Customer Reviews

Mommie Dearest

5 star:		(138)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I don't know if this review will reach anyone. Hopefully someone. This dvd is a must for anyone who has seen this film and loved it or anyone who wants to see it. Also an excellent way to learn more about Joan Crawfod and more importantly, Faye Dunaway.

Dunaway disowns this part and I think I get why. The part took its toll on her emotionally and is, in my opinion, one of the greatest screen performances ever on film. And what did this gifted actress get in return? Bad reviews, jokes and a "cult" film on her behalf. Come on, I wouldn't really want to talk about it either.

Dunaway did take the time to express some feelings in her book Looking For Gatsby. So I would appreciate it if all you reviewers on amazon who trashed this film or (God help us) Dunaway herself, to read about the time and effort she put into this performance and how she did it. I'm sorry but i'm tired of people laughing at this movie and not taking it seriously. You can't throw descriptions like "over the top" at this woman because you lack perspective and appreciation of talent.

No one ever tore apart: Al Pacino in Scarface, Marlon Brando in the Godfather/Last Tango in Paris or Anthony Hopkins in Scilence of the Lambs (Hopkins,by the way,felt that her portrayal of Crawford is one of the best performances of all time). But when a woman dares to even come close to Marlon Brando's talent, people make fun of her. Also, Dunaway has made some other incredible films, i can't list them, it would take too long. Check out 3 Days of the Condor. She had to play second fiddle to Robert Redford and stole the show with a touching, sad and heartfelt character. Simply put,stop with the disrespectful reviews.

Now, this dvd did an incredible job with the extras. The commentarty with John Waters is hysterical but also very informative and touching in a way. The interviews with Diana Scarwid, Runalta Alda and Frank Yablins gives us even more information, gossip, background stories that help us understand the film and how it was made.

I hope this helps people who are interested in the dvd or are fans of Ms. Dunaway. The second reviewer of this dvd wanted to defend Crawford and I wanted to defend Ms. Dunaway. You can't defend one and not the other.

I've always believed that this film has been misunderstood. Admittedly I can understand why people would laugh at scenes like the one where Faye Dunaway shouts to her daughter, "Tina bring me the ax!" But is child abuse really funny? I don't think so. I must admit that the scenes of child abuse, perhaps exploitative, are chilling and realistic. Thanks to the vivid performances by Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid and the actress who played young Christina, you really feel like you are in that house with these characters. You just want Joan to stop.

Faye Dunaway's career has never been the same since this film since it is now regarded as a camp classic, yet I think this is one of her best performances. She makes Joan a complicated woman: cruel, irrational, beautiful, pathetic, perhaps mentally ill and yet also sympathetic.

I don't know how accurate the film is and unfortunately Joan Crawford was never able to defend herself, but the film is based on the book, and it is true to the spirit of Christina Crawford's memoir: it is relentless, frightening, sad and unforgettable.

Faye Dunaway portrays Joan Crawford realistically and vividly in this emotionally-charged "true" story. She is excellent because she captures the desperation and vulnerability of the Movie Queen as well as her neuroses and ruthlessness. At stages, her mannerisms, voice and look are uncannily like Crawfords. I remember a review of a Joan Collins film called "The Bitch" in which a reviewer said "Only for campaholics who delight in the misfortunes of aging actresses." Doubtlessly, this film will attract this element, but lets hope viewers also see Crawfords pain as well as her toughness. She fought her way from scrubber to star. Is it any wonder that in her lower ebbs, she scrubbed floors to metaphorically keep everything perfect? One can empathise with Christina's bewilderment at her mothers outbursts, but we also see Crawfords difficulties. Some scenes are campy and superficial, but interest never wanes. Some scenes (especially near the end) are heartbreaking and equal Joan Crawfords oscar winning performance in "Mildred Pierce" in terms of emotional pathos.

