This week's winner is sort of rediscovered, meaning she had been buried in my consciousness, but did not re-emerge till I was one day searching for info on the actress who had played her.
Girls, let me tell you, the talk of the Summer has been the movie "The Help;" among other aspects of it, Bryce Dallas Howard's dead on portrayal of Social OueenBee and racist bitch, Hilly Hollbrook. With this performance, Bryce is causing Hilly to elbow her way into the pantheon of Great Screen Bitches.
Hilly is despicable, no doubt about it. But, long before her, there was another who could have given Hilly a run for her money.
The winner of this week's Raving Queen Bitch Of The Week Award is Missy Anne Reynolds, as played by Sandy Duncan in the 1977 telefilm of Alex Haley's "ROOTS."
Missy Anne is a piece of work, so much so that, after seeing Sandy Duncan in the role, it took me three years, that is, until she played "Peter Pan" on Broadway in 1980, for me to stop hating her!!!!!!
Basically, Missy Anne is a younger version of Aunt Pittypatt, only nasty!
She is Daddy's Girl from the moment she is born, and, with her mother dead, even moreso. One has to wonder how close she and Daddy were, considering how things turn out. And she is a monster of Entitlement.
As a little girl, she and her personal maid, Kizzy, were playmates together, and formed a friendship that the young Kizzy, who could not be expected at that age to grasp the tenor of the times, thought was lasting. Missy Anne promised Kizzy they would always be together, and that she would never be sold, and separated from her family.
Well, as Mary Poppins would say, that was a pie crust promise--easily made, easily broken. And broken it is, because it is discovered that Kizzy can read (as Missy Anne has been teaching her). Documents are found helping Kizzy's kin, Noah, to escape, and while Missy Anne is the one who taught her to read, Kizzy (wonderfully played by Leslie Uggams) gets the brunt of it--beaten, tied up, and dragged away in a wagon to be sold, screaming for Missy Anne. But that Entitlement Princess, oh, no, she does NOTHING--she knows she is doing wrong, and she is seen watching the proceedings through window curtains, staring at Kizzy, and sneering at her!!!!! She had bigger fish to fry--beaux and plantation management. This was the moment when I HATED Sandy Duncan!!!!!! But, true to form, she gets her comeuppance.
Years later, they are older women. Kizzy is a survivor, and, while out in her yard, a carriage drives by, stops, and an older woman asks for water. Kizzy sees at once who it is--it is Missy Anne!!!! But Time has not been good to her, as she so righteously expected!!!! She looks like a dessicated old crone, and she is still "Missy," as no one has ever married her. Guess the suitors caught on fast!!!! Kizzy tells her who she is, and once again, this bitch, who has a chance to apologize, and still form a friendship, turns up her nose in denial...even though she knows Kizzy is right!!!! Well, in a scene that sort of inverts "The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman," Kizzy turns, walks to the well, and gives Missy Anne that water!!!! But not before she spits in it, having the last word on the now withered old bitch!!!!
Aunt Pittypatt might have been a childlike spinster, but Uncle Peter was well treated, and she got some enjoyment out of her life. But for her high handedness, Missy Anne gets none. She did not deserve any.
It was quite a revelation seeing pert and wholesome Sandy Duncan play this role. It showed there was more to her acting ability than realized at the time, and not until Suzanne Pleshette played Leona Helmsley in "The Queen Of Mean" did I find it difficult to divorce actor from character!!!!!
So, here is a salute to Missy Anne Reynolds, a great, rediscovered bitch!!!
Drink that water, and choke on it, honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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