The Damned Don't Cry
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Movie Reviews of The Damned Don't Cry
Movie Review: Powerhouse Portrayal of Transformation & Determination.
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Damned Don't Cry" opens with the body of a murdered gangster found in the desert. Police are surprised to find that many of the dead man's home movies featured a fashionable socialite and oil heiress, Lorna Hansen Forbes. But Forbes has disappeared, leaving a bloodstained carpet in her home. Further investigation reveals that Lorna Hansen Forbes invented herself only 2 years before. Now the lovely, dazed Lorna returns to her childhood home, where her family lives in poverty next to a sea of oil derricks. Her memory returns to several years before, when Lorna was Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford), a poor housewife who left her family to start a new life in New York City. She became a model for a clothing distributor and made extra money by entertaining out-of-town buyers and steering them to an illegal casino. She developed a relationship with Marty Blackford (Kent Smith), her employer's hardworking accountant. And she charmed George Castleman (David Brian), an aristocratic crime boss who hired Marty to put his operation's finances in order. But Castleman's chief of his West Coast operations, Nick Prenta (Steve Cochran), had extravagant ways and other ideas.
The role of Ethel Whitehead/Lorna Hansen Forbes was originally written for a young woman and was adapted for Joan Crawford, who was in her 40s at the time. The story was inspired by the real-life gangster Bugsy Siegal, who envisioned Las Vegas, and his mistress Virginia Hill. When I think about it, it isn't plausible that a clothing distributor's best model is middle-aged, or that she would be chosen to ply money from clients, or that a woman in her 40s could invent herself out of thin air as being a widow of prominent family. She's no debutante. But this is Joan Crawford, whose star power is like a force of nature. While I was watching the movie, I never doubted her transformation from put-upon housewife to scrappy social climber to refined "darling of café society". I can't help but prefer blunt-talking Ethel to aristocratic Lorna, but Crawford is thoroughly convincing in both roles.
The title "Queen of Noir" may rightfully belong to Barbara Stanwyck, but Joan Crawford must be the Queen of that female melodrama subgroup of film noir. Crawford gave powerhouse performances in "Mildred Pierce" and especially "Possessed", and "The Damned Don't Cry" continues the tradition. Ethel Whitehead is a character disillusioned with doing the right thing and painfully aware that the time she has left to get what she wants out of life is very limited. So she abandons herself to the ways of the world, thinks practically instead of morally, to get what she wants as fast as she can. "Don't talk to me about self-respect! That's something you tell yourself you've got when you've got nothing else," she says. True as that may be, the noir world tends to get the best of people no matter what their approach to life. "The Damned Don't Cry" is a good story all around, with interesting supporting characters, but the electrifying determination that Joan Crawford gives Ethel Whitehead steals the show.
The DVD (Warner Brothers 2005): Bonus features include a theatrical trailer, one featurette, and an audio commentary. "The Crawford Formula: Real and Reel" (13 minutes) features interviews with film historians and theorists Glenn Erikson, Dr. Drew Casper, and James Ursini, among others, as well as director Vincent Sherman. They talk about the film's style, its brisk dialogue, and Ethel Whitehead's similarities to Joan Crawford's life and her persona. The audio commentary by director Vincent Sherman is sporadic and discusses the story and how he presented it. Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, and Spanish. Dubbing is available in French.
Movie Review: "Classic Fifties Crawford!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Joan Crawford started work on "The Damned Don't Cry" during the summer of 1949 and it would be the first of three films she starred in that were directed by Vincent Sherman. The other two were "Harriet Craig" and "Goodbye, My Fancy". Sherman also became Crawford's lover during filming, although he was "happily" married with children. Joan always felt it was important to have a good sexual relationship with her directors as it gave her a bit of power while making films, but unfortunately the relationship with Sherman was far more than what she bargained for. He was every bit as tempermental and stubborn as his star, and while filming "The Damed Don't Cry" Crawford attemted to take her own life due to the pressure she found herself in while carrying on an affair with a married man. Perhaps this is why her portrayal in this classic film-noir is so convincing and realistic; Joan often took elements of her own life would incorporate them into her roles which always lead to very convincing performances.
In "The Damed Don't Cry" Joan plays Ethel Whitehead, a poor and bored housewife living on the wrong side of the tracks in an oil town with her parents, an out-of-luck husband, and her little boy. She dreams of someday leaving this dreadful existence to start a new life but feels she is forever doomed to continue living a less than steller lifestyle. After her little boy is killed in an auto accident she realizes nothing is keeping her there, so she packs up, leaves, and pursues the big city life. It is not long before Ethel gets involed with big-time money via the mob and its dastardly men who treat Ethel like a man. The just of the film dramatizes Ethel's terrible situation that she has found herself in and it's not long before she comes to the conclusion that if she doesn't escape the mob's clutches she will wind up dead. The most disturbing part of the film is the scene where Ethel is brutally beaten by a mob boss, something of a rarity to see in early fifties cinema, but the scene leads to the credibilty of the movie.
"The Damned Don't Cry" is available as a stand-alone DVD or as part of the first Joan Crawford box set that came out a few years ago. Bonuses include an informative audio commentary by Vincent Sherman that offers insight into the making of the film, a featurette, and trailer.
To me this is one of Crawford's best 1950's melodramas. Everything that a Joan Crawford movie should be about is in this film, from her looking absolutely horrible at the beginning to being a glamorous woman dressed to the nines later in the picture. There are also some neat Crawford one-liners, and the men are gorgeous to look at, especially stud Steve Cochran who was also having an affair with Joan at the time.
