Press Release Warner Archive Collection Announcement: The Damned Don't Cry (1950) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Coming to Blu-ray from Warner Archive June 27th
NEW 2023 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Nitrate Camera Negative!

THE DAMNED DON’T CRY (1950)
Run Time 103:00
Subtitles English SDH
Audio Specs DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product Color B&W
Disc Configuration BD 50

Special Features: Commentary by Director Vincent Sherman; Featurette: The Crawford Formula: Real and Reel; Screen Director's Playhouse radio broadcast 4/5/1951; Original Theatrical Trailer
Cast: Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith
Oscar®-winner Joan Crawford stars as a woman who uses and abandons men--clawing her way from poverty to wealth and social status--a woman who knows that The Damned Don't Cry! Crawford gives one of her best performances as Ethel Whitehead, an empowered woman who leaves her laborer husband and squalid factory town behind to find a new, better life. She uses a quiet accountant who adores her to meet a rich gangster, learns to carry herself as a socialite and leads a life of wealth and luxury as the kept woman of the mobster. But her ambition doesn't stop there, and she engineers a rivalry between the city's two leading underworld kingpins--a rivalry that will lead to the ruin of everything she has fought to gain.

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[Will Krupp]

Can't wait! Thanks, Ron!

 

[Robert Crawford]

It appears the release date is June 27th according to MovieZyng.

 

[J. Casey]

Finally!

 

[Robert Crawford]

For a couple of years, I debated whether to purchase the iTunes HD digital. I'm now happy, I decided not to do so.

 

[Will Krupp]

Bosley (New York Times) Crowther rarely had anything nice to say about our Joan, and her performance in this movie got one of his most venomous dismissals. If anyone is interested, I'd suggest reading the whole review, but this snippet has always stuck in my head:

Miss Crawford as the "fancy lady" runs through the whole routine of cheap motion-picture dramatics in her latter-day hard-boiled, dead-pan style. As a laborer's wife, she plays it without make-up and with her face heavily greased (although fake eyelashes are still retained as a customary embellishment of a laborer's wife). As a cigar-store clerk and clothes model, she plays it tough—you know, speaks the tough guy's line and looks the mere men squarely and coldly in the face. And as the ultimately cultivated "lady" she gives it all the lofty dignity that goes with champagne buckets and Palm Springs swimming pools. A more artificial lot of acting could hardly be achieved.

He really had it in for her. His critiques seldom rose above nasty.

Personally, this has always been one of my favorite "Crawford at Warner" movies (Possessed and Humoresque may be better films, but this one is so much more fun, IMO)

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think Crawford was great in this film.

 

[david hare]

regardless of the qualities of everything else she made this us my personal fave Joanie. The supporting cast are perfect - Selena Royle three years before her triumph in Robot Monster, ineffably butch gangster, Steve Cochran, ever dweeb-esque Kent Smith, and the rags to riches template from Mildred Pierce. Joanie never forgot what worked in her pictures and class was one of the most powerful to her audience. Still is because America still refuses to talk about it.

 

[Matt Hough]

Bosley (New York Times) Crowther rarely had anything nice to say about our Joan, and her performance in this movie got one of his most venomous dismissals. If anyone is interested, I'd suggest reading the whole review, but this snippet has always stuck in my head:



He really had it in for her. His critiques seldom rose above nasty.

Personally, this has always been one of my favorite "Crawford at Warner" movies (Possessed and Humoresque may be better films, but this one is so much more fun, IMO)

I rank it only slightly below Mildred Pierce. Always one of my favorite Crawfords for a popcorn night at the movies at home.

 

[Will Krupp]

regardless of the qualities of everything else she made this us my personal fave Joanie. The supporting cast are perfect - Selena Royle three years before her triumph in Robot Monster, ineffably butch gangster, Steve Cochran, ever dweeb-esque Kent Smith, and the rags to riches template from Mildred Pierce. Joanie never forgot what worked in her pictures and class was one of the most powerful to her audience. Still is because America still refuses to talk about it.

Love this, David!!

 

[Will Krupp]

I rank it only slightly below Mildred Pierce. Always one of my favorite Crawfords for a popcorn night at the movies at home.

