OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile
Having already offered in-depth biographical portraits of classic entertainment professionals such as Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock, author Donald Spoto provides a worshipful examination of the life and career of actress Joan Crawford. Christina Delaine’s precise and dramatic narration serves to raise the level of the well-written but mundane content. Crawford’s career is examined—including her grandest and worst films—but too often with seemingly endless lists of such items as cast members and other screen credit components. This work is more a volume of film commentary than a biography. Delaine’s thoughtful performance saves the listening experience. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Library Journal
Author of more than 20 celebrity biographies, Spoto (High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly) begins his latest by sharing a response from Joan Crawford to a fan letter he wrote when he was ten. Though much has been written about Crawford, who died in 1977, Spoto justifies his contribution by writing, "because no other movie star—with the possible exception of Marilyn Monroe—has been so underappreciated, misrepresented by rumor, innuendo, fabrication, unfounded allegation and rank distortion." Does Mommie Dearest ring a bell? So it seems Spoto wants to thank Crawford for her kindness to him as a boy by setting the record straight and clearing her name. He relies on the Joan Crawford papers, scrapbooks, letters, and ephemera housed at the New York Public Library, as well as what has already been written. VERDICT What sets this biography apart from previous titles? Where other biographers made sensational statements about Crawford as fact, Spoto makes assertions based on his research as to what would and would not have been likely or possible. This is a balanced and readable account of a possibly misunderstood and maligned star. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/10.]—Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA
OCTOBER 2020 - AudioFile
Having already offered in-depth biographical portraits of classic entertainment professionals such as Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock, author Donald Spoto provides a worshipful examination of the life and career of actress Joan Crawford. Christina Delaine’s precise and dramatic narration serves to raise the level of the well-written but mundane content. Crawford’s career is examined—including her grandest and worst films—but too often with seemingly endless lists of such items as cast members and other screen credit components. This work is more a volume of film commentary than a biography. Delaine’s thoughtful performance saves the listening experience. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
Hollywood biography machine Spoto (High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly, 2010, etc.) presents the life and career of screen queen Joan Crawford (1905–1977), a movie star whose iconic status owed as much to the actress's sheer willpower as to her perfect bone structure and improbably large, expressive eyes.
Crawford, in marked contrast to her rival Greta Garbo, employed a maniacal determination and inhuman work ethic to earn and maintain her place in Hollywood's firmament of stars. Born into poverty, uneducated and profoundly insecure, Lucille LeSueur parlayed a successful dancing career on Broadway into a movie work, acquiring the name Joan Crawford in a magazine contest held to christen MGM's newest contract player. Spoto deftly analyzes Crawford's changing persona through her long career, from plucky flapper to suffering matron to leering grotesque, and recounts her failed marriages, numerous affairs and alcoholism with great sympathy. In fact, this perhaps overly reverential treatment is a bit of a letdown, as Crawford's outsize diva histrionics, promiscuity and alleged abuse of her adopted children are key components of her continuing fascination for film audiences. Spoto discounts or explains away Crawford's less-than-salubrious reputation, and the result feels a bit whitewashed. Crawford's daughter Christina's infamous autobiography Mommie Dearest (1978), and the subsequent film, cemented the public image of Crawford, perhaps unfairly, as an unhinged martinet, obsessed with order and cleanliness. Spoto works hard to refute Mommie Dearest's damning portrait of the actress, but Crawford's housekeeping mania, strict discipline and emotional instability are widely acknowledged. Christina's brother Christopher, who corroborated her account, is described by the author as a troublemaker who was constantly running away from home, which begs a fairly obvious question. Still, the book is useful for its diligent consideration of Crawford's films and legacy.
A worthy but toothless consideration of one of Hollywood's most distinctive performers.