In the last 15 years, I have seen "Mommie Dearest" more than 200 times (literally) since I first saw it on cable in 1987. I say that so you KNOW I know what I'm talking about in regard to this movie. I have been endlessly facinated by this film only because of the over-the-top performance by Miss Faye Dunaway. She just gets better and better everytime I see it. I only like the movie because of Miss Dunaway. Her entire style of acting is so fabulous, it overwhelms -- shades of how she would portray Joan Crawford are especially evident in the 1976 film, "NETWORK"...an example, "I've TOLD HIM LOU! I'VE TOLD HIM EVERY DAY THIS WEEK! NOW *YOU* TELL HIM!!!" as she slams down the phone with such force you think it will break in two! An absolute parallel to her technique with dialogue as Crawford.

HOWEVER, the film itself is actually TERRIBLE. It has NO similarity what-so-ever to the book, it creates characters that didn't exist, deleted those that DID, and the flow-through of this movie is a nightmare from hell. The continuity of this film is nill. That, I have deduced is due to HORRIBLE editing. I always sensed we were getting a watered down version of this film vs. what was originally produced. After just receently reading Christina Crawford's book "Survivor" where she states the original cut was over 4 hours long and then sliced in 1/2, my thoughts are confirmed.

For a DVD release, this film could have been SO MUCH BETTER. Given that this film is a major cult/camp classic, would it have been that difficult for the studio to have put out a special UNCUT double disc version of this film? OR at very LEAST, a 30 minute selection of deleted scenes coupled with a audio commentary by the producer/or director? If any of you have seen the DVD of "Mrs. Doubtfire", you know what I'm talking about in regard to the deleted scenes.

What makes me angry about the DVD is that they have a photo gallery of stills from the film that include DELETED scenes from the film. Why they put those stills in the movie and not atleast include the scenes is beyond me and it doesn't make sense. The stills I'm referring to are of 1) Dunaway as Joan happily driving her car onto the MGM lot for her meeting with Mr. Mayer RE: her status as box-office poison. 2) a scene in which Dunaway is very tenderly kneeling down to Mara Hobel (young Christina) to discuss something. THESE ARE SCENES I WANT TO SEE! I feel that after all the years of viewing this film, the fans are OWED a special edition. What's the point of that footage being locked in a vault when it could be released and improve the quality of this most unique film? Especially since they could charge DOUBLE for a special edition!!!!

HOWEVER, the one bright spot about this edition is that they did release it in the widescreen format and the digital remaster on video and audio are to me, impressive. I'm most pleased with the visual and audio quality of the DVD. Some people are not too happy with the clarity, but a movie filmed 20 years ago should NOT look like it was mastered in 2001!

The other high point is the original theatrical trailer which ends with the only voice-over of the whole thing, a meldodramatic 1 liner: "Joan Crawford. The most important role of her life WAS her life."

Of course, I must state that in regard to Miss Dunaway's scenes, her ultra-harsh delivery of the lines are too good to pass up. For those of you who haven't seen the film, I'll briefly sample two of my most favorite scenes, from the point of the dialogue:
"I work and work 'till I'm half dead, and I hear people saying 'She's getting old'! You live in the most beautiful house in Brentwood and you don't care about crease-marks from wire hangers!" -- "...yes, Mommie Dearest"--- "When I toll-d you to call me that, I wanted you to meeaaan it!" and "Trying to sweep the poor little widow under the carpet? Well, think again! This ain't my first time at the rodeo, I know how to win the hard way! You forget the press I delivered to Pepsi was MY power! I can use it anyway I want. It's a sword, cuts both ways". Exciting stuff, indeed!

In closing, while this edition is a total disapointment because of the lack of extras, it's the best you can get right now when it comes to this film, so go ahead and buy it anyway. Atleast, if you're new to Mommie Dearest, you won't be disapointed by Miss Dunaway's performance.

