Joan Crawford Collection, The

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"The Joan Crawford Collection" contains "The Damned Don't Cry," Humoresque," "Mildred Pierce," "Possessed" and "The Women" "The Damned Don't Cry" - It's a man's world. And Ethel Whitehead learns there's only one way for a woman to survive in it: be as tempting as a cupcake and as tough as a 75-cent steak. In the first of three collaborations with director Vincent Sherman, Joan Crawford brings hard-boiled glamour and simmering passion to the role of Ethel, who moves from the wrong side of the tracks to a mobster's mansion to high society one man at a time. Some of those men love her. Some use her. And one a high-rolling racketeer abuses her. When the racketeer murders his rival in Ethel's swanky living room, she flees a sure murder rap right back to the poverty she thought she had escaped. And this time there may not be a man to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. "Humoresque" - Glamorous socialite Helen Wright (Joan Crawford) takes what she wants clothes, alcohol, men uses them up and tosses them aside. Then she meets brilliant young violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield). But this is one toy she can't break. Instead, her love for Paul brings Helen to the breaking point. In this acclaimed and profound exploration of desire, Crawford makes Helen a rich, layered character torn between selfless love and selfish impulses. Garfield matches her as the driven genius. "Humoresque's" production values extend to the musical interludes, dubbed by Isaac Stern. Garfield's dazzling technique is thanks to two real violinists hidden behind him one to do the fingering and one the bow work. Bravo! "Mildred Pierce" - What Veda wants, her mother Mildred Pierce provides. Even if Mildred must end her middle-class marriage, climb atop the male-dominated business world and marry a wealthy man she doesn't love. "I'll do anything," Mildred says in explaining her love for her daughter.