Writing is at times hamfisted but not bad. Many actor/actress bios are poorly written. I read Spoto's Hickcock book about 20 years ago (???) but I have no recollections of the writing itself.

I always wondered what made Crawford seem so demented (just saw Johnny Guitar for the fourth time and it never fails to be a car wreck of a film) and now I have a better idea of what a weird life she had. Her entire childhood was spent in servitude, essentially working as a maid, and when she made it in Hollywood, her mother and spoiled brother just used her (although probably not in as evil of a way as did Clara Bow's family). Crawford was beautiful when she was young, before she started wearing almost clownish amounts of eyebrow pencil and lipstick exaggerating her already very prominent features.

Not bad. Didn't know too much about Crawford before. She had a rough life. Hard to know what is truth and what is fiction concerning Christina and her story in Mommie Dearest. Only ones who really know are Joan and her children.

Interesting read overall. ( )

A good book about the often misunderstood and misrepresented life of one of Hollywood's greatest and most influential actresses: Joan Crawford. Spoto presents Miss Crawford's life in an unbiased manner and often attempts to refute the claims of abuse made by Crawfords adopted children. The book was easy to read and proved that there never was a dull moment in the life of Joan Crawford, movie star! ( )

As the subtitle suggests, Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford, by Donald Spoto, is a biography of that American movie star, whose heyday was in the 1930s and 1940s, but who continued working up into the 1970s. Many people might remember her adopted daughter's memoir (and the subsequent television film), Mommie Dearest: this book goes some way to setting the record straight in terms of Crawford's reputation. However, the troubled relationship between mother and daughter is only part of the woman's life story, and this volume works best when it discusses Crawford's work life and how it impacted her private life. Going from poverty to the heights of wealth and power is always an intriguing human story, and Spoto does a good job of bringing the star's human qualities for the forefront. There is also some interesting discussion about how Hollywood studios worked during its "Golden Age," during which time Crawford was one of the brightest lights, although the story is unfortunately not situated in the broader cultural and historical setting of the time. Still, an interesting portrayal of one of the first people to play the role of "movie star." Recommended for those interested in the period and the film industry. ( )

Fairly good biography on Joan Crawford that describes her dismal beginnings, her determination to get ahead, her rise in Hollywood, and eventual decline. The book debunks most of Mommie Dearest with quotes from Christine Crawford herself. There are lots of other quotes from those who knew or worked with Joan Crawford as well as quotes from Joan herself. The book also debunks the myth that Crawford married Douglas Fairbanks Jr as a way to get ahead since by that time, she was already a more well known star than Fairbanks. This book confirms what I've read elsewhere that Crawford was the hardest working actress in Hollywood. She really worked at being a good actress. However, the book does contain some errors which includes on page 46 saying Crawford was in 1927's The Unknown with Lon Chaney Sr and Gil Terry - it was Norman Kerry and on page 97 referring to Walter Huston's character name in 1932's Rain as Reverend Davidson when it was Mr. Davidson. The book does a fairly good job of follow-up as to what happened to Crawford's four children and three husbands although it would have been better to have it all at the end in a kind of follow-up section. While the book does discuss her will and estate, it fails to mention who, if anyone, received her 1945 Best Actress Oscar for Mildred Pierce. There is also no filmography although the author does a good job of covering her films and t.v. work - it would have been nice to have a list as an appendix. For anyone who wants an alternative view to Mommie Dearest - I would recommend this book. ( )

All I knew of Joan Crawford is what I had seen in her movies and in "Mommie Dearest" before I read this biography of her. I never knew how sad her story was and that some of the characters she had played, like Mildred Pierce, allowed her to be more true to herself than many others. Spoto does an incredible job of telling Joan Crawford's story from her birth, to discovery, Hollywood, her marriages and romances, all the way to her death. She was truly a woman of her time - a survivor, who in turn tried to help as many people as she could, and who became the embodiment of glamor and what it was to succeed. Hers was a difficult life, but she managed to become an expert in acting, the film industry, and marketing. It is sad to know that in her lifetime, she was unable to be herself before the public and her fans. By her early twenties she had become the embodiment of "Joan Crawford", a name thought up in a marketing campaign since her true name, Lucille Le Souer wasn't easy to say or remember for early Hollywood/Americans at the time.

Spoto tells her tale through her roles and quotes from her, her beloved friends, co-workers, and family. Crawford's story will make you rethink everything that you thought you knew about her and early Hollywood. ( )

Well research book on Crawford that bunks many of the myths - including that she married Doug Fairbanks Jr to get ahead in Hollywood and the Mommie Dearest myth. ( )

I get the feeling Spoto wants to like Joan Crawford. What I think makes it hard to bring her to life is that she was a dramatic actress who carefully cultivated her public image, so it becomes difficult to go behind her mask and learn what she was truly like.

Spoto's tries to dig, however. He looks for the good to balance out the bad. His final portrait is one of a kind and generous person (mentoring Ann Blyth, donating to a hospital) who had some faults. I don't know that there is a tremendous amount of new material, many of the stories I had heard already, and her faults are significant and go deeply to her character.

Crawford was obsessed with her career over her children, she had trouble maintaining healthy personal relationships, she drank for many years, she was imperious and manipulative on movie sets. At the end of her life, having achieved stardom, she seems to have repented or reconsidered, cutting out the booze, marrying and staying faithful to a man she and her children loved, and writing memoirs that were generous to her colleagues and co-stars.

Because she went out of her way to adopt children, acquiring them (sometimes through questionable means) on the market, and offering to their families and brokers a life of tremendous opportunity and wealth, her responsibility for them should be held to a very high standard. Instead of using her wealth and influence to help them adjust and build happy lives, she was clearly a control freak who could not abide by the whimsies of children, lost her temper frequently and tried to force them to accommodate her obsessions and compulsions. She failed to be present for them while making films and then tried to make it up to them by showering them with obscenely expensive gifts and smothering attention. She failed to provide a stable family life in their early years, with her string of sometimes violent and abusive relationships with men. Finally, for many years she drank as a way of coping, which also has long-term detrimental effects on children.

Spoto addresses the accusations (most famously, though not exclusively, made by her oldest daughter) but in fact in this book he is her partisan, and rather than criticize her character he treats the evidence as if it is a series of accessories that she shed as she grew older. All I can say is if you adopt four children and you wind up disinheriting two of them, your legacy is going to have to reflect, above all, the toxic family dynamic you provided in the place of a loving home.

Spoto tries to show that Crawford's contributions to the cinema were so significant that they should form the preponderance of her legacy. While this book indeed made me want to see many of them, especially the early dramas and comedies she made at MGM, on balance I felt he did not succeed in whitewashing the coldness and selfishness of her ambition, which cost her a happy family life and long-term respect and admiration. ( )