The Damned Don’t Cry **** (1950, Joan Crawford, Kent Smith, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Hugh Sanders, Richard Egan) – Classic Movie Review 3258

‘She’s the Private Lady of a Public Enemy!’

Director Vincent Sherman’s richly enjoyable 1950 flashback-told black and white film noir crime melodrama The Damned Don’t Cry provides a good role for Joan Crawford to do what she does best on screen. That is she claws her way to the top among rich mobsters by throwing over her life as a labourer’s wife Ethel Whitehead and reinventing herself as a New York socialite called Lorna Hansen Forbes.

The glamorous Crawford as a labourer’s wife? Something wrong surely! However, anyway Crawford does well in delineating her life changes from lowly labourer’s wife to gangster’s moll to contrite reformee after it turns out a life among rich gangsters isn’t what she really wanted after all.

Movie Queens: Joan Crawford by Graeme Jukes.

But the men – both the characters and their performers (Kent Smith as Martin Blankford, David Brian as George Castleman aka Joe Caveny, Steve Cochran playing gangster Nick Prenta, Hugh Sanders as Grady, Richard Egan as Roy Whitehead) – are dull, and the film is not nearly up to Flamingo Road standard, but, in this genre, what is?

Also in the cast are Selena Royle, Morris Ankrum, Eddie Marr, Allan Smith, Jacqueline deWit, Ned Glass and Dabbs Greer.

Joan Crawford, Steve Cochran, Richard Egan and David Brian in The Damned Don’t Cry.

The screenplay by Harold Medford and Jerome Weidman is based on the story Case History by Gertrude Walker, loosely based on the  relationship of mobster Bugsy Siegel and his girlfriend Virginia Hill.

The movie was a hit, earning a total of $2,211,000 at the box office against a budget of $1,233,000.

It is the first of three collaborations between Sherman and Crawford, followed by Harriet Craig (1950) and Goodbye, My Fancy (1951).

Joan Crawford in The Damned Don’t Cry.

The Damned Don’t Cry is directed by Vincent Sherman, runs 103 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Harold Medford and Jerome Weidman, based on the story Case History by Gertrude Walker, is shot in black and white by Ted McCord, is produced by Jerry Wald, and scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof, with Art Direction by Robert M Haas.

The cast are Joan Crawford as Ethel Whitehead/ Lorna Hansen Forbes, David Brian as Joe Cavany/ George Castleman, Steve Cochran as Nick Prenta, Kent Smith as Martin Blackford, Hugh Sanders as Grady, Selena Royle as Patricia Longworth, Jacqueline deWit as Sandra, Morris Ankrum as Mr Whitehead, Edith Evanson as Mrs Castleman, Richard Egan as Roy, Tom Greenway as Deputy, Dabbs Greer as Reporter, Herschel Daugherty as Rewrite man, Ned Glass as Taxi driver, Kathryn Card as Mrs Sullivan, Ralph Sanford as Norman Riley, Herb Vigran as Vito Maggio, Tristram Coffin [Tris Coffin] as Maitre d’hotel, Weldon Heyburn as Butler, Rory Mallinson as Johnny Enders, John Maxwell as Doctor, and Strother Martin as Springboard Diver.

The material was a gift to the publicists and Warner Bros had a field day with the advertising: ‘Warner Bros’ Flaming Stars of Flamingo Road Meet in Scarlet Shadows Again!’, ‘Call me CHEAP? Nothing’s Cheap When You Pay the Price She’s Paying!’, and ‘Racket Queen Fronts for Crime Syndicate – Mobsters Battle for Crooked Empire’.

David Brian co-starred with Crawford in Flamingo Road.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3258

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