
The talkies were born and Hollywood and the films would change forever. This was bad news for those who didn't transition
well from silents to talkies due to an unappealing voice, but for some this only strengthened their careers. Joan Crawford
is one of the few stars that successfully transitioned from the silent era to talking motion pictures. Joan Crawford not only
appeared in an amazing 25 films but she was the top-billed star in each of those films. Crawford showed a glimpse of what
was to come in an early dramatic role in the 1930 film "Paid." Joan also 'clicked' with the working-class Americans
and was labeled "the shop-girl-who-makes-good." She also showed that she could hang with the legends of Hollywood
in the Academy Award winning movie for the Best Picture of 1932 "Grand Hotel." Joan also teamed up with a man that
would ultimately become the love of her life, Clark Gable, in seven films they would make together during in the 1930s. Joan
also showed that she was on the verge of branching out and not afraid to take on a different role in the film that revitalized
her career in the 1939 film, "The Women." Below are the films of the 1930s that Joan Crawford stared in. I hope
you enjoy exploring each movie and the fun facts, trivia and numerous photos that show Joan Crawford's life on film during
the 1930s. Enjoy!
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Montana Moon (1930)
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Somehow doing a musical in the shaky infancy days of sound films, doesn't seem like such a great idea. Such was the format
with 'Montana Moon', and a great idea, it was not! Joan Prescott (Joan) is a wealthy young daughter of a Montana rancher.
Whilst on a train from New York City back to her home in Montana, she decides to sneak off the train before her final stop,
making a decision to turn around and go back to The Big Apple. Before she can get back on another train, she runs into handsome
cowboy, Larry Kerrigan (Johnny Mack Brown). In a typically accelerated movie romance, they fall in love and marry.
23 Photographs / 13 Movie Poster etc. / 1 Fan Review
Montana Moon (1930)
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Our Blushing Brides (1930)
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Gerry (Joan), Connie (Anite Page) and Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) are best friends who live and work together in New York City.
Three shopgirls looking for love, desperate to find a man to keep them, have little luck realizing their dream. The fragile
Franky (Dorothy Sebastian) commits suicide when she's dumped by her boyfriend and Connie (Anita Page) gets all caught up in
her crooked boyfriend's underhanded affairs. Gerry (Joan) helps her out of her predicament and Connie (Anita Page) leaves
New York City seeking retreat at her family's farm.
28 Photographs / 7 Movie Poster etc. / 1 Fan Review *ADDED 7/10*
Our Blushing Brides (1930)
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Great Day (1930)
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"Great Day" is one of those mystery productions that was started and shut down before its completion. The film was
very close to completion, but the studio, and Joan, supposedly didn't like what they were seeing. They mutually decided to
go into major rewrites to save the film with the plan to go back to shooting with the newly revised script by the following
year, in 1931. It never happened and "Great Day," was never released. However, there seems to be a much bigger story
to the movie that never was.
5 Photographs / 1 Movie Poster etc. / *ADDED 7/13*
Great Day (1930)
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Paid (1930)
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Mary Turner (Joan), a shopgirl, is sentenced to a 3-year prison term for a crime she did not commit, and she declares in the
courtroom that she will someday even the score for the way in which she has been treated by the law. After serving her term,
she becomes associated with three criminals: Joe Garson (Robert Armstrong), Agnes Lynch (Marie Prevost), and Red (George Cooper),
with whom she instigates numerous activities bordering on embezzlement, blackmail, and larceny, but which are always within
the law.
32 Photographs / 15 Movie Poster etc./ 2 Fan Review *NEWLY ADDED 7/18*
Paid (1930)
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Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
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Bonnie Jordan (Joan), formerly a spoiled, carefree socialite, is faced with poverty or hard work when her father, Stanley
Jordan (William Holden), dies of a heart attack during the stock market crash of 1929. Though she in in love with Robert "Bob"
Townsend (Lester Vail), she refuses his proposal of marriage, because he offers it merely as "the gentlemanly thing to
do." Instead, she goes to work as a cub reporter on the New York Star. Her brother Rodney (William Bakewell) takes an
easier way out by helping bootlegger Jake Luva (Clark Gable) peddle his liquor to Rodney's wealthy friends.