Movie Review: The Day of the Damned
Summary: 5 Stars
It was June 1982 and my life had taken a turn for the worse due bad choices I had made. I felt like I was damned and I was wallowing in self-pity and tears.
For a distraction from my problems I clicked on the television to MTV and a video came on by British synthpop band Visage and the title of their sad yet danceable electro pop song was "The Damned Don't Cry". Then when the video had finished I turned from MTV to AMC (American Movie Classics) and they were showing a Joan Crawford film that I had never seen before called "The Damned Don't Cry" (At this point I felt that God was definitely trying to tell me something).
This excellent film struck a cord with me as it was about running away, finding a new life and building yourself anew and learning that sometimes the materials you use to build the new you can come crashing down on you like the proverbial house of cards (only the cards are made of bricks). Basically Joan Crawford plays Ethel Whitehead (what a name) who runs away from her impoverished home, hooks up with a gangster and becomes his moll (which leads to dire consequences) and ends up crashing and burning back in the squalor of her family home.
At 46 Joan Crawford Joan was too old to be playing a gangster's moll, but she plays it with such trashy, brassy, sassy zeal you can tell she's having a blast and the viewer has a blast watching her, she is such fun to watch. As trashy Ethel polishes herself off to become the cultured Lorna Hansen Forbes she tells Kent Smith (one of the many men in this picture enamored with her) that the things that they do may not be right or respectable but "We do what we do because we can't help ourselves", to me that spells DAMNED and let me tell you with what was going on my life at the time I could relate.
I could relate to the terrific ending of this film too. After Ethel/Lorna's world comes crashing down on her reporters find her hiding out back at the dilapidated shack called home that she ran away from. One reporters states to the other that Ethel's home was a hard place to grow up in and even harder to escape from "think she'll try it again?" he asked. The reporter looks at the dreadful surroundings and states, "wouldn't you?" Then the other reporter looks at the bleak surroundings and nods his head in agreement and the movie comes to a beautiful close; makes you wish there had been a sequel.
I will always remember that summer day in June of 1982 when I first saw this film and learned that The Damned Don't Cry, we do what we do because we can't help ourselves.
Movie Review: Mink Coat in the Gutter
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is one of my favorite Crawford vehicles, and I am thrilled to see it coming out on DVD, as it was never (to my knowledge) even available on VHS. While distinctly NOT a film noir, the Damned Don't Cry is a bit of a rehash of the Mildred Pierce formula--ordinary but acquisitive gal works/sleeps her way up the ladder, makes good, then hooks up with the wrong men, and suffers a wretched demise. Crawford's Ethel is willing to unleash her sexual prowess outside the bonds of matrimony, and this leads to the undoing of all concerned. She becomes high-class bait, caught between David Brian's semi-legit megalomaniac and pretty-boy Steve Cochran's Bugsy-esque mobster. In the end, she's on the hook herself, and winds up back in the dust-bowl oil town shack she started from--her mink coat the only useless trophy remaining. This is a Feminist Critics' Fun-Fest from start to finish, but good solid 40's cinema nonetheless. This film has been below the radar for a long time, and it is great to see it coming out, along with Possessed, another excellent outing for Crawford. David Brian is an excellent actor (sort of in the Robert Ryan mode--the handsome, tough, aggressive bad boy) whom I have seen in too-few films--he's always in top form. Steve Cochran is also an outstanding player who should have had some real vehicles of his own. I agree with another reviewer who, in commenting on the box set which contains Damned Don't Cry, noted that studios keep putting out 5-6 film box sets with 2 or 3 that have already been released, rather than some other new titles. In Crawford's case, there are many films still not out on DVD--Harriet Craig, Flamingo Road, and A Woman's Face among them. This seems to be the "new trick" in DVD marketing, alas. I guess a couple of high profile releases stuck in the box set clears out that inventory and makes for a nice come-on, think the studio magnates. Well, dumb boys, fans already have DVD's like Mildred Pierce, and are hungry for NEW product. So fire the slick, stupid marketing firms who are steering you wrong, and put out the stuff we all want to see!!! Anyway, Crawfordphiles will relish this release.Movie Review: You can take it to the bank!
Summary: 5 Stars
Miss Crawford is at her best in this. You cannot take your eyes off her while she is on screen. Jerry Wald who did Mildred Pierce with her tailor made this role for her and even allowed her creative liberties, such as the character's name, Ethel Whitehead, a nod to her favorite designer Edith Head. She steals every scene she is in and is every inch the star, trouncing about in furs and sequined caftans. There is some of the best dialogue ever in this movie, listen for her philosophy about money. Personally, I think she should have married the nice guy and lived happily ever after, and she made her biggest mistake ever going in with the Governor who turns out to be a bruit and she takes quite a beating. You have to get this, if only to see that tower of a woman being beaten and "made to feel like 2 cents".. it's worth a million. I love Joan and incidentally I have read her adopted daughter's biography and I believe much of it is true, it is a great read and after reading it you come away with a real sense of sympathy for Joan and actually root for her. Imagine, clawing your way to the top and being pushed off your pedestal because there's a war on and it's girls girls girls! Betty Grable can't act her way out of a wet paper bag. I really love Joan, and the book just makes me love her more. And this movie has to be in my top 5 favs!!!! Get it!!