ThiefHott Too much of everything

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

adamshl This may not be the greatest romantic drama with music ever made, but it does have its assets. The main one is that this is almost a one-woman show starring Joan Crawford.The Technicolor is gorgeous, the music tuneful, choreography pleasant and as for the costumes--all that can be said is "wow!" Helen Rose outdid herself in designing Crawford's wardrobe--some two dozen costume changes that are simply stunning. Likewise, the cinematography and set decoration are lush and richly presented.As for the script, it's all Crawford's. Never has she been as irritable, insulting, moody and yet strangely vulnerable. She lip syncs to some pleasant numbers, and does a dance with the director of this movie, Charles Walters. (When did a star ever do a number with her director?) Joan looks very attractive throughout, obviously delighted to be back at MGM after a ten-year hiatus.It's a very campy treat for Crawford fans, to see Joan strut her stuff. Michael Wilding plays his part gracefully and Gig Young is among those on the sidelines. Generally a forgotten film, it's worth a look on a rainy afternoon.

utgard14 Joan Crawford, nearly 50 and sporting red hair, in a Technicolor MGM musical. Oh brother! Joan plays an acerbic Broadway diva who bosses everybody around and cuts them down with her acid tongue. She's thrown for a loop when she's forced to work with a blind piano player who gets under her skin. To her credit (and our amusement) Joan plays the part with the utmost seriousness. There isn't the slightest hint of self-deprecation here. Our diva doesn't seem to get that, intended or not, this is all one big garish joke. Joan gets lots of costume changes and there's an overdose of color throughout the film. What I was reminded of while watching was "The Barkleys of Broadway." In that film, Ginger Rogers was given the Technicolor treatment and also lots of wardrobe changes. The difference between the two films is that the costumes and color of "Barkleys" made an already beautiful Ginger even more ravishing. Whereas this film comes across like one big practical joke on Joan Crawford by MGM. They do nothing to make her look good. As for the acting and dancing, that's all on Joan. She stomps her way through the film, as graceful as a hippopotamus. Her diet during the making of this movie consisted entirely of scenery. She chews every inch of it. The singing is dubbed by India Adams and it's so obvious that it takes you out of the scenes to laugh at Joan's lip-syncing. Again, MGM did nothing to help hide any of Joan's weaknesses. If anything, they embraced and exaggerated them.Michael Wilding plays the blind piano player that Joan falls in love with. He comes across as mentally deficient at times with that irritating smirk on his face. His deliberately mannered way of speaking got on my nerves so much. His ludicrous performance is never worse than when he's doing emotional scenes. The scene where he gives a blonde beauty the brush-off because he's fixed on Joan is so overwrought you will be doubled over in laughter. Also, Wilding's character is the only blind man I've ever seen whose seeing-eye dog walks BEHIND him! The final scene between he and Joan has to be seen to be believed. Marjorie Rambeau plays Joan's mother and was actually pretty fun. Her reaction to Joan's being in love with a blind man is priceless. But she's only in a few brief scenes. She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this film.It's a movie full of unintentionally funny moments. An early scene that will no doubt draw laughter from the audience sees Joan leaving rehearsal to be swamped by adoring teenage fans. I guess before rock & roll the kids all hung around back alleys waiting to get autographs from their favorite middle-aged Broadway stars! Another funny scene is where Joan throws a party and only invites men. It's a total sausage fest! The "Two Faced Woman" musical number is one of the worst MGM ever produced. It's the infamous number where Joan wears blackface, bright red lipstick, and a shiny blue sequin dress while writhing around on stage with male backup dancers. It was included in the MGM retrospective film "That's Entertainment III." It was only included to show a side-by-side comparison of Joan and Cyd Charisse separately performing the same song, seemingly to embarrass Joan. It's a terrible movie but also a camp classic. It's so bad you have to see it. Joan Crawford fans will love it.

Fred_Rap Seminal Joan Crawford campfest. Returning to her home studio after a ten-year exile at Warners, she celebrates her triumph with all the pomp and circumstance of a battle-hardened legion entering Rome after a decade in the field. Single-handedly, she turns this moth-eaten meller into an audacious display of venom-spewing bitchery and vainglorious posturing.In a story tailor-made for the occasion, La Crawford plays a hard-as-nails Broadway diva with a ruthless tongue and a flaming orange helmet of hair. We are asked to believe that beating beneath her tyrannical front is the love-starved heart of a lonely woman. And we are supposed to root for her to tumble for the blind and gentle pianist (Michael Wilding) who won't take her guff. This is impossible, of course, since we are too busy either laughing derisively or gawking in slack-jawed disbelief at Crawford's gargantuan ego run amok.The opening scene, in which Torch Song director Charles Walters performs a cameo as Crawford's cowering dance partner, seems to reflect the truth behind the making of the movie. We get the creepy feeling that Walters, fearful of Joan's wrath, just stepped back and let his aging star run this sideshow. How else to explain the unchecked excess of Crawford's costumes (especially her garish yellow nightgown-cum-muumuu), her eye-popping penthouse digs (where the bedroom windows come with three, count 'em, three sets of drapes), or the song and dance numbers in which she flaunts her legs like a ten-dollar hooker and even lip-syncs a tune in blackface? It's a treasure trove of Crawfordisms for drag queens and freak show enthusiasts alike: See Joan clean lint from the floor, dismiss gigolos with the wave of a cigarette, nitpick over line readings with her devoted secretary, offer apologies to her victims that seem crueler than her insults. Scarier than "Strait-Jacket" and twice as much ghoulish fun.With Marjorie Rambeau, hilariously salty as Joan's crude stage mother, and Gig Young as her affable paid lover.

moonspinner55 Fruity semi-musical in Technicolor starring Joan Crawford--returning to her old stomping grounds, MGM. Crawford didn't make many pictures in color, and she looks great in this, particularly in dark make-up for the Cotton Club-styled number "Two-Faced Woman" (for the capper, Crawford rips off her black wig, her flaming red hair wild underneath). The plot, taken from I.A.R. Wylie's short story "Why Should I Cry?", is pure hokum: tough-as-nails Broadway star drives everyone to the breaking point, but she meets her match in the new rehearsal pianist, a blind war veteran who has harbored a crush on the performer for many years. The scenes of Crawford's tyrannical Jenny Stewart bossing everyone around are a hoot (it resembles a song-and-dance variation on "Harriet Craig"!). Charles Walters ably directed (and also plays a dancer who, perhaps ironically, is brow-beaten by Joan), although he gets serious acting out of Crawford only once, in the film's final scene. She looks every inch the star, smoking furiously and showing lots o' leg, but her dancing barely passes muster and her vocals were dubbed. Still, not bad, with the compensation being some unintentional comedy (noticing the clock in her bedroom is an hour slow, Crawford angrily corrects the time, and then, as if ready to chew the timepiece out, she gives the clock a smirking once-over). Michael Wilding holds his own as the new man in her life, Gig Young has an obtuse role as Crawford's party pal, and Marjorie Rambeau plays Joan's mother of humble means (and received an Oscar nomination!). Some well-handled scenes, and one has to give points to the star for her courage: what other screen icon (besides Bette Davis, of course) would be so brave as to intentionally come across so steely cold? **1/2 from ****