MovieChat Forums > Grand Hotel (1932) Discussion > Is this really Joan Crawford?

Is this really Joan Crawford?

posted 14 years ago by ahuber_fr
10 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie as part of the Joan Crawford "signature collection" and was wondering during the whole movie where Joan Crawford actually was in the film.... as there were only two main female protagonists, I could figure out that Flaemmchen must have been played by Crawford.

Really good performance, really beautiful woman - just NOT Joan Crawford. How is this possible? She looked, talked, acted totally different from how I've seen her before. OK, she was very young in this picture, but still. You'd recognise the faces of anyone even in his portrait of youth. Not so with Crawford - had I not read that she figured in the film, I would have never guessed.

What happened here? Make-up, surgery later on.... she was just totally unrecognisable.

[–] oldblackandwhite 14 years ago

The experience you've described is common to practically everyone who sees one of Joan's really old flicks for the first time. It is know as the B.E. Joan Crawford/A.E. Joan Crawford syndrome. That's for "before eyebrows" and "after eyebrows".

Check out a couple of her silents, and you'll be even more shocked!

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] shandy8 13 years ago

Joan is just beautiful in 'Grand Hotel' It is my favorite from her MGM days.

"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"

[–] DingelBerry 10 years ago

To the OP

Of course it is Joan Crawford. She was a sex symbol and a gorgeous girl when she was young.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] JacintoCupboard 9 years ago

I agree. I know JC has fans of her later work but I for one cannot understand why anyone would deliberately make the transition to the hard faced dragon lady that she became. In this movie she has a genuinely beautiful, natural face.

For me, the change is every bit as un-nerving as the Mickey Rourke face thing.

[–] PoliticallyIncorrectone 9 years ago

Yes, I've always wondered why she went with the heavy eyebrow look.

[–] ida96 9 years ago

I speculate that it may just have been a matter in changes of style in makeup, and/or creation of a character face for different roles Crawford played. The makeup in Grand Hotel looks of the 1920s to me. John Barrymore wears a lot of eye shadow. Garbo's lips are a little bit cupid's bow, perhaps transitioning into 1930s. Joan Crawford's line eyebrows are probably what was fashionable at the time, and for an ingenue (though Flaemmchen not so ingenuous an ingenue as I had remembered).

[–] rapture87 8 years ago

I wonder what films you had seen Joan in prior to 'Grand Hotel'. She doesn't look or sound so radically different here from her "later" work to the point where you wouldn't be able to recognize her!

I can understand if you had this reaction having seen her in some of her very early silent film roles, such as 'The Boob' (1926) where her make-up WAS indeed radically different, and she wasn't quite so slender.

And Joan herself admitted that she changed her voice and her demeanor depending on the character she played. It's the defining characteristic of a truly gifted actor, and Joan was by far one of the best and most versatile actresses in history!!!

Just watch her in her first talking picture, 'Untamed' (1929) where she transforms (both visually and aurally) from a wild girl who literally grew up near a jungle to an ultra-sophisticated and fashionable New York society girl.

I have 57 Joan Crawford films in my collection, and it is absolutely astounding how she could metamorphose from one character to another.

I just don't think she is "unrecognizable" here in 'Grand Hotel' at all. Unless you had only seen her in the horror/thriller work she did in the '60s and very early '70s.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 5 years ago

Ha! The first time I saw GH I kept asking myself when will Joan Crawford appear and who is that good looking woman?