Autumn Leaves. 1956. USA. Directed by Robert Aldrich. Screenplay by Jean Rouverol, Hugo Butler, Lewis Meltzer, Robert Blees. With Joan Crawford, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles, Lorne Greene, Ruth Donnelly. DCP courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment and Swank. 108 min.
Before the high-camp blood match between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Robert Aldrich’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Crawford gave one of her best and most deeply affecting performances in Aldrich’s Autumn Leaves, playing a lonely, repressed spinster who’s seduced into a late marriage by a mentally unstable younger man (played by the equally excellent Cliff Robertson). Scott Eyman, author of the new biography Joan Crawford: A Woman’s Face (2025), writes, “Autumn Leaves begins as a closely observed soap opera, ascends to domesticated psychological horror, and ends with an ambiguous return to apparent normalcy. It was Crawford’s first film with Aldrich, who was never one to shy away from the lurid (Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Knife).” On January 31 from 6:15-7pm outside Titus 2, Eyman will sign copies of his new book Joan Crawford: A Woman’s Face. Additionally, before the screening on January 31, Joan Crawford's grandson Casey LaLonde presents his rare collection of color home movies shot by Crawford from 1939 to 1944, providing a never-before-seen side of the Hollywood legend. 12 min.