Joan Crawford IS ‘Harriet Craig’ 1950

In 1950’s “Harriet Craig,” that Ming vase moves around more than a planchette on a Ouija board, much to her consternation! Joan Crawford calls it a ‘vah-z.’

Harriet
Craig is a 1950 remake of George Kelly’s Pulitzer Prize winning
play Craig’s Wife. It had been filmed
as a 1928 silent with Irene Rich and again in ’36 with Rosalind Russell as the
house-proud witch of a wife. Columbia borrowed WB director Vincent Sherman and
star Joan Crawford for this version. Sherman had just directed Joan Crawford to
good effect in 1950’s The Damned Don’t
Cry. They would also team for Goodbye,
My Fancy directly after Harriet Craig.

My take on “Harriet Craig” is part of this blogathon May 15-17!

Wendell Corey plays Walter Craig, whipped hubby of “Harriet Craig.” Two guesses as what he’d like to do with his wife’s prized Ming!

I’m not sure why
Kelly’s play won the Pulitzer, especially from today’s standpoint. The story of
a warped woman who cares for her home like a museum, with a husband that she
treats like a pet, is watchable, doesn’t offer much back story in the ’36
version. Craig’s Wife is only one
hour and 15 minutes, as well as the silent version, so I can only assume the
play was the same. Harriet Craig is
95 minutes, but feels more in-depth as the film focuses solely on her. The ’36
version’s supporting characters are so truncated that they barely get more than
one scene. Rosalind Russell was considered too young for Harriet Craig. Why I
don’t know, because the character is supposed to be newly married and whose
husband wants children. The stage actresses who played Harriet were older and
so was Joan Crawford. Russell and John Boles do well as the ‘30s Craigs, and
Roz gives a controlled performance, not going over the top as she could do later
in her career.

Rosalind Russell, a year younger than Crawford, played “Craig’s Wife” in 1936.

Along with Joan
Crawford as Harriet Craig, Wendell Corey is affable Walter Craig, K.T. Stevens
plays Harriet’s cousin Clare, Ellen Corby is nervous maid Lottie, Viola Roache
is housekeeper Mrs. Harold, Allyn Joslyn is Billy Birkmire, William Bishop is
Clare’s beau Wes, and Lucile Watson is the boss’ wife. Vincent Sherman, an
underrated WB director, does a smooth and stylish job here. Sheila O’Brien (intentionally?)
gives Crawford’s costumes a severe uniform-type look.

Tempest in a tea cup: “Harriet Craig” berates maid Lottie for breaking a cup, then the housekeeper for defending her. No surprise that Harriet can’t keep help!

Some film fans and
critics think that the book and film version of Mommie Dearest borrowed from Joan’s latter day films such as Harriet Craig. I can see that, but the
fact is studios often blurred their stars’ images with reality. MGM divas especially
seemed to star in vehicles that mirrored their own lives: Joan, Judy, Lana, and
Liz come to mind.

Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.”  In this scene, I half expected her to sprout fangs!

And though Harriet Craig follows the basic
structure as Craig’s Wife, Joan
Crawford’s she-devil is in the details. Harriet
Craig opens with her household in a dither, because she is making an
unexpected trip. Joan’s Harriet has a younger woman as her girl Friday to do
her bidding. Here, it’s not a loyal servant, but her cousin Clare. Joan’s “MGM
English” is on full display when she calls her Clar-uh. Everything is not going Harriet’s way, so she is brittle
and bossy. Mrs. Craig must have her make-up
kit and cousin along for a week’s visit. No, Harriet’s not promoting a film or
Pepsi, but visiting her mother at a mental institution. Hubby Walter comes home
early, despite an important project, yet Harriet gives him her patented
passive/aggressive browbeating about how she must make do for herself,
asking where he’s bean. This is the
couple’s first separation in nearly four years of marriage. Can Mr. Craig survive
a week on his own? He’s almost 40, with his childhood housekeeper to help, plus
a maid. Most importantly, there’s Harriet to check up on him.

Joan as “Harriet Craig,” bringing gifts to her mother in an institution. Neurotic Harriet could use a visit there, herself!

At the asylum, the mother
is sweet but unresponsive to Harriet’s fervid attentions. Though it seems like
Harriet just arrived, supposedly a week has gone by before Harriet talks to the
director. Harriet seems uncomfortable talking about her family’s dysfunction.
In a speech that seems lifted from Crawford’s own life, Harriet bitterly
recounts the father that left them and how she had to quit school and work in a
laundry. Afterward, Harriet finds out from Clare that nobody seems to be
at the Craig abode, and immediately decides to leave. On the train, Clare
confides of her crush on Walter’s work pal, Wes. Harriet explains to her niece
about her way of married life: men are to be “trained,” not trusted. Crawford
and K.T. Stevens, who clearly look their age at age 44 and 31, are at odds with
their characters’ situations in life. Harriet took her cousin Clare in when her
parents died. So, when did she take her
in? Stevens, mature in style, seems foolish as the naïve young thing. Joan’s
Harriet, talking about her four year marriage with Walter makes one wonder what
she did with the other two decades of her life!

When Cousin Clare can’t reach anybody at the Craig house, Harriet decides to bail on visiting Mother, and high-tail it back home. From 1950’s “Harriet Craig.”

Why any actress would
want to play this unrelenting shrew, in an ultimately pointless story, is
beyond me. That Joan Crawford sought this role out is strange. Even by 1950,
her demand for perfection and order was well-known and part of her persona. Did
she think Harriet Craig was just a
juicy role? Or was Joan Crawford drawn to the role because it spoke to her own
experience?

