Joan Crawford: The Last Word

by Fred Lawrence Guiles

Reassesses the life and career of Joan Crawford, describes her complex personality, and looks at her major film roles

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting biography of Crawford that does not hide away from the allegations of child abuse by her, but makes an honest attempt at correcting the many inaccuracies in her daughter's books. It also covers her marriages, Hollywood, her huge status throughout her career and her alcoholism, as well as her rampant sexuality and her great friendships with the likes of Haines, Gable, Romero etc and her feuds with Shearer and Davis. A fascinating read that was not long enough! 6 out of 12 Three Stars.

2010 read

[C.S. Burrough · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this the best of the five Crawford biographies I've read, though it remains a close tie rating any one higher than the others. Inescapably, many details are rehashed across all of them. If I were recommending which ones to include in your coverage (there are so many), this would make the top of my list.

Joan became such a contentious biographical topic in the aftermath of Mommie Dearest that her apologists closed ranks and, understandably, became hyper-defensive, rallying to restore her good name - to such an extent that they sounded at times to collectively lose objectivity.

That's fine, any intelligent reader can see past this, we feel the passion of the authors which makes for good reading in itself.

I like to make my own mind up about the subjects of biographies and usually can.

That Joan Crawford was no saint becomes clear enough after covering a few biographies, that she was no monster either is also clear. She was a fascinating woman and a great, great star.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dishy defense of Joan Crawford post-Mommy Dearest. I didn't believe much of it, but it was impassioned. Author's best known for his biography of Marion Davies.

[MJD · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned nothing new or insightful about Joan Crawford. Also, I have never read a book with so many typos and grammatical errors. "Possessed" by Spoto is a superior biography on J.C.

[Bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite obviously an apologist biography of Joan by an ardent fan, but why not? Doesn’t she deserve that after how tarnished her reputation was at the time by her daughters exploitation NOVEL? I think so.

I’ve read many Joan biographies, I know all there is to know about her, she’s my favourite actress and I’ve devoured anything I can get my hands on about her with great determination and gusto. Reading this didn’t enlighten me to anything that I didn’t already know, however, I must give props to the author for his in-depth research and heartfelt way of writing about his subject, I like when I can tell an author has a great respect for what they’re writing.

I feel I have to mention the hack job that Turner Publishing has done with this reissue. The cover is gorgeous, part of an Old Hollywood series of reissued biographies of great stars, all with matching covers that look elegant and smart and appeal to the current trend of graphic design. The interior, however, is an embarrassment to the publishing industry, typos on every single page, absolutely bizarre and incredibly distracting, I’m used to a handful of typos in books, but this was a handful of typos EVERY page. I understand that Turner Publishing is obviously a smaller publisher, but there’s no excuse for such lazy publishing. If you want to read this book, which I do suggest you do if you’re a Joan fan, please try and find an older edition because this new edition is awful and not worth paying money for.

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well researched but poorly presented. The timeline went back and forth and made following along very difficult. Despite the author’s intention to be neutral, the tone throughout was very defensive.

[Patrick Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned nothing new from this book. If you're a Crawford fan I'd pass.

[Amy Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not obsessed with Crawford, but since she was one of the biggest stars to ever exist and I do enjoy many of her films, when I found this book at a library booksale I picked it up. I'm really glad I did, it's immediately engrossing and the writing style is quite fast paced, yet the book is thorough. I knew nothing about Crawford's early years or her rise to stardom, nor much about her during her career as a person, so this was all very fascinating to me.
The author endeavours to fix Crawford's tainted image caused by her daughter Christina's scandalous book Mommie Dearest and debunks a lot of what she'd written by comparing timelines and by interviews with those who knew or wrote about Joan, as well as newspaper articles from the time. The other children were interviewed along with Christina's roommate who said despite hearing her friend's traumatic tales firsthand, she was never told the worst accounts which made the book famous.
The book details all of Joan's tumultuous relationships and friendships and explores most of her famous films. A complete filmography is included at the back and there are two photo sections throughout.

The only thing the book left out is somehow I'm still not clear on what Crawford was really like as a person. The book goes into everything she Did but it never gives a good feel of who she was. Was she cold, calculating and business always or was that a cover for a lonely, sad lady with low self-esteem? Her friends said she was warm, generous and kind, and her tales of charity support that idea too. She's still an enigma but at least I know her story.

I would definitely recommend this book!

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly quick read of material already well known by the time of the book's publication, but tainted with a gossipy and skewed perspective against Christina, Joan's daughter and abuse accuser, The author justifiably claims that the accusations overshadowed Joan's legacy as a film star and self-creator, but he is too emotionally involved in his Joan adoration to release the reader from his indictments. It's like being held hostage in the salon chair by a relentlessly gossipy stylist who will not let anyone get a word in edgewise. If you are looking for a biography with an academic and artistic perspective on the meaning of Joan's career, or one that puts her life in context of the transiency of the early 20th century US and its film industry this is not it.

[Clarisse 451 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brief entertaining bio of Joan Crawford. The author tries to untarnish the reputation of Joan Crawford after the publication of Mommie Dearest and the movie that followed. He has a point but what is disappointing is he strays from the facts.

His chapter on the actor Franchot Tone - Joan's second husband is inaccurate. He states at is death in 1968 she had his ashes scattered on a Canadian lake. In reality Franchot Tone married three other women after Joan and his ashes were not interred until 2022.

Also there are so many typos - as other readers have pointed out.

[Isabela Vasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the two other bios I've read, which feel more like "the films of Joan Crawford" with a few biographical details sprinkled on rather than an account into her life and what made her tick. It doesn't idolize her- in fact, it acknowledges her many flaws while also putting them into the context of her own traumatic childhood and the erasure and remaking of the self that she went through as a star. A very, very good book!

[Sandy Carmichael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good bio about this famous movie star. Well presented and appears factual.

[Alex Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as an apology for Mommy Dearest but not particularly well written and jumps to some odd conclusions and speculation. Joan deserves a better post Christina biography.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a little slow but did give a different perspective of the Mommy Dearest title given to Joan Crawford.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So bad and so slanted. The way Joan would have wanted it!

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many biographies about her out there that I could’ve/should’ve read I read of this one. A lot of it was focused on fact checking “Mommie Dearest” and so many historical tangents on other celebrities that weren’t relevant to Crawford.

Also, if there was an editor — which it appeared there wasn’t — they should rethink their job because the ungodly amount of spelling errors was insane.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoopla bonus audio. I don’t think I have watched a Joan Crawford film. I’ll have to remedy that. Many interesting tidbits included in this read.