| | | | Mommie Dearest
(1981) |
n the Golden Age Of Hollywood, one of the most shining stars was Joan Crawford (Dunaway). She was a great actress at both MGM (which gave her her start) and Warner Brothers (where she won an Oscar for the drama "Mildred Pierce"). She was also a caring mother to her daughter Christina (played as a child by Hobel and as an adult as Scarwid)...Or was she?
Crawford, in the days before she made it big, was involved with multiple romances and several abortions. Christina only got to Joan because Crawford's friend Greg Savitt (Forrest) was able to pull some strings. Joan was only acting the role of the caring mother...Inside her house, she was another beast entirely with young Christina. It starts out as emotional abuse. For example, Christina gets many presents on her birthday, but Joan would only allow her to keep one, while she would give the rest to various needy children. It then becomes psychological abuse with Joan telling Christina that Crawford will always be better than her. It finally gets physical, with the mere act of hanging a dress on a wire hanger sending Joan through the roof. The battle rages on for years, but do you think it will end when Crawford dies?
Aaah, yes, "Mommie Dearest". This is a movie that you either love or hate. It's difficult to say why you would love or hate it, though. I'm a fan of this movie, but that's because I tend to have a thing for over-acting, and nobody does it better than Dunaway in this movie. Child abuse is a horrible thing, of course, but somehow you can find yourself laughing as Joan thrashes her daughter, shrieking the infamous lines "NO WIRE HANGERS! NO WIRE HANGERS, EVER!". You feel guilty about chuckling at the scene, but if it makes you laugh, what's the problem?
One problem I do have, though, is with the stereotype of this movie's typical audience. Over the years, this movie has become a camp classic in the gay community, who love it for its' over-acting and impeccable sense of Golden Age style, but where is it written that you have to be gay to enjoy this movie? I'm straight myself, but I can appreciate a "good bad" movie. That may seem like a contradiction, but to me, there's a difference between a "good bad" movie and a "bad bad" movie. A "good bad" movie is one that the critics hate but the audiences love...One that involves word-of-mouth and audience participation (as you'll see a little of in the trivia), as well as one that can end up on lists that you wouldn't expect. In the case of "Mommie Dearest", the American Film Institute named Joan Crawford as one of the 50 greatest movie villains of all time in their "100 Years, 100 Heroes and Villains" list, while "No wire hangers!" was named one of the 100 greatest lines ever on AFI's "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" list. A "bad bad" movie can be summed up as a film which routinely shows up on the IMDB's Bottom 100 list.
Grab the popcorn and try to hide the wire hangers, and I definitely think you'll enjoy this movie.
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In the end, enjoying this movie may be a matter of how comfortable you feel with some of the situations in this movie. Dunaway's portrayal is over-the-top, so that might not sit well with some people. The treatment of child abuse in this movie could make you feel uncomfortable. Finally, you may feel like questioning your own sexuality while watching this movie.
Treat this movie like a river and just go with the flow. Besides, if it made it onto 2 American Film Institute lists, it couldn't be that bad. Lighten up a little, open your mind and just be grateful you're not in Christina's situation (at least, I hope you're not).
I give this movie a solid 8.
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Christina Crawford's book, on which this film was based, was one of the biggest-selling memoirs in the history of American publishing, with more than 4 million copies sold in hardback alone. 
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This was the first film ever to "sweep" The Golden Raspberry (RAZZIE) Awards, winning five Dis-Honors from a then-record nine Nominations.
It is reported that in an interview, Joan Crawford said that if ever a movie was to be made on her life story she wanted Faye Dunaway to play her.
A month after the film was released to bad reviews, audiences flocked to see the film armed with Ajax and wire hangers to actively "participate" with the film in a manner similar to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Paramount seized on this new found notoriety and began to bill the film as a camp classic, with ads and posters proclaiming, "Meet the biggest MOTHER of them all!"
In the infamous "rose bush" scene, Joan yells "Tina! Bring me the ax!", a line the real Crawford used in the film "Strait-Jacket".
In an interview in the Hollywood Royalty DVD, Rutanya Alda says she once looked in Christina Crawford's real closet and she did have wire hangers.
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Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the Mommie Dearest DVD.
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Little love was lost between costume designer Irene Sharaff and Faye Dunaway. "Yes, you may enter Miss Dunaway's dressing room," Sharaff once said, "but first you most throw a raw steak in - to divert her attention."
The part of Joan Crawford was originally to have been played by Anne Bancroft, who left the project once the screenplay was completed.
The part of the film in which Joan substitutes for her daughter Christina Crawford on the soap opera was filmed on the Cunningham living room and kitchen set from "Happy Days".
Faye Dunaway mentions in her autobiography that she screamed herself hoarse during the filming for the notorious "wire hanger" tantrum scene in this movie. She called her friend Frank Sinatra for help and he gave her some pointers on how she could get her voice back into shape.
The lobby cards issued for the film contain scenes from several sequences that were deleted from the final cut of the film, including: -Joan drives around the MGM lot in her car, apparently just before she visits L.B. Mayer & finds out she's fired. -Joan talks to young Christina on the beach. -Adult Christina talks to Joan while wearing the same dress she wears to the awards ceremony at the film's conclusion.
The pressbook for the film goes into detail about several of the scenes, including one sequence that was cut from the film. Apparently they filmed an entire sequence where young Christina runs away from home and Joan goes out looking for her in her car.
The classic cars that were necessary for the film caused a big stir in the neighborhood where the scene was filmed and one of the people stopped in traffic, so as not to ruin the scene, was Barbara Streisand, who apparently spent time hanging out with Faye Dunaway between takes.
According to Christina Crawford, there were several scenes in which the script had to make alterations for real life events. For example, for the famous rose bush cutting scene Christina said that those manic occasions happened periodically in their life due to no real cause. The producers wanted to use the scenes but had to write in that it was brought on by Joan being fired by MGM executive Louis B. Mayer. Also in reference to Joan helping the maid scrub the floor, Christina stated that Joan never cleaned floors that she could remember. Joan would make Christina or Christopher clean the floors while she supervised.
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|  |  |  | | Mommie Dearest
Locations |
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The movie was filmed mostly in Los Angeles, California. The scenes where Christina was sent to boarding school were filmed at the Chadwick School in Palos Verdes Peninsula, California. The Paramount Studios backlot was also used for several interiors.
Can you help? Do you know any of the Los Angeles, S. California filming locations used for Mommie Dearest? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[5.1 CH SURROUND]](dd5.gif) | Trailer, Commentary, Featurette |
| Our
Comments: "Hollywood Royalty" Edition |
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| Our
Comments: And photo gallery |
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Henry Mancini composed the swooping orchestral score for the movie. His work sounds like something that might actually have been heard in a 40s Hollywood movie. Several songs of the 40s were used as instrumental music in various scenes as well.
We don't know if this soundtrack was ever available.
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Soundtrack Available:
Unknown
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