"One of my very favorite pictures. It was, I think, the best film of it's type ever made."
~Joan Crawford on "Autumn Leaves."

"Autumn Leaves" 1956

Cast: Joan Crawford ~Cliff Robertson~Vera Miles~Lorne Greene~Ruth Donnelly~Sheppard Strudwick~Selmer Jackson~Maxine Cooper~Marjorie Bennett~Frank Gerstle~Leonard Mudie~Maurice Manson~Bob Hopkins.

Director: Robert Aldrich

Producer: William Goetz

Costumes by Jean Louis

Box Office Figures for "Autumn Leaves":

Top Grossing Film Position: Ranked #95 out of 107 films.

Gross Rentals: $1,100,000.


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Reviews

Reviewer, Danny Fortune, says...

Joan Crawford plays Millicent Weatherby, a lonely, aging, single spinster who's a champion typist but a loser in love. Her youth was wasted taking care of her infirm father and now, middle aged and alone, she lives in a shabby, rented bungalow next to character actress Ruth Donnelly. When Millie meets a handsome--and much younger--ex-soldier, played convincingly by Cliff Robertson, she resists falling in love but finally yields to his seductive charm and marries him. But she soon learns that her new boy-toy, Burt, is a psycho who went ballistic after witnessing his father and wife trysting the night away. Ultra-sensitive creature that he is, he never fully recovered from the shock. He becomes paranoid and turns away from Millie during a violent altercation. Don't miss the exciting, memorable moment when Burt throws a typewriter at Millie and injures her hand. She soon locks him up in a loony bin until he's cured then tortures herself with worry that he will no longer love her once he's normal again.

Joan plays the May/December romance to the fullest, and dares to address the question of age with honesty. Watch for the beach scene where Joan and Cliff frolic in the waves. They fall upon each other in the surf, just like Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster did in From Here to Eternity, a role that Joan lost out on a few years earlier. Adding to the atmosphere is Charles Lang, who did the camerawork and provides plenty of Crawford-esque shadows across her face.

Personally, the older woman/younger man theme is one of my favorites, but Robertson comes on a bit too brash for my taste. Perhaps it's a tribute to his believable acting skills, but he is just like some of the crazy people I have known.

Favorite dialogue comes when Millie socks it to Burt's father and former wife: "Where's your decency? In what garbage dump, Mr Hanson? And where's yours, you tramp? You his loving, doting fraud of a father and you, you slut! You're both consumed with evil so rotten your filthy souls are too evil for hell itself!"

You "Baby Jane" fans will notice the cocky cockney waitress is played by none other than Edwin Flagg's mother, Marjorie Bennett. But then, this whole enterprise was helmed by Robert Aldrich, the man who "likes evil things."