On M List of Movie Reviews
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Mommie Dearest (1981)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
1/08, 5/17
1/08:
Written by adopted daughter Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest is the first and the most famous tell-all book
about Joan Crawford and the mystique of Hollywood.
It completely obliterated the movie star's reputation. To soil her image even further is Faye Dunaway's iconic camp performance.
Talk about two controlling kooks. What's lost in the shuffle is that the story was supposed to be about child abuse and
that Christina Crawford was the first to create awareness. So, kudos to her.
Back to the film, I don't think Mommie Dearest is that bad. It's more of a horror picture, at least
in the eyes of a child. Yeah, it goes overboard at certain times with the "No...Wire...Hangers!" scene that's the most infamous
of them all. It'll be forever etched in my memory when I think about Joan Crawford, and wire hangers will never be the same
again.
Fascinating are the obsessive-compulsive disorder, the bipolar moods, the gung-ho parenting, the bizarre rules, and the
spontaneous moments of insanity. However, the final thirty minutes falls flat which makes the whole thing a farcical
statement of what a total bitch Joan Crawford was; hence, it's better to read the book.
Now, we come to Faye Dunaway...she is Joan Crawford, period. I'm surprised that she wasn't rewarded with an Oscar nomination.
Having reminded me of Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard,
her performance is an Oscar winner if I've ever seen one.
All in all, my congratulations to Christina Crawford and Faye Dunaway for taking Joan Crawford down in flames in the worst
way possible; it's a much-deserved comeuppance.
5/17:
The most famous scene of Mommie Dearest is when Faye Dunaway, as Joan Crawford, yelled, "No...wire...hangers!"
Unfortunately, it was enough to propel the film into camp territory and ruin her career. That wasn't the intended message.
Rather, it's about child abuse, and everybody did a piss-poor job of not making it the central topic. If you read the book,
as I had, you can clearly see there's much more to Joan Crawford and the kind of mother she was.
The trouble is the awkward transitions from one scene to another and from one phase to another. The filmmakers seem more
concerned in capturing the highlights of the book. Hence, they've done a good job of making Joan Crawford a sympathetic
figure with poor parenting skills which is 100% bullshit.
All in all, Mommie Dearest mostly fails by not taking child abuse seriously.