in the 1950s (Harriet Craig / Queen Bee / Autumn Leaves / The Story of Esther Costello)

This set has 4 of Joan Crawford's movies from the 1950's. I will review each movie separately.Queen Bee - one of the characters said: "If she were mine, I would BEAT her!" This movie is about Eva who used to date Jud. Eva left Jud for another man and to get the man she told him she was pregnant. Joan is at least 45 in this movie. Anyway, once it was discovered that Eva did not want children, the man stayed with her anyway. Eva used to have s3x with a lot of man and she ended up alone.Harriet Craig - Harriet married a man 4 years ago. Harriet's father had left her mother and, as a result, she felt she had to manipulate people and men to keep them from leaving her. Harriet's mistreatment of her husband cost him a job, almost cost her cousin her man, and cost Harriet all of her friendships.Autumn Leaves - FIRST BEST - Millicent is an older manuscript typist living alone thinking she would never find a man. She spent her younger years caring for a sick parent. Millicent met a younger man and they fell in love. Initially, she pushed him away, but they got back together. The man was hiding a secret, one of which, was mental illness. Millicent basically ended up taking care of the guy, but she found love. Crawford's hairstyle aged her 20 years in this movie.Esther Costello - SECOND BEST - Ms Landi went to the Atlantic School of the Deaf and Blind and fell in love with a little girl who was deaf and blind due to trauma and was being neglected by her care givers. Ms. Landi took her to a deaf and blind school and the teachers there could not teach Esther so Ms. Landi (Crawford) stayed with Esther. After Esther knew braille, sign language, and could hear speech by touch, Ms. Landi took her on inspirational tours and collected money.Ms. Landi's husband, seeing that she now was collecting money and had a pretty girl living with her, reconciled with his wife. While living with his wife and Esther, he would often watch Esther undressed. After the unthinkable happened to Esther, she regained her vision and hearing.These DVDs show Joan Crawford cast has the woman too old to get a man who truly loves her. The movies are sad because it was clear that she was cast in these movies because this is how the studios felt about her (Joan).

I'm a big Joan Crawford fan and, for the past few years, have been attempting to collect all of her available films on DVD for my collection. I was jazzed when I heard TCM was going to release four more Crawford films from the 1950s. Three of the films on this set - Autumn Leaves, Harriet Craig and The Story of Esther Costello - have been difficult to find and have never been released on DVD. In fact, I've only seen Autumn Leaves on TCM once in my life (though I'm sure it's been aired more than once) and had never seen Harriet Craig and Esther Costello aired on television.First, the films themselves. All four are solid releases. Not Oscar worthy and a bit on the campy side, but still well done and highly entertaining. In the 1950s, Crawford had yet to delve into the "independent" genre and was still getting work at big name studios. I wouldn't go so far to say these are A pictures but you wouldn't know that by Crawford's performances. No matter what film she was in, she always acted like she was starring in the biggest budget film of all time. Crawford never phoned it in. In my opinion, the weakest of the four films is Autumn Leaves mainly because it's a product of its own time. It's a good film but it will likely cause a few eye rolls because Crawford's character is a little too understanding and patient. It's still worth a look and definitely an interesting film that was ahead of its time. The standouts for me are Harriet Craig and Queen Bee mainly because Crawford is hell on wheels in both of these films and at her campy best. No one on the planet could play such a nasty character while looking oh-so-fabulous in over the top clothing (by Jean Louis, thank you very much) and oodles of jewels! As for extras, there are few. No commentaries or anything of that nature, but there are slide shows on each disc with lobby cards, movie posters and behind-the scenes photos.The only real downsides to this release is the price and the packaging. The price is a little on the high side but considering these films are not available anywhere else and they do look good (I won't get into aspect ratios, etc. because I have no idea what any of that means!) I can deal with it. I did shop around because frankly, I'm not too keen on paying $6 shipping for ONE single set which is what TCM charges. The packaging is also a pain. When I initially got this set, it took me 20 minutes to pry one disc out of the plastic holder. I don't know if the set I got has a manufacturing defect but getting the discs in and out is difficult. I'll probably end up putting the discs in paper sleeves because I nearly broke the disc with Harriet Craig on it trying to get it out.Despite the slightly inflated price and shoddy plastic case, I'm pleased as punch that I bought this set. It's a must for Crawford fans and I'm glad TCM got the bright idea to release more of Crawford's hard to find films.

Well, I can't make it work on any DVD or Blu Ray player in my house. When I get to where I need to click "play," it says "this function is not available at this time."Excuse me? Should I try again later? Are you already playing a DVD? Is my neighbor playing a DVD and it's one at a time in this neighborhood?I don't know, there's no further information.I'm sending it back.I'll let you know if the replacement works.Harrrumph.*edit*Well, I got the return label and haven't taken it the video back yet but they sent a new one right away. And the new one works!! It works just fine.I'll go up to 4 stars now because of the fast and efficient fix to the problem. But I won't go 5 stars because of the extra trouble of getting a bad copy - AND - judging from reviews, they've had the same problem before.So, one star off for not fixing a pre-existing issue, but it's all good now and Joan Crawford was one of a kind. Holy moly, what a woman.:)

Films featured in this 4 disc set are-Harriett craig (1950)Queen bee (1955)Autumn leaves (1956)The story of Esther costello (1957)I have the 2 other Joan crawford DVD box set releases ('The signature collection' & 'Collection 2') & non of these films are on either so i was very pleased to find this collection!The only complaint i have is they are yet again DVD-R discs,it seems lots of old movies available from America in recent yrs are now only being released on this format.I cant help thinking this is obviously a way of companies scrimping yet these releases certainly dont come cheap! On the plus side,for anyone who doesnt have a multiregion player,these discs will also play on uk players.As for the movies here,the picture quality on this box set is excellent & all films are 4/5 stars,it would have been nice if there would have been a booklet or something included but as it is,the set is very basic...but grumbles aside,Crawford fans will be rejoicing that these films are finally available at all,so if you are a fan dont hesitate in buying this set!!

Some of her best films are in this dvd collection. Really enjoying her movies that I havent seen before.

The movies in this collection are excellent and are Joan Crawford at her best. After being an established star for so long, she continued to make outstanding movies. Only complaint is it was very expensive, but I guess that's the price you must pay if you want these classics.

I really only bought this set for Autumn Leaves as have some of the others on DVD already. Frankly I'm disappointed at the quality of the scan even by black and white DVD standards. It was overly grainy and overall quite poor. Compared to the Turner DVD's for instance their film noir box sets this doesn't even come close. Come on Sony/Columbia lift your game! The audio was very good though.

This video contains the best set of Joan Crawford movies that I've seen (and I love all Joan Crawford's movies).