Authors: Donald Spoto
“Among the new players in Hollywood,” said Joan at the end of filming, “Diane Baker is really outstanding. Although we had very few scenes together in
The Best of Everything,
I was greatly impressed by Diane at that time. Now, after working with her throughout
Strait-Jacket,
I’m firmly convinced that she has impact, she projects, and she is a pro. This girl’s got it.” In fact, Joan asked for Diane to play the complex role of daughter Carol.
“She was the boss in every way on that picture,” Diane recalled. “She saw to it that the set was kept very cold, for the sake of her makeup, and she placed bottles and cans of Pepsi-Cola everywhere she could in the movie’s scenes.” Joan was also protective of Diane and considerate of her future, and that was one reason she had an assistant on the set taking instant Polaroid snapshots. “If she thought there was something wrong with the way I looked or if the makeup wasn’t right,” Diane added, “she would show these shots to wardrobe people and say, ‘You have to fix this!’ ”
In the finished film, it’s clear that Joan’s high estimation was well in order: Diane Baker’s performance is entirely credible, at first touching and tentative, then anxious and finally terrifying. It was no surprise to anyone that she went immediately from the shrill pyrotechnics of
Strait-Jacket
to something of greater depth, as Sean Connery’s jealous sister-in-law in Hitchcock’s
Marnie.
Joan’s achievement in the picture may fairly be described as an A-plus performance in a B-minus picture. The plot twists were created so swiftly that Castle and company obviously paid little attention to character consistency, and audiences over the years continued to ask why Lucy was doing this just after that. But in her scenes as a woman of fifty-something (to which she finally agreed), Joan looks and acts the part of someone who has been unjustly locked away for twenty years—there is something sad, gray and broken about her. Then, at the daughter’s insistence, Lucy dresses as she did long ago, and somehow Joan managed to look appropriate in a black wig and a tight dress, shimmying and flirting outrageously with all the trappings of a young tart. It was, as so many attested, impossible for Joan Crawford not to give every bit of her careful preparation, high energy and utmost gravity to a production, no matter how dreadful the role or how disappointing the story and screenplay.
But she was not only a gifted actress—she was also the complete star, and she insisted that this image be acknowledged and presented in every film. In the last sequence of
Strait-Jacket,
Lucy unmasks her daughter, who then goes ragingly insane, kicking up a wild rumpus and screaming that she loves and hates her mother—no, that she hates her and loves her, and, by the way, that she loves her and hates her.
The script and camera setups rightly called for the scene to conclude on Diane Baker’s carefully rehearsed and emotionally effective mad scene. But Joan went to William Castle: “We’ll end on
me,
Bill, because the picture should conclude with my reaction to what my daughter shouts—'I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you.’ “ Diane understood the reason for this ill-reasoned request (which of course Castle had to grant), and she spoke compassionately about it: “Crawford was so needy that she had to have the last word, her face in the last shot [before the explanatory epilogue with Leif Erickson, as Lucy’s brother]. But I suppose this was true not just of Joan Crawford. Any actor or actress who had control of a movie would want the same thing.”
“ALL THE PICTURES
I did after
Baby Jane
were terrible,” Joan admitted not long before she died. “I made them because I needed the money or because Iwas bored, or both. I hope they are never heard of again.” She might have added that she was not offered alternatives.
1
Rather than the roles that came to her at the end of her career, it was high time for an actress of her experience and talent to be given more than merely banal and inept screenplays with roles unworthy of her range. “It’s too bad that in this business they don’t appreciate that someone can be older and know even more than they did when they were young,” Betsy Palmer said of Joan. “But you’re supposed to look pretty all the way to the grave!”
Joan was, after all, among the very few senior actresses who could effectively portray lovesick, neurotic, weary women—and do so without resorting to overacting. Emotionally vulnerable mothers were as available on her palette as beleaguered or chilling antiheroines; she had shown for forty years that she had access to a deep wellspring of interior possibilities.
Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn (to name only two of Joan’s generation) were actresses with admirable skills and keen intelligence, but sometimes they could be seen
acting,
and just as often their performances were diminished by a convenient and easily recognized set of tics and mannerisms. But Joan Crawford was rare among her peers. She very infrequently made a false move in any scene in any picture: virtually everything she did on-screen was
right
for the moment—she
was
her technique. Colleagues may have found her increasingly difficult, even imperious—but no one ever turned down the chance to work in one of her pictures. She behaved like a star, but she was a great deal more. With the passing of decades and the unfortunate image created by
Mommie Dearest,
it became unfashionable to suggest that Joan Crawford was, in simple fact, one of the few truly great actresses in the history of American film.