When Mr. & Mrs. Craig finally have it out, wife Harriet’s rationale hardly rates any sympathy for her hard-bitten character. Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.”

Once director Sherman
and star Joan were on board, some Crawford-isms were added to the mix. When
everyone’s flying around in a tizz to get Harriet off to the train station, you
half expect to see Joan’s real maid Mamacita run in with the tissue paper for
packing clothes. Perfectly packed and on schedule made me think of Crawford’s
late-life book, My Way of Life. Once
she’s gone, beleaguered maid Lottie comments that Harriet’s not particular,
she’s peculiar. The maid says that Harriet would wrap up her entire house in
cellophane, which made me think of Joan’s later plastic covered furniture, curtains,
and plastic flowers!

When Hurricane “Harriet Craig” is out of the help’s hair, they can let down their hair!

Harriet Craig
is officially the film where Joan began to look hard. While a little of it
creeps up in Flamingo Road and The Damned Don’t Cry (looking good, but
too old for these roles), Harriet Craig
finds Joan looking quite forbidding. The make-up mask is pronounced and would
become even more exaggerated throughout the ‘50s. Shoulder pads and severe
tailored clothes were on their way out, but not for Crawford. Joan had many
unflattering short hairdos through the ensuing decade, but Harriet Craig had the worst hair: short, slicked, with tiny little
waves that made her like Bob’s Big Boy. A shame, since Joan sported a trim
figure and superb bone structure here.

You’d make this face, if you had this hair do! As the title character in 1950’s “Harriet Craig,” this is possibly the worst hair do of Joan Crawford’s film career.

Who wore the hair best? Bob’s “Big Boy” or “Harriet Craig?”

Crawford’s
Harriet smiles maybe twice, both times to cajole her husband. The rest of the
time Joan’s unhappy housewife gives everyone the deep freeze with her grim mask
of disapproval. Allan Joslyn as playboy pal of Harriet’s hubby gets to react
hilariously to her disdain. You want to stand up and applaud when the
housekeeper finally tells her off. And the big moment is when Harriet’s husband
finally has had it with Harriet’s lies and manipulations.

Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.” Here, the housewife from hell makes hubby’s pal  feel sooo welcome!

In a rare moment of levity, Allyn Joslyn comically melts under the withering gaze of Joan Crawford’s “Harriet Craig.”

With
Joan’s other ‘50s bitch roles, they are campy enough where you can enjoy them
on several levels, amused when nobody gets the better of Joan at her bitchiest,
like Torch Song, Queen Bee, or Female on the
Beach. But there’s not humor here, just exhaustion, from that piece of work,
Harriet Craig.

The hard makeup, severe hair style, and uniform-style costumes suggest many things,  but not an upper middle class housewife! Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.”

Your
sympathies are toward the servants as they are sent packing. Even the naïve
cousin cannot avoid seeing Harriet’s lies and packs it in. And finally, Walter
Craig finds out one manipulative lie too many and their marriage is as beyond
repair as Harriet’s priceless Ming vase—sorry—vah-z. By the way, Crawford’s longtime pal, actor turned designer
Billy Haines designed Harriet’s home, which is why it looks like a mid-century movie
star temple!

Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.” Here, she cooks up one of her most manipulative  schemes. That’s K.T. Stevens as Cousin Clare, foot servant to Harriet!

Aside
from the drill sergeant precision with which Harriet runs her home, neither she
nor its occupants are ever at ease. Harriet also makes time to manipulate other
people’s lives, if it helps her maintain the status quo in hers. She brands the
widow neighbor as a flirty schemer. When Walter gets a work-related stint in
Japan, Harriet throws her hubby under the bus to get his boss to have him stay
home. Harriet also lies about Walter’s co-worker, who is serious about Clare.
As the housekeeper wryly says to the maid, if Clare left, Harriet would only
have two servants! This movie could
have been called All About Harriet.

The few times Joan Crawford cracks a smile as “Harriet Craig” is when her character  is manipulating husband Walter, genially played by Wendell Corey.

Watching
Harriet act out every time something goes outside her rigid game plan is cause
for drama: hubby’s late night card game in her absence; a broken tea cup; a dinner
guest who asks to play cards with her husband; and many other actions that she
sees as offenses.

Lucile Watson’s a delight as the wife of Walter Craig’s boss. Here, she cheats at cards  and throws off the regimented party plan of “Harriet Craig.” With Wendell Corey.

Harriet Craig
is worth a watch once. Joan Crawford certainly gives her all, as usual. This Harriet is totally about Joan and she
makes the most of it. Sadly, it doesn’t feel like Crawford the film goddess is
only acting as the domineering domestic goddess. Wendell Corey, who could play
both good and bad guys well, is most genial and likeable here. He also had the
most piercing blue eyes, very effective for dramatic scenes. As Walter Craig,
he is most adoring and doting toward his wife. The supporting cast is very
good, as each of them tangle with Harriet, and flee. Lucile Watson is a delight
as usual, as the boss’ wife who has Harriet’s number.

Joan Crawford as “Harriet Craig.” In mid-career, Joan seemed to have staircase showdowns with younger actresses. At least K.T. Stevens doesn’t get slapped!

While
Harriet Craig did modestly at the box
office, I can’t imagine why post-WWII audiences would have flocked to see a 40-something
star playing a domineering dame in a sterile soap opera. Harriet Craig is more a Crawford curiosity than a camp classic.

Here’s
my in-depth look at Crawford’s career best: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-joan-crawford-became-mildred-pierce.html 

“A chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sitting there.” The finale of “Harriet Craig,” when she’s finally driven everybody out of her house, including her husband.