Autumn Leaves **** (1956, Joan Crawford, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles, Ruth Donnelly, Shepperd Strudwick, Lorne Greene) – Classic Movie Review 4801

Joan Crawford stars as Millicent ‘Milly’ Wetherby, a middle-aged typist spinster in the autumn of her salad days, who takes a crazy, out-of-character decision to marry Burt Hanson (Cliff Robertson), a charismatic but highly dubious younger man she barely knows.

Crawford, all mouth, eyes and eyebrows, dressed in Jean Louis gowns, spectacularly undergoes all the agonies of this world and the next as rumours surface about Burt, and Lorne Greene as Burt’s father Mr Hanson and Vera Miles as his stepmother, Virginia Hanson, arrive on the scene. Then Millicent needs to do something radical after woman claiming to be Burt’s first wife shows up and Burt starts behaving like a deranged maniac.

Director Robert Aldrich’s wonderfully over-the-top 1956 psychodrama is ideally tailored to its star and her audiences. Written by Jean Rouverol, Hugo Butler, Lewis Meltzer and Robert Blees, Autumn Leaves is gripping, emotionally swirling melodramatic stuff. It is Crawford’s show, sweeping almost all before her, but Ruth Donnelly is a standout as her raspy bosom buddy Liz Eckhart.

Aldrich, just the man for these unrestrained theatricals, was not afraid to reteam with the notoriously insecure and difficult Crawford for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Nat ‘King’ Cole sings the title song. The film’s title The Way We Are was rethought to take advantage of the song’s popularity. Charles Lang photographs in black and white.

Also in the cast are Shepperd Strudwick, Selmer Jackson, Maxine Cooper, Marjorie Bennett, Frank Gerstle, Leonard Mudie and Maurice Manson.

Crawford wanted Marlon Brando to co-star but he declined ungraciously, saying: ‘I’m not interested in doing any mother-son films at the present time.’

Greene was only eight years older than Robertson.

Husband and wife screenwriters Jean Rouverol and Hugo Butler did not receive screen credit as they were blacklisted and Jack Jevne was credited as a front for both. Ironically it was the final credit for Jevne, known for Way Out West (1937), Topper (1937) and Captain Fury (1939)

Surprisingly, Crawford, Robertson and Aldrich all got on nicely. Robertson recalled their first meeting sunning at her poolside, calling: ‘Come on out, dear boy. We’ve been waiting for you’ then on set Aldrich wanting Crawford to cry, but just a tear or two, and Crawford asking: ‘Which eye?’

Crawford recalled: ‘Everything clicked on Autumn Leaves. The cast was perfect, the script was good, and I think Bob [Aldrich] handled everything well. I really think Cliff [Robertson ] did a stupendous job. Another actor might have been spitting out his lines and chewing the scenery but he avoided that trap. I think the movie was a lot better than some of the romantic movies I did in the past. But somehow it just never became better known. It was eclipsed by the picture I did with Bette Davis [What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4801

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Movie Queens: Joan Crawford by Graeme Jukes.