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I have not seen "Mommie Dearest," in its entirety, since its 1981 release. But seeing clips of it are hilarious. This shot is from the big confrontation scene, between mother and daughter, which I can tell is so carefully blocked as to not hurt Diana Scarwid, because, in playing Joan Crawford, Faye Dunaway lost herself along the way, creating a Joan, perhaps even more frightening, than Joan Crawford, herself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The scene culminates with Christina, sitting in the office of a Mother Superior, who says, "Dear Christina, God has brought you to our convent school." Let me tell you, hons, if it was between convent school or living with Joan, I would choose the convent, too!
Even a battle-ax nun, like Gladys Cooper portrayed in "The Song Of Bernadette, would be preferable to dealing with a deranged Joan Crawford!
And in the scene, where she delivers the famous line, "Tina....bring me the AX!!!!!!!!!, it is like Faye splits into three separate personalities on screen--herself, Joan Crawford, and Lucy Harbin, whom Joan played in 1964's "Strait-Jacket!"
No wonder I cheer for Veda in "Mildred Pierce!" She wasn't fooled one bit by Joan's phoniness! No convent school for her!
But Christina, really, got the better deal! Anything to get away from Joan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 comments:
Did you see her in “Network”??
Victoria,
I saw "Network," when it first came out.
I have read that William Holden said that,
during the shooting of the bedroom scene,
he lost his professional virginity!
Poor Faye really did lose her mind while filming "Mommy Dearest" - that shoot was the real-life embodiment of Kim Novak's "Legend Of Lylah Claire" fiction film. Dunaway never recovered from her Crawford debacle: it warped her own personality to a degree she couldn't quite shake it off. A shame she can't admit it and authorize a good therapist to publicly de-construct the whole episode: I think it would be a fascinating exploration of human psychology.
Its so well known and notorious today that nobody can possibly view it unencumbered by its baggage as a camp classic. But when it first opened, reactions were more flexible. Depending on one's frame of mind and personal parental background, "Mommie Dearest" was either hilarious or deeply disturbing. In my case it was both, not least because my own "Mommie" dropped my sister and I off at the theater, then picked us up after.
Sis and I were alternately cringing in horrified recognition, or on the theater floor laughing with relief that someone else "got it" - our mother had so many of the traits depicted that some scenes played like home movies. Sis almost gave the game away with her peals of laughter from the back seat of the car on our way home: Mom had heard just enough about the story to be hugely insulted by the comparison (which she of course was blind to the truth of).
Paramount was not happy with the way things turned out. They had indulged Faye's excess because they were convinced they had an Oscar-winning drama on their hands. When it opened to bad reviews and empty theaters, they panicked, until a couple weeks in the flick began packing houses in West Hollywood and gays began quoting the lines incessantly. Some queen in marketing noticed, and tried an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ploy (the original "prestige" ad layout got defaced with a wire hanger graphic and emblazoned with the tagline "No wire hangers-EVER!". The New York Times and other papers got so much hate mail from that campaign that Paramount pulled it within a week, but it had done the job: every daytime talk show and late night host had picked up the ball and run with it.
Paramount managed to snatch break-even financials from something that was running headlong into disaster by re-positioning it as a black comedy for gays (and every last one of us paid to see it: twice). In the process, Dunaway was completely destroyed and newcomer Diana Scarwid saw her promising career skid straight into low-budget horror films.
Not a good outcome for either of them personally. But as the ancient Egyptians firmly believed, you live for eternity as long as the people remember your name. Infamy will do as well or better than fame for that purpose.
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