This movie is my #1 guilty-pleasure when it comes to movies. Yes, it is camp and over the top, but like they say, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

Of course, this movie would be NOTHING without the peerless Faye Dunaway. A virtual facial contortionist, she plays up every scene and mood change. She also is able to act the part of the Hollywood diva very well. And this movie is full of diva behavior. Take, for example, the scene in which she chops up the rose garden, dressed in haute couture, the side of her face bruised and cut. She mutters "box office poison" and all of the other awful things that Mayer told her, and makes her unfortunate small children haul away the wreckage. Then, she wields an axe like nobody's business. This is a priceless diva moment.

Mommie Dearest is full of similar moments. Take, for example, the scene that occurs shortly after she made Christina endure the swimming lesson from hell. Faye (Joan) coolly informs Christina that she will always be bigger and faster than her. Her face is perfectly made up, her hair wrapped in a white towel, a la Marilyn Monroe. She gives her young daughter a wonderful "top this, b...ch" look. She repeats this look, even more effectively, when Christina comes into her room to whine about her missing dolls in a later scene.

The rivalry between mother and daughter is very riveting. From the dramatic point of view, the actress that plays the child Christina is way better than the older Christina. Mara (young Christina) chews the scenery just as much as Faye. Take, for example, when she slowly closes the door after her mother accepts the award for the Oscar on her front porch. She stares at the paparazzi longingly, wanting to enjoy what her mother enjoys. Also, there is the scene when she walks in on her mother making out with the good-looking younger man. Instead of running out of the room, she stands there, Lolita-esque, just staring and staring. Her mother exacts her retribution by packing her off to boarding school!

Of course, the abuse scenes are the most effective of all. Try as I might, I can't sit through the sissors, wire hanger, or choke scenes without bursting into laughter. Call me sick, or jaded. Of the three, the wire hanger scene is the best. If they had stopped at the beating, that would have been enough, but then Joan goes further with it. She drags Christina into the bathroom, criticizes an obviously spotless floor (that she made her own young daughter clean when she has a maid (!) ), and then proceeds by showering her with cleaning powder. It really breaks my heart when I see young Christina there, teary-eyed, saying "Jesus Christ". I never laugh at that part. Then, her younger brother comes to help, and she begs him to go back to bed. Poor thing.

Older Christina is a disappointment. First, she has that twangy accent. Are we really to believe that Joan Crawford's daughter spoke this way? The most annoying part is when she flatly says, "We'll manage" (twice), in the scene when her mother tearfully tells her of losing another movie contract.

As for Faye Dunaway, I wish they hadn't made her say "I'm damn mad!" twice. That's the only line she utters that irritates me.

This is the one movie that I could watch endlessly. It is a tour de force, and camp to boot.

What exactly went wrong with "Mommie Dearest," the legendarily bad 1981 film version of Christina Crawford's scathing literary attack on her film legend mother Joan Crawford? My God, where do I begin? This film misses the boat in so many ways it's amazing that, unlike other bad movies, it manages to be enormously entertaining--much more so than many far better movies. With its histrionic and mesmerizing good/bad performances by Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid, its awful, irony-free direction by veteran Frank Perry, and a script which basically connects the dots without offering any insight whatsoever, what could have been a scorching examination of a troubled life turns into campy, though fascinating, hoot that has become an all-time cult favorite.

The film actually purports to seriously examine Crawford's dual lives--her carefully choreographed public persona as a caring, generous philanthropist who selflessly adopts homeless children to give them a better life, and her alleged private alter ego, a megalomiacal, nearly psychotic and incredibly vain harridan who only adopts the kids (who she actually comes to despise) to feed her public persona. (At least, that's what we're to believe if oldest daughter Christina has her way, since the film is based on the biography she wrote after her late mother cut her and brother Christopher out of her will.) The truth? We'll never know since Crawford and her cronies are all deceased, and while Christina and Christopher testify to its accuracy, Crawford's younger children (who are MIA in the film, of course) have said it's a load of hooey. (So did director friend George Cukor before his death, although others have said Crawford's abusive behavior was an unspoken, but open, secret in Hollywood.)

