Mommie Dearest (film)

Mommie Dearest
File:Mommie Dearest DVD cover.jpg DVD cover
Directed by	Frank Perry
Written by	Book: Christina Crawford Screenplay: Robert Getchell Tracy Hotchner Frank Perry Frank Yablans
Produced by	Frank Yablans
Starring	Faye Dunaway Diana Scarwid Mara Hobel Rutanya Alda Steve Forrest
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	September 18, 1981
Running time	128 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (estimated)

Mommie Dearest is a 1981 Paramount Drama Biopic about Joan Crawford, starring Faye Dunaway.

The film was directed by Frank Perry. The story was adapted for the screen by Robert Getchell, Tracy Hotchner, Frank Perry and Frank Yablans, based on the 1978 book Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford. The executive producers were Christina's husband, David Koontz, and Terrence O'Neill, Dunaway's then-boyfriend and soon-to-be husband.

Plot summary

At the beginning of the film, Joan Crawford rises very early in the morning to prepare for a work day at the MGM Studios. She engages in a slightly neurotic morning ritual where she scrubs her face vigorously with soap and hot water, then plunges it immediately into ice with alcohol in it to close the pores. Joan is obsessed with cleanliness and wants those around her to follow her instructions to the letter. When a new maid thinks she has Joan's living room in spotless condition, Joan finds one minute detail that the maid overlooked and momentarily loses her temper over it; she very clearly intimidates the maid, as well her new live-in personal assistant, Carol-Ann.

Joan is in a steady romantic relationship with Hollywood lawyer Gregg Savitt, but her career is in a bit of a downswing. She reveals to Gregg that what she really wants is a baby, but that she can't get pregnant; seven pregnancies when she was married to actor Franchot Tone all ended in a miscarriage. When she is denied an application for adoption through a legal agency, she enlists Gregg's help to secure a baby through means which are not made clear. Finally, Joan gets what she wants: a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl, whom she names Christina.

The film moves abruptly to when Christina is about eight or nine years old. Joan has adopted another child, a boy she calls Christopher; but the focus of the film remains on Christina. Joan lavishes her with attention and such luxuries as an extravagant birthday party, but also enforces a strict code of denial and discipline. When Christina is showered with gifts at her birthday party, Joan makes the decision to donate all but one of Christina's birthday presents to an orphanage, making Christina take responsibility for the gesture, which has been documented in the press, presumably garnering publicity for Crawford. As Christina begins to rebel against her mother's stringent demands and standards, a series of confrontations emerges, forming the movie's core. Joan easily overtakes Christina in a swimming-pool race, and then becomes enraged at the young girl when she reacts with childish disappointment. When Joan discovers Christina putting on makeup at her dressing table and imitating her, she cruelly hacks off Christina's hair with a pair of scissors.

Quickly these tantrums grow even more bizarre and violent, as when Joan flies into a bitter rage and hacks down her prize rose garden with a pair of large gardening shears and an axe. The film suggests that Joan did this in a rage after MGM asked her to leave after 18 years, as the studio was losing money on her films (theatre owners voted her "box office poison"). In the film's most notorious scene, Joan stalks into Christina's bedroom in the middle of the night, her face covered with beauty cream, and discovers one of the child's dresses hanging on a wire hanger. Joan launches into a frightening tirade, screaming at the girl that she had forbidden wire hangers, viciously tearing apart her closet, and then beating the girl with the hanger. The fight continues when Crawford stumbles into Christina's bathroom and feels that she has not obeyed her orders to scrub the floor that day. Furious that the child doesn't understand her notion of cleanliness, Joan destroys the bathroom as well, beating Christina with two cans of scouring powder and hurling the cleanser over everything. Finally she leaves the girl with an angry order to "clean up this mess" all by herself.

Eventually, Crawford sends Christina away to attend a boarding school, and the film makes another jump in time, to when Christina seems to be about 16. Crawford claims to be losing her financial stability and works out an arrangement that allows Christina to perform chores around the school for her board and tuition. Meanwhile, Christina begins to realize that her mother's erratic behavior is fueled in part by her alcoholism.

Christina's grades are excellent and she seems to be proud of her schoolwork, but things change drastically when she is caught in a compromising position with a boy. Although the encounter was innocent, Joan arrives at the school furious and removes Christina permanently, after screaming in rage at the school's headmistress. Joan brings Christina home with her, where, ironically, a reporter from Redbook magazine is in the house writing a puff piece article on Crawford's home life. An argument erupts and Christina accuses Joan of adopting her children simply to give herself free publicity. Joan slaps Christina several times across the face and then becomes completely unhinged, lunging at Christina, dragging her to the carpet, and attempting to choke her to death. Carol-Ann and the visiting reporter witness the attack and intervene, but there's apparently no punishment for Crawford, who sends Christina to a strict convent school against her will under the strictest rules against her.

