The Damned Don't Cry (1950)** 1/2 (out of 4) After the death of her child, the always poor Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford) moves to NYC to try and make something of herself. She eventually hooks up with gangster George Castleman (David Brian) who sends her out West to spy on another gangster (Steve Cochran) who she falls in love with. THE DAMNED DON'T CRY isn't perfect but for fans of Crawford it's certainly good enough to make it worth watching. I think those unfamiliar with Crawford will probably enjoy the film even more because her fans are going to find the set-up something rather familiar as the actress quite often played poor women who would work themselves up through the ranks. Of course, the one difference here is that she gets involved with two gangsters and this leads to a rather predictable ending that really doesn't work. With that said, there are enough good moments to make this worth sitting through. I actually thought the best part of the film was early on when the woman first went to New York and we see how determined she is to make money and how she soon realizes that she's not going to get it in a legit way. The screenplay has a flaw of going so quickly from the "poor" to the "gangster moll" but this doesn't hurt the film too much. As you'd expect, Crawford is very good here but then again she could have played a role like this in her sleep. She manages to be very believable early on and I especially liked the way she played the mother in the early moments. Both Brian and Cochran are extremely believable in the roles of the gangsters as both come across very threatening. Kent Smith is also good in his supporting role of a bookmaker. THE DAMNED DON'T CRY was directed by Vincent Sherman who does a nice job at keeping everything moving at a good pace. The film certainly has its flaws but it's an enjoyable effort.

Catch those predatory petroleum pumps in Ethel's (Crawford) backyard. They look like feasting vultures as they bob up and down into the ground. No wonder she wants to get the heck out of poverty row, especially with a tightwad husband and a crabby father. And this being Crawford, we know how she'll do it. Watch her climb up the ladder from cheap model to gambler's moll to phony socialite, chewing up men the whole way. So what if she puts one foot into organized crime in the process. Men do it all the time. No doubt about it, she's a female shark who knows what she wants and gets it. But we sympathize anyway knowing what her past has been like. Yes indeed, this is a Crawford role, in spades.Okay, so maybe dear Joan is a ripe 45, a time when most female stars have drifted into wife and motherhood roles. But she's still got fire in those big liquid eyes, and besides, at her age, she knows the tricks in how to seduce a man. I like the way the screenplay toys with that touchy angle. Then too, it's quite a collection of male stars she works her way through—a smooth David Bryan, a sexy Steve Cochran, a dour Richard Egan. But I especially like the bland Kent Smith whose colorless personality perfectly suits a bookkeeper's role. You might even say that in the end he scores an odd moral victory over the more dashing types.Anyway it's Crawford at the height of her golden period, 1945-1955, when she, almost single-handedly, flew the colors of middle-aged women everywhere. It's also golden age Hollywood, when lush studio hokum is hitting on all eight cylinders.

When the dumped body of notorious racketeer Nick Prenta (Steve Cochran) is found in the desert near the resort Desert Springs, the police officers investigate his belongings in his house. They find a movie and when they watch it, they see the socialite Lorna Hanson Forbes (Joan Crawford) with Nick in the swimming pool. They go to her house and find that she is missing and after a further investigation, they discover that she has never existed and the discovery of her association with the organized crime baffles the authorities. Meanwhile Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford) returns to the poor house of her estranged parents and recalls when she was married with the rude worker Roy Whitehead (Richard Egan). When their six year-old son Tommy is hit by a truck and dies, Ethel leaves Roy and travels to New York. The ambitious Ethel finds a job and sooner she befriends the gangster Grady (Hugh Sanders). When she meets the accountant Martin Blankford (Kent Smith), Ethel convinces him to work for Grady. Sooner the powerful mobster George Castleman (David Brian) invites Martin to work for the mafia and Ethel becomes his lover, changing her name to Lorna Hanson Forbes and joining the dangerous world of murders and betrayals of the organized crime."The Damned Don't Cry" is a film-noir with a tale of ambition, murder and betrayal. Joan Crawford performs the role of an ambitious woman from the working class that finds social ascension in the men's world using her glamor and different lovers. The story is based on the mysterious Virginia Hill, a woman without past that belonged to the upper-class and her lover Bugsy Segall, one of the most famous gangsters of the 40's. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Os Desgraçados Não Choram!" ("The Bastards Don't Cry!")

This is a nice gangster-film noir film with high quality writing, directing, cinematography, music and editing. It is a wonderful vehicle for Joan. Yet the film is miscast. The miscasting is Joan herself. Joan would have been perfect for this film 15 years before, but at 45, Joan was simply no longer a raving beauty that men would die and kill for. One really has a hard time believing that a woman in her mid-40's can just wake up one morning and turn on the charm and rise like a fire cracker in the world of ruthless gangsters.The lead character was supposed to be 16-18 years old originally. The script was changed to accommodate Crawford's age, but it still doesn't feel right. Joan's naivete and ambition doesn't really match her age. The script should have been turned over to Lana or Rita or Dorothy or Betty, all of whom were under 30 and would have been perfect with it.Apparently there was a film script written for Joan called "Portrait in Black". Ten years later, Lana Turner had a big hit with it. That was the movie that Joan should have done instead of this one.