I’ve just watched ‘Harriet Craig’ (Columbia, 1950) with my girls. Now she is the sort of 1950s wife I don’t want to be. Joan Crawford plays Harriet, the childless wife, looking very glamourous at age 45.
She’s a neurotic perfectionist who makes life miserable for everyone around her, especially her servants and her husband Walter (Wendell Corey). When he gets a work assignment to Japan, she sabotages the plans by telling his boss that he has drinking and gambling problems. She sacks the cook over a broken coffee cup and makes the housekeeper, who has been with her husband since before their marriages, quit. She also keeps his best friend away from the house, and when her young cousin Clare (K. T. Stevens) falls in love Harriet puts an end to the romance.
Eventually, Walter realises Harriet’s true nature. He goes next door to help the neighbours son fix his radio, and the neighbour comments how messy their house is compared to his. “Yes”, he says, “that’s one thing you can say about it, it ‘s never messy.” He returns home and lies on the couch smoking, spying Harriet’s priceless Ming vase. Harriet refuses to come downstairs and talk to him, so he throws the vase against the wall, smashing it. Harriet reveals that she is actually able to have children, and is not barren as she has let her husband believe, and also gives an indication of why she is so unable to love. Finally Walter walks out, leaving Harriet to her one true love — her perfect house.
I love this dress though! Not a good photo, but it is fitted at the waist with a full calf-length skirt in shimmery silk.
And here’s a happier photo of Joan with one of her five adopted children.
Have a happy 50s day!
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