IN JANUARY 1964, JOAN
began a nationwide tour to promote the release of
Strait-Jacket.
Before she left New York, she met with representatives of Columbia Pictures and of Pepsi-Cola, and over the course of several hours they composed a detailed list of requirements for her journey to promote both the movie and the soft drink. She certainly did not anticipate that somehow
Life
would obtain a copy of the document distributed to every publicist in every city. Aware that it provided a window into the will and whim of a quintessential movie star, the editors of that magazine decided to publish it in their edition of February 21. Their readers reacted gleefully.
The following hotel accommodations are to be prepared. The top suite (including three bedrooms) in the hotels indicated. This should be the best suite available. A single room for Mr. [Bob] Kelly [publicist for Pepsi-Cola] is to be reserved nearby on the same floor. NOTE: The three-bedroom suite is for Miss Crawford and Miss Brinke [Anna Maria Brinke, Joan’s housekeeper and maid, whom she frequently took with her on travels; she called her “Mamacita,” although Brinke was German]. The single is not to be part of the suite; it is not one of the three bedrooms in the suite but it is to be ready.
NOTE: A special press conference room or suite should be promoted [i.e., obtained free of charge] from the hotel. Press conferences described below are not to be held in the Crawford suite. Press suite to be the size of a normal hotel luncheon room.
NOTE: The two pilots of the Pepsi-Cola plane will have to have a single room each in the hotel.
The following special arrangements are required at each hotel. Use this checklist very carefully: there may be no deviations.
i) Cracked ice in buckets—several buckets
ii) Lunch and dinner menus
iii) Pen and pencils and pads of paper
iv) Professional-size hair dryer
v) Steam iron and board
vi) One carton of King Sano cigarettes
vii) One bowl of peppermint Life Savers
viii) Red and yellow roses
ix) Case of Pepsi-Cola, ginger ale, soda
3. There is to be a maid on hand in the suite when Miss Crawford arrives at the hotel. She is to stand by until Miss Crawford dismisses her.
4. The following liquor is to be in the suite when Miss Crawford arrives:
i) Two fifths of 100-proof Smirnoff vodka. Note: this is not 80 proof and it is only Smirnoff
ii) One fifth Old Forester bourbon
iii) One fifth Chivas Regal Scotch
iv) One fifth Beefeater gin
v) Two bottles Moet & Chandon champagne (Type: Dom Perignon).
The detailed instructions … are to tell you how far you may go. They are very explicit for the precise purpose that we do not want money spent over and above that required for the details included.
NO CASH ADVANCES ARE AUTHORIZED WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.
NO “PAID-OUTS” EXCEPT AS INDICATED ABOVE ARE AUTHORIZED. NOTE: IN MOST CITIES IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO “WORK A DEAL” FOR HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS REQUIRED—IT WILL BE TO YOUR CREDIT IF YOU CAN!
IMPORTANT: WATCH THE COSTS OF THIS TOUR. NEITHER MISS CRAWFORD NOR THIS OFFICE WILL APPRECIATE YOUR THROWING MONEY AWAY. YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR EVERY CENT YOU SPEND—WATCH IT—AND SUBSTANTIATE IT!
There is a specific way of handling Miss Crawford’s schedule in each market. The following detailed outline will provide you with all of the information you require to execute this schedule to the complete satisfaction of everyone. Any proposed deviation from this routine must be cleared first. Assume nothing, take nothing for granted.
1. Miss Crawford will not go to any radio, television studios or newspaper offices. Don’t suggest it, don’t request it.
2. Plan a print media (e.g., newspapers and magazines) press conference for 10 a.m. Miss Crawford will sit on a couch in front of a coffee table with chairs arranged in a half-moon around the couch and table.
3. Arrange radio interviews for 10:30 or 11:00, depending on the number of reporters at the press conference. These radio interviews are to be set in the same suite (not Miss Crawford’s). Arrange for a number of card tables with two chairs each for various places in the suite, and Miss Crawford will go from one to the other for exclusive radio interviews.
4. Television should be arranged for the same suite. They can be set up for 11:00 a.m. depending on the number of radio shows. Television lights and cameras can be set up back at the couch while Miss Crawford is doing her radio interviews from card table to card table.
5. EXCLUSIVES: When it is absolutely necessary, and when the person involved is of truly top stature, Miss Crawford will give an exclusive [interview].
It is extremely important that you arrange events at the hotel exactly as outlined above.