"Is she crossing the desert on foot?"

Right on! I was so glad to see Aldrich FINALLY stand up to Jack Warner!! He was such a dick to him!

The existence of a Joan Crawford porn film has been rumored for years. I even read a murder mystery set in the thirties that used it as a plot point, a book written some time ago, before the internet if I'm not mistaken.

So I can tell you that the rumor is old, but of course I can't tell you whether the rumors are true. If Joanie ever did make a porn, she must have been very young when she did. She hit it big in silent films when she was quite young.

She likely did at least one film as per:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/feud-joan-crawford-fact-check-stag-film-brother

"Crawford’s first husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., confirmed the existence of at least one of these risqué pictures—telling Crawford biographer Charlotte Chandler that Crawford told him about the film before she became famous, before they married, and before the blackmail threats started rolling in. Billie was absolutely terrified that I would find out about a film she had made when she was in a financially desperate moment, Fairbanks said. When she told me about it, as we began to be very involved, she said, ‘I have to tell you in case it makes a difference."

The Charlotte Chandler book is Not The Girl Next Door.

Did Joan actually do a porno early in her career?

Yes, I think she really did.