The problem is the film doesn't even try to be balanced, and director Perry, who gave us the excellent films "David and Lisa" and "Diary of a Mad Housewife," unfortunately treats the entire saga as a deadly serious tragedy and exhibits no restraint whatsoever. So a story which would only have worked if Crawford's tantrums and abuse had been downplayed becomes a laugh riot as Dunaway transforms this legendary beauty into a ranting gargoyle, complete with cold-cream covered face, screaming "No wire hangers! Ever!!!" and beating young Christina with a can of cleanser.

Much has been written about Dunaway's performance, and to her defense, she has herself blamed Perry's ham-fisted direction. Either way, this performance spectacularly ended the A-list career of probably the biggest female movie star of the late '60's-early '70's. However, even though she overacts badly in the abuse sequences, Dunaway is often exceptional in other sequences, no more so than in the film's final scenes, when she essays Crawford's deterioration from the top of the movie A-list to pathetic has-been, relegated to bad Z-level horror movies and even ridiculously subbing for her sick daughter in a soap opera, even though she's forty-years too old for the role. Dunaway is also excellent at conveying the almost transparent hypocrisy of Crawford's public persona. But what makes the film so fascinating is just as we sense she's entering Oscar territory, out come the wire hangers, cold cream and cleanser and the only award we sense she'll receive is the Golden Raspberry. And as for the two actresses who play Christina, Mara Hobel is just fine as the young Christina, but then poor Diana Scarwid, who is actually an excellent actress, enters the picture and she becomes Dunaway's young counterpart, outrageously overacting at times and at other times acting with admirable restraint. The year before, this talented newcomer received an Oscar nomination for "Inside Moves." Unfortunately, this film ended whatever chance she had at anything other than a sporadic film career. So when two fine actresses have their careers derailed by one film, who do you blame? Frank Perry, take a bow.

As for the script, again it is strictly connect-the-dots, moving from one legendary scene to another as Crawford adopts the children, rises to the heights of stardom, exploits the children, feigns illness to win an Oscar, beats the children, marries into the Pepsi empire, berates the entire Pepsi executive board after her husband's death with the film's other great camp line: "Don't f--- with me, fellas!," fades into has-been obscurity, tries to sabotage her daughter's happiness and adult career aspirations, etc. etc. etc. Unfortunately, there is no insight whatsoever into why Crawford is the way she is. She's just a monster. It's as simple as that.

The best thing that can be said about "Mommie Dearest" is that it isn't your typical whitewashed Hollywood biography. It at least shows a big star with all her warts. Unfortunately, that's all it shows is the warts, and that's extremely unfair. I can't believe there wasn't another side to Joan Crawford, that it was all image and illusion. Christina and the filmmakers would have been well-advised to present one, as it would have helped further their cause. Instead, we're left with a lot of unintentional laughs and the rubble of what could have been a performance for the ages and a rare, serious look at a devastating national tragedy, child abuse. Instead, we get a legendarily maligned camp fest.

Okay- here is one that will keep you up at night. Faye Dunaway is deeply scary as Joan Crawford in this way-over-the-top screen adaptation of Christina Crawford's vituperative memoir. The opening scene sets the camp-fest tone: we are treated to a loooong sequence of Miss Crawford preparing for her movie shoot, which involves her scrubbing her face, elbows, and nails with what appears to be a Brillo pad before dousing them in boiling water and iced alcohol (I defy you not to think "morning cocktail, Joan?). At the end of the sequence, her face is revealed to us- Faye Dunaway with big hairy commas for eyebrows.