The film's final act takes place after Christina matures and sets out on her own. Joan marries Alfred Steele, CEO of Pepsi Cola, and urges him to take on a great deal of debt to fund their lavish home and lifestyle. After his death, she remains on the company's board of directors, but not without a bitter confrontation with the all male board. Christina and her mother enter into a somewhat amicable phase in their relationship, despite the fact that Joan seems to sabotage Christina's attempt to establish herself as an actress. It comes as a complete shock to Christina and Christopher that, upon Joan's death at the end of the film, they are both disinherited in her will "for reasons that are well known to them". The final dialogue exchange hints that Christina has decided to write a book about her experiences growing up with "Mommie Dearest" and thus avenge Christopher and herself.

Script and production

Joan Crawford's image was severely tarnished as a result of this film, as many now remember her as a cruel and abusive parent rather than a famous and successful Hollywood motion picture actress. The role of Joan Crawford was originally to be played by actress Anne Bancroft, who backed out of the role at the 11th hour.

Perhaps due to time and budget limitations there are few references to Crawford's early marriages; the character of Greg Savitt is a composite of several of her relationships and Crawford's third husband, actor Phillip Terry. Also omitted from the story are details about her religious experiences as a Christian Scientist, as well as portrayals of her two younger adopted daughters. CBS declined to participate in the movie, so the scenes in which Joan fills in for Christina on soap opera The Secret Storm are intentionally vague; the soap is never mentioned by name, only as "the 4 o'clock show" (the time that Secret Storm aired for many years).

Actress Belita Moreno plays soap-opera producer Belinda Rosenberg who drops by the hospital when Christina is being treated for appendicitis; Moreno went on to play George Lopez's mother on the television series The George Lopez Show.

According to one of Joan Crawford's agents, Louis B. Mayer himself began calling Joan Crawford "Box-Office Poison" in a trade publication. Also, the film fails to mention that, as a gift, Mayer gave Joan rose bulbs which she eventually planted in her garden, tended, then later mowed-down with an axe.

Many of the most abusive incidents were eliminated; some were merged together. The infamous wire hanger rant is joined with the fight over the cleanliness of the bathroom floor, which are reported in the book as separate incidents. Christina's relationship with her first boyfriend at school - the incident where Joan knocked Christina over a chest and beat her, then sent her to Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy - actually occurred at different times. Joan's relationship with Christina's brother Chris was also left out of the movie. Joan's threats, punishments, and quite severe abuse of Christina, described in the book, were eliminated from the movie. Despite these cuts, the movie's run time was quite long.

The fictional role of domestic assistant Carol-Ann, the role actress Rutanya Alda plays, is an amalgamation of several Crawford employees throughout the years, roughly from 1938 to 1977.

The 'Joan Crawford vs Pepsico Board of Directors' scene never actually happened, at least not in the way it is portrayed in the film; The Company asked the then-newly-widowed actress to replace her late-husband, Pepsico boardmember Alfred Steele. It wasn't until 1973 that Crawford was forcibly retired. Apparently, events which took place between the time of Steele's death and Crawford's Pepsico retirement are compressed to save money and running-time for this film-adaptation.

Faye Dunaway has said that during the filming, she felt Joan's presence on the set many times.

During Faye Dunaway's interview on Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio", James Lipton saved the topic of "Mommie Dearest" for the end of the interview, being as how Dunaway credits the film for ruining her career. When he comments on her appearance in the film as Joan, Dunaway says that she and the make-up artist worked for hours trying to get the "Crawford look". Finally Faye says she discovered that Joan looked the way she did because of the way she purposely held her facial muscles, thus explaining why Joan looked different in her very early career. Faye says "It was chilling."

Reviews

The movie as a whole received overwhelmingly negative reviews by film critics. Roger Ebert opened his review with the damning statement "I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie.". About Dunaway's performance, Variety said "Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, costars and all." Roughly a month into release, Paramount realized the film was getting a reputation and box office as an unintentional comedy, and changed its advertising to reflect its new camp status, proclaiming, "Meet the biggest MOTHER of them all!"

File:Nowirehangers.jpg

"NO WIRE HANGERS, EVER!!!" Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in the film's most iconic scene.

While Dunaway garnered some critical acclaim for her astonishing physical metamorphosis and her portrayal of Crawford (finishing a narrow second in the voting for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress of the Year), she also received a Razzie Award for Worst Actress. (The film received five "Razzie" awards overall.)

The film was damaging to Dunaway's career, and Dunaway later stated that she wished she had never appeared in it. It was said that she attempted to tone down her portrayal of Crawford, but met opposition from Christina Crawford in doing so. In her autobiography, Dunaway only makes a brief mention of the movie stating that she wished the director had enough experience to see when actors needed to rein in their performances. Joan Crawford once said in an interview in the early 1970s that of the current young actresses only Faye Dunaway had "what it takes" to be a true star.

Camp classic

The film was intended to be a drama, but in the years since its release, it has achieved cult status as a high camp classic.

This began when viewers who had heard about or seen the "no wire hangers ... ever!" scene, in which Crawford wakes Christina and beats her with a wire hanger for using it on an expensive dress instead of a wooden one, led to pranksters showing up at theaters with wire hangers hoping to "participate" in the movie, as if it were the cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In fact, once the producers saw that the movie was going the opposite direction, wire hangers were passed out in the theater.

Christina later went on to appear at various public events and drag shows across the U.S. that included performances by entertainer Lypsinka, who performs as "Joan" and includes in her act a reenactment of the "wire hangers" scene and other Crawford bits.

DVD release

Mommie Dearest was released on DVD July 17, 2001. It was re-released June 6, 2006 in a special "Hollywood Royalty" edition, with commentary by John Waters. Waters spends the bulk of his commentary dissecting the film as a serious bio-film and is quite outspoken in condemning the two sequences in the film (the infamous "wire hanger" rant and "Tina! Bring me the axe!") that Waters believed are responsible for the film's reputation as a camp film.

Awards and nominations

• Golden Raspberry Awards

Won: Worst Picture

Won: Worst Screenplay

Won: Worst Actress (Faye Dunaway)

Won: Worst Supporting Actor (Steve Forrest)

Won: Worst Supporting Actress (Diana Scarwid)

Won: Razzie Award for Worst Picture of the Decade (1980s)

Nominated: Worst Supporting Actress (Rutanya Alda)

Nominated: Worst Supporting Actress (Mara Hobel)

Nominated: Worst Director (Frank Perry)

Nominated: Worst New Star (Mara Hobel)

Nominated: Worst "Drama" of Our First 25 Years

• Young Artist Awards

Nominated: Best Motion Picture - Family Enjoyment

Nominated: Best Young Motion Picture Actress (Mara Hobel)

Cultural References

• Alice Nunn, the actress who plays Helga the maid, the first person in the movie to fall victim to Crawford's cleaning mania ("I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the dirt!"), also portrays ghost truck driver Large Marge in another 80s cult favorite, Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
• The [4] exterior of the Mommie Dearest house is actually a home in Bel- Air, next door to Ronald and Nancy Reagan's home that they lived in following his two terms as President and in which he later died. The house's front exterior was later used in the final episode of the television show "Designing Women", as an antebellum home that the cast had been hired to gut and modernize at their disgust. The back of the house, reconstructed on a Paramount lot along with the interior of the house, was later modified and used in the television series "The Colbys" as the back of the family's home.
• The set used in the film as the TV soap opera set where Crawford fills in for her ailing daughter is the actual set of the Cunningham home in ABC-TV's Happy Days.
• The hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult released a song titled "Joan Crawford (Has Risen From The Grave)" on their album "Fire of Unknown Origin."
• The experimental band Negativland samples audio from this movie on their 1997 release "Dispepsi". ("We've got to look great for Pepsi Cola!" and "Don't fuck with me fellas!" are two heavily used samples on this release).
• John Waters refers to this film as "The first comedy about child abuse."
• Animated sitcoms Futurama and Family Guy each paid an homage to the now-famous scene. In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" Lois freaks out in similar fashion to Joan Crawford when Meg tells her there are no more paper towels. Also, when Stewie is reenacting his beating from Lois in another episode, he can be heard saying "mommie dearest". In "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV", a child actor trying for a part on All My Circuits was being fixed up by his mother. When his chest compartment opens up it reveals hanging wires, to which the mother grabs them and shouts "No... MORE... HANGING WIRES!" while whipping him.
• In the Music Video for Victoria Beckham's Let Your Head Go / This Groove, released 2004, she reenacts the "no wire hangers ever" as well as the flower cutting scene.
• In the film Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea sees a wire hanger in Brenda's closet. She gets angry and screams, "A wire...HANGER!", and proceeds to destroy Brenda's clothes.
• In the third episode of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy says about the nasty mother "So Mommy Dearest is really Mommy Dearest".
• In the film Another Gay Movie the drag actress Lypsinka plays mother who reacts in horror at a wire hanger in her son's room, and later complains of crumbs on the counter, reciting the line "I'm mad at the crumbs!" after her son has sexually defiled a quiche.
• At The Drive-In has a song entitled "Shaking Hand Incision" containing the lyrics, "no wire coat hangers".
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Hilary Banks complains to her dad (who is making her get a job) "Why don't you just beat me with a wire hanger!?"

See also

• Mommie Dearest (book)

External links

• Mommie Dearest at IMDb

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