25 Photographs / 11 Movie Poster etc./ 1 Fan Review *NEWLY ADDED 7/27*
Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
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Laughing Sinners (1931)
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Ivy 'Bunny' Stevens (Joan) is a chorus girl, who falls for the sleazy salesman, Howard 'Howdy' Palmer (Neil Hamilton). After
dumping her in order to marry his bosses daughter, Ivy (Joan) decides to end it all by jumping from a bridge. She is saved
in the nick of time by kind hearted Salvation Army Officer, Carl Loomis (Clark Gable) and begins to rebuild her life with
him, taking comfort that she is helping others.
37 Photographs / 10 Movie Poster etc./ 1 Fan Review *NEWLY ADDED 8/2*
Laughing Sinners (1931)
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This Modern Age (1931)
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Valentine Winters (Joan) is a young woman from a divorced family who's determined to meet the mother (Pauline Frederick) she
has never known. She finds her in Paris, now the high maintenance mistress of a rich Frenchman, a man she merely passes off
as a 'friend' to her daughter. Valentine (Joan) gets caught up in some drama of her own when she is saved by a handsome Harvard
football star, Robert (Neil Hamilton), rescuing her from a car crash caused by her high living boyfriend, Tony (Monroe Owsley).
Love blossoms, relationships are strained, but true love wins out in the end.
30 Photographs / 6 Movie Poster etc./ 2 Fan Reviews *NEWLY ADDED 8/2*
This Modern Age (1931)
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Possessed (1931)
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Paper box factory worker Marian Martin (Joan) wants more out of life than marriage to her small town boyfriend, Al Manning
(Wallace Ford). As she looks through the windows of a stopped railroad car carrying wealthy passengers, she meets Wally Stuart
(Richard Gallagher), a New Yorker who gives her champagne and tells her to look him up. After Al angrily accuses her of impropriety,
Marian leaves and goes to New York. Wally gives her some advice on meeting and keeping wealthy men, which Marian uses to begin
a relationship with his friend Mark Whitney (Clark Gable), a divorced attorney.
66 Photographs / 14 Movie Poster etc./ 3 Fan Reviews *NEWLY ADDED 8/9*
Possessed (1931)
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Grand Hotel (1932)
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An entertaining film, with an all-star cast, surrounding the comings and goings of the guests of Berlins most lavish hotel
- 'Grand Hotel' - The story unfolds over two nights, we see people falling in love, falling out of love, getting drunk, there's
even a master jewel thief concocting a plan to steal a string of pearls, only to steal the heart of the owner instead.
COMING SOON!
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Letty Lynton (1932)
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New York socialite Letty Lynton (Joan), who has been living in Montevideo, Uruguay, wants to end her affair with Emile Renaul
(Nils Asther). Because she has left Emile before but has always returned, her maid Miranda is skeptical, as is Emile, who
thinks this is just a whim. On the steamship to America, Letty sees wealthy American Jerry Darrow (Robert Montgomery) and
is immediately attracted to him. At dinner, their attraction increases, and after two weeks at sea, they have fallen in love.
COMING SOON!
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Rain (1932)
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This is quite a strange film about a prostitute, Sadie Thompson (Joan) who is quarantined on Pago Pago Island. The other temporary
inhabitants are the Reverend Davidson (Walter Huston), his wife and a few other various traveling companions. The American
Military are stationed on the Island permanently and Sadie (Joan) is a big hit with them, especially the innocent Sgt O'Hara
(William Gargan), a smitten soldier whom she nicknames, 'handsome.'
COMING SOON!
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