Faye's ferocious, wildly over-the-top performance seems to have been based on the conceit that Joan Crawford never had a moment off screen that she wasn't acting- except perhaps when she was being crazy and beating the kids or chopping down trees. There are a lot of conflicting reports on the character of Miss Crawford, some painting her as an ogre, some as an angel. Like most people, she most likely was something in between. It looks as if Frank Perry told Faye to keep Joan's performances in "Straight Jacket"' "Possessed" and "Queen Bee" at the front of her mind at all times, and act accordingly. Like these movies, she is supported by sub-B movie actors (Steve Forrest?!?), who manage to look like they are in fear for their lives throughout the whole movie. They should have been afraid for their careers.

Nobody can find the abuse of a child funny, but how can you not want to smack the gooey, calculating little Mara Hobel? The snivelling, robotic Diana Scarwid isn't much better (and her first appearance her southern accent is really jarring: "ah unduhstaaaaand")

Plus, the movie has a wierdly underpopulated look to it. For someone who was a star for fifty years, Joan seemed to have nobody around her (maybe it was the ax...). She runs her house with one nanny/secretary, and one maid whom we see for one scene. She has one boyfriend, and an "uncle" before marrying Al Steele- and we know that Joan was "popular". At the end of her life she is shown drinking her vodka on a lone mattress on the floor of her apartment, watching Tina accept an award for her. Except for the famous board room scene (which Faye plays like a hungry puma chained just out of reach of the meat counter) most of her scenes have one or two people in them. The Oscar win is really funny- she wins the Oscar when she is home "sick", then makes a grand speech to the throngs of photographers at the door. Except there are maybe 10 people total.

But this is all nit-picking. This movie is great in a train-wreck kind of way. It is so blindingly awful, yet clearly made with the intention of being an IMPORTANT MOVIE, that you can't help but giggle. Dunaway's wild gamble of a performance neatly derailed an Oscar-winning career; nobody could look at her without seeing Faye-as-Joan (Use the words "Mommie Dearest" around her at your peril) I give it 3 stars for the price of the DVD ([...] retail? Are you high?) and as for the lack of extras, I doubt you'd get any from Paramount on a movie that the director sued them to stop the advertising campaign for.

I demand a directors cut right now!

Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about "Mommie Dearest" is that it so easily could have been an excellent movie. Its production values are excellent, its scenes are infrequently riveting and its subject matter is compelling. Unfortunately - or not, depending on your penchant for camp - the film we get is a tepid "good parts" version of Christina Crawford's taut, tough memoir: a disjointed series of vignettes showing a dreary battle of wills an overbearing harridan wages with a petulant daughter and a chauvanistic boss. At best, the film is the grand guignol of over-the-top melodrama. At worst, it's the great-grandmother of after-school specials.
"Mommie Dearest" has become such a staple of the popular lexicon that it's impossible to begin viewing the film without some sense of anticipation. Christina Crawford's shocking novel about the abuse she and her siblings allegedly suffered at the hands of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, their adoptive mother, opened the floodgates to grave-robbing Hollywood tell-alls. As soon as the opening credits roll, we expect feathers to fly.
It's unfortunate that this is the case, because early on, "Mommie Dearest" hints at an intriguing story of a strong-willed woman trying to hold her own in a smothering, male-dominated career.
It's a story that bears telling, and Joan Crawford would be a tantalizing focal point. Crawford was an adequate if unspectacular actress who nonetheless enjoyed a stunningly durable career, from the silent era through the early 1970s. Her 50-year run was singular: Only the likes of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Olivia DeHavilland, Greer Garson and Rosalind Russell have ever matched her. Crawford's career peaked time and again when so many of her more talented contemporaries faded to Hollywood footnotes. By most accounts, Crawford accomplished this through iron determination and no short measure of business acumen: She had a keen sense of what the public wanted, and she gave it to them - from Adrian-bedecked goddess to suffering soap queen. She was a shrewd publicist who, if she worked on the other side of the camera, could probably have made a mint for any studio as part of a promotion department.
The image of Crawford as a keen publicity user is one of the legs on which "Mommie Dearest" props itself: Her career floundering, Crawford adopts a baby to get her name in the papers and enjoys a gush of fawning attention. It's a claim that Christina Crawford makes even today, that her mother regarded her as but a pawn in a concerted, shameless publicity drive. Whether or not this is the case, publicity shots of the day support the fact that MGM had no qualms about exploiting Crawford's adopted sense of domestic bliss.
Christina's alleged plight begins when the novelty around her adoption wears off. Joan's career spirals despite her desperate attempts to keep her glamorous persona alive. According to the book, as her star burns itself out, Crawford succumbs to alcoholism and subjects her children to sadistic, abusive, vengeful discipline that lasts throughout the rest of her life - and beyond, when she inexplicably cuts daughter Christina and son Christopher out of her will.
It's a story that has been passionately disavowed by Crawford's other two daughters (who are mentioned in the book but not the movie). But, family disputes about veracity aside, Christina Crawford's novel had the makings for an excellent drama about a determined, desperate, lonely woman who comes precariously close to destroying herself and her loved ones. Great performances have been built on less, and Faye Dunaway's no-holds-barred turn as the demonized Crawford is fairly operatic in its intensity. If the direction had been consistent, the screenplay less disjointed and the editing more fluid, "Mommie Dearest" could easily have been the controversial masterpiece its creators wanted it to be, and Dunaway would have been rightfully lauded for a performance which instead stunted her stellar career.
The movie can't decide whether it's a domestic soap opera or a driven, man-against-the-machine potboiler. Instead, it dances on the edges of both without giving either premise the depth it needs. One minute we're viewing a scene intimating Joan's conflicts with motherhood, the following minute we're watching a scene that blushes at her behind-the-scenes battles with an autocratic studio head. At one point, we're watching Joan marry a soft-drink CEO. Next, the next we're watching a newly widowed Joan exact a corporate takeover of Pepsi Cola. Scene One: Joan wins an Oscar. Scene Two: Joan in Kabuki-esque makeup lays waste to her daughter, her daughters bathroom and some unfortunate wire hangers.
Sheesh.
The result is that, whether the movie concerns itself with Joan and Christina or Joan vs. the studio, we're left wanting. The movie doesn't delve deeply enough into any facet to draw a visceral response. One of the more unfortunate results is that we don't get a true sense of the torments that plague Crawford - torments that could cause an intelligent, driven woman to throttle her daughter or trash her own home in piques of rage.
The uridly violent scenes, laughable dialog, pretentious aspirations and gorgeous costumes have made "Mommie Dearest" a favorite on the gay film circuit, and in truth, viewing the film as a camp treat is a mild guilty pleasure - if you don't allow yourself to wonder what might have been.

What's to say about this over-the-top film except to proclaim it a one huge must for camp classic buffs. Faye Dunaway gives all she's got and comes out smelling deliciously rotten as the legendary movie actress Joan Crawford who despises wire hangers and adopted children. Never an actress has been so frightfully dedicated to a role as Dunaway is throughout this 139 minute gem. She utterly acts as if her life depends on it, which probably does since she was given the A-list boot after the release of the film. To lovers of high standard bad cinema, however, she will always be the queen of the ball. Her scene-stealing performance definitely deserves top honors as the biggest bad movie we love moment there is. In fact, everything in MOMMIE DEAREST deserves the highest praise, from its big budget grade B-movie look to its many jaw-dropping, pleasure-giving sequences (again, wire hangers anyone?). Aghast incredibility has never been this much fun in the presence of la Faye. Now all we need, besides this so-deserving Hollywood Royalty Edition, is seeing her again in the MOMMIE DEAREST:THE HIDDEN YEARS sequel for us to die very very happy.-----Martin Boucher

Given the film's current cult movie status one is tempted to believe the 1981 MOMMIE DEAREST was a critical debacle and a box office fiasco. That is not really the case. It is true that critics generally considered the film a failure, but many of them admired certain elements of it; it is also true that box office fell below expectations, but it was not a box office disaster in the same sense as the 1980 HEAVEN'S GATE or the 1981 INCHON.