I think I'd maybe put it third because of my personal love for Flamingo Road, but I don't hate what you're saying!

 

[lark144]

Bosley (New York Times) Crowther rarely had anything nice to say about our Joan, and her performance in this movie got one of his most venomous dismissals. If anyone is interested, I'd suggest reading the whole review, but this snippet has always stuck in my head:



He really had it in for her. His critiques seldom rose above nasty.

Personally, this has always been one of my favorite "Crawford at Warner" movies (Possessed and Humoresque may be better films, but this one is so much more fun, IMO)

The thing is, Will, I'm not entirely sure he's criticizing, as he's making it sound like a lot of fun, that is if you read between the lines. And though these are intended, on the surface anyway, as negatives, his use of language, like "fancy lady" and how fake eyelashes are "customary embellishments of a laborer's wife" and the "lofty dignity of palm Springs swimming pools" impart a pretty accurate idea of how the film looks and works. In other words, a classic Joan vehicle, Marian Martin meets Lady Scarface, full speed ahead, with all the condiments--and tear-stained hankies--liberally applied.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The thing is, Will, I'm not entirely sure he's criticizing, as he's making it sound like a lot of fun, that is if you read between the lines. And though these are intended, on the surface anyway, as negatives, his use of language, like "fancy lady" and how fake eyelashes are "customary embellishments of a laborer's wife" and the "lofty dignity of palm Springs swimming pools" impart a pretty accurate idea of how the film looks and works. In other words, a classic Joan vehicle, Marian Martin meets Lady Scarface, full speed ahead, with all the condiments--and tear-stained hankies--liberally applied.

I'm sure.

 

[Will Krupp]

The thing is, Will, I'm not entirely sure he's criticizing

I mean, he calls the dramatics cheap and her acting artificial. I doubt she sent him a "thank you" bouquet afterwards.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one!

 

[lark144]

I mean, he calls the dramatics cheap and her acting artificial. I doubt she sent him a "thank you" bouquet afterwards.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one!

Sorry, Will. (and Robert). I wrote this in the wee hours and my language wasn't precise enough. Bosley may have been intending to attack but the over the top, florid way he describes the film, even though it's supposed to be negative, it sounds like an amazing film to me. (And BTW, go ahead and criticize, but I've never gotten around to seeing it, which most certainly will be rectified next month). That happened a lot with Crowther's negative reviews. They were so camped up in their negativity, as well as giving away plot points, that his reviews generated lots of boffo box office, for instance Suddenly Last Summer. People read the plot and film descriptions, decided it was a must see, and ignored the digs about cheap theatrics.

 

[mackjay]

A favorite 50s Noir for me. Crawford's good in it and the rest of the cast is top-notch: Steve Cochran, Selena Royle and David Brian, plus Jacqueline DeWitt (the impossible nasty wife of Burgess Meredith in the Twilight Zone ep "Time Enough at Last") are stand-outs. Excellent, dark intrigue, nicely directed by Vincent Sherman. A must-have on blu-ray, especially after just seeing how INCREDIBLY GOOD the transfer of FLAMINGO ROAD looks!!!

 

[Will Krupp]

plus Jacqueline DeWitt (the impossible nasty wife of Burgess Meredith in the Twilight Zone ep "Time Enough at Last")

I also love her as the impossibly venomous gossip, "Mona Plash," in Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows. I don't know that the poor thing ever got to play a sympathetic part!

 

[Timothy E]

Bosley (New York Times) Crowther rarely had anything nice to say about our Joan, and her performance in this movie got one of his most venomous dismissals. If anyone is interested, I'd suggest reading the whole review, but this snippet has always stuck in my head:

He really had it in for her. His critiques seldom rose above nasty.

I just watched the blu-ray of Flamingo Road and enjoyed it immensely. I agree that Joan would not have been appreciative of Crowther’s comments cited by Will in post # 6 in this thread, but his comments have persuaded me that I must see this film as soon as possible.

 

[Will Krupp]

his comments have persuaded me that I must see this film as soon as possible.

I love that his comments have the reverse effect than what he intended! The old curmudgeon must be spinning in his grave.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

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