Barnes & Noble

Faye Dunaway delivers an unforgettable portrayal of Hollywood screen icon Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest, a cult classic that alerted a generation of film fans to the dangers of wire clothes hangers. The story chronicles, in horrific detail, the actress's relationship with her adopted daughter (Diana Scarwid) who bore the brunt of Crawford's alcoholism, perfectionism, and abusive behavior. Director Frank Perry loosely adapted Christina Crawford's memoirs for the screen; the result is a Joan Crawford who is partly biographical and partly an amalgam of her various on-screen alter egos. The initial box-office failure of Mommie Dearest nearly destroyed Dunaway's career, but she is amazing in the role, managing to generate sympathy and understanding for the film's undeniably grotesque heroine. Most importantly, she has the kind of overwhelming star power that keeps the viewers' eyes glued to the screen. Part horror film, part melodrama, this deliciously perverse and lavishly produced spectacle is high quality camp at its most entertaining. Amy Robinson

Barnes & Noble

Photo gallery; theatrical trailer

All Movie Guide

When her adoptive mother Joan Crawford died in 1977, erstwhile actress/author Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were left out of Joan Crawford's will, "for reasons which are well known to them." Industryites have suggested that it may have been this posthumous act of rejection rather than an alleged lifetime of parental abuse that inspired Christina Crawford to pen her scathing autobiography Mommie Dearest. The 1981 film version of this tome was evidently meant to be taken seriously, but the operatic direction by Frank Perry and the over-the-top portrayal of Joan Crawford by Faye Dunaway (whose makeup is remarkable) has always seemed to inspire loud laughter whenever and where-ever the film is shown. According to the film (and the book that preceded it), Joan Crawford was a licentious, child-beating behemoth, who stalked and postured through life as though it was one of her own pictures-more Strait-jacket than Mildred Pierce. This is the film with the notorious "wire coat hanger" scene, just in case you need a reminder. Surprisingly, one emerges from Mommie Dearest with more sympathy for the monstrous but intensely vulnerable Crawford than for her whining daughter (played as an adult by Diana Scarwid, and as a child by Mara Hobel). Our favorite scene: Joan Crawford dazedly replacing her ailing daughter in the cast of a daytime TV soap opera. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 097360420845
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Time: 2:09:00
• Sales Rank: 7,293