It is also true, however, that audiences howled with laughter at the film when it debuted, and although leading lady Faye Dunaway received a number of critical accolades for her performance as Joan Crawford, she also received an equal number of devastating reviews--and it was these that caught the spotlight. It was a humiliating experience for an actress particularly noted for her perfectionism, and rumor has it that Dunaway feels the film ended her career as a major film star. Whatever the case, Dunaway quickly developed a strategic silence about the film that she has maintained for some two decades.

Seen today, it is easy to identify the core problems of the film. The most obvious is the script, which is extremely inconsistent in quality and yet perversely consistent in a style that can only be described as soap opera hot-house to the nth degree. This is particularly true of the dialogue assigned to Dunaway. Infamous lines such as "No More Wire Hangers Ever," "Tina! Bring Me The Axe," and "I'm Not Mad At You, I'm Mad At The Dirt" have become a staple of every drag queen from Maine to California.

But the ultimate disaster here is director Frank Perry. Joan Crawford was a larger-than-life personality; the role is written to reflect this; Dunaway plays the role as it was written. But it would seem Perry sought to heighten the effect: the rest of the cast is extremely, extremely restrained. This must have seemed like a good idea in theory, but it proves a terrible mistake in actual fact. No matter what Dunaway does with it, she can NEVER seem less than wildly overwrought in comparison to the rest of the cast, and the effect is very peculiar indeed.

The designs and the cinematography also clash in an incredibly bizarre way. There is absolutely no doubt that everything about the film is exactingly accurate: that is indeed the look of the period, right down to the very last detail. But the photography is extremely flat, and you are constantly aware that the sets are indeed movie sets, the costumes are movie costumes, and so on. Yes, it is all beautifully rendered, but you can't buy into it as anything real.

The Hollywood Royalty Edition DVD edition offers a good but by no means flawless print of the film and several bonuses. It is unfortunate that they are not particularly illuminating. While director John Water's commentary is enjoyable, he approaches the film only as a fan. Even so, Water does make several telling points: many of the things that Crawford does which seem so odd (bathing the face in ice, for example) are actually commonplace cosmetic necessities for movie stars; many of the things the film treats as abuse were, although carried to wild extremes in the story, typical of child-rearing practices of the 1940s and 1950s.

There are also three short documentaries featuring a number of cast members, most notably Diana Scarwid; these are actually entertaining for the fact that those who appear still seem to regard the film as "a good movie." The only really significant interview is with Lypsinka, an artist who has driven Crawford impersonations to the level of wicked satire and high art, and who offers a number of interesting personal insights into the iconography involved.

Like the film itself, the bonus package has two great failures. The first is that Faye Dunaway does not appear in interview or commentary; it would be very interesting to have her own take on the film, its failures, and its afterlife. Given her sentiment, it is an understandable non-involvement; less understandable, however, that there is not so much as a potted biography of the actress--or indeed of any member of the cast, for there are no written notes of any kind.

The second great failure of the bonus package is that it contains no factual information on either Joan or Christina Crawford. There is no indication here that those who knew both women are sharply divided over the accuracy of the portraits both here and in the book by Christina Crawford from which the film is drawn. A number of people, including actresses Betty Hutton and June Allyson, supported Christina Crawford's accounts, but an equal number, including actress Myrna Loy and Christina's younger siblings, flatly stated that Christina's accustions were largely fictious.

When all is said and done, and in spite of performances and moments that are actually extremely good in isolation, MOMMIE DEAREST is a film that falls under the "so bad it's good" category of cult films. While I am taken aback by the bizarre nature of the movie, I personally find the amusement involved almost as dark as the movie's plot; it is not among my cult film favorites. Even so, I can understand the appeal it has for others, and I give it three stars on that basis.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer