Mommie Dearest (1981)- Page 2

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 4:56pm

Well, I'll have to reassess Ms. Dunaway's performance, and this film one day. My vote for best performance in a strange film goes to Kathleen Turner in SERIAL MOM. A part written for Julie Andrews (who turned it down); it's gave Kathleen Turner a role in which she gives her finest performance, in my opinion.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 4:59pm

Lawyer: [reading from Joan's will after her death] It is my intention to make no provision herein for my son Christopher or my daughter Christina, for reasons which are well known to them.

Christopher: What reasons?

Christina: (laughing bitterly) Jesus Christ.

Christopher: As usual, she has the last word.

Christina: Does she? Does she?

===

I saw Christina speak at Town Hall a few years ago, with Lypsinka perfoming from Joan's advice to young brides.

Christina didn't seem upset at all with the movie. On the contrary, she was proud that the book and movie had raised consciousness about child abuse.

Updated On: 3/11/05 at 04:59 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 5:05pm

Feodor, I'd be interested in your source for that Julie Andrews story - any time I've heard Waters speak of it, he has always said he would never have made the film without Turner - that she was the only person he would have considered for the role.

Also, Andrews would have been a bit long in the tooth at that point to be the mother of two teenagers, no?

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 5:11pm

I will always beat you.

Beat you.

Beat you.

(cue the intro to Mama Mia)

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 5:17pm

Joe...there was no Oscar nomination. Her performance was campy, which I love, but was dismissed as a chariacture. She did win an award for it...a razzy.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 5:21pm

Rath, my source was my association with Miss Andrews from the late-80's to the mid-90's. She was sent this script in, I believe, late 1991 or very early 1992. But, further to that (as I try to never state things that aren't public knowledge), I am almost positive that John Waters stated this fact in an interview. Not sure I can track that down; but I'll check. As far as Julie being too old, that's a matter of opinion. Look at her in the film OUR SONS (which is how she would have looked in SERIAL MOM). I think she looks great! Although I can't remember how old Hugh Grant is supposed to be in that film (certainly not a teenager), but I could believe her as the mother of teenagers.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 5:52pm

Very interesting, Feodor.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:06pm

This would make a great musical

A chorus line with a line of Joan C's singing "No More Wire Hangers"

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:07pm

I love Serial Mom -- especially the scene where Beverly stabs the woman in the gut with the scissors (for eating birds) and then a mouse comes out of a shoebox to chew on the woman's ankle. Maybe a thread about that movie is due?

Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid both won Razzies for their performances in Mommie Dearest. The film was out of the Oscar race once the reviews came in...
Both Dunaway and Scarwid are terrible actresses. That's why I love them so much! :)

I second the statement that Mommie Dearest the film isn't far from the book, contrary to what Christina Crawford once said. IMO, the biggest thing the film left out -- besides the hilariously cruel correspondences between Joan and Christina while Christina was in the convent -- was the portrayal of Christina as a homophobic jerk. You all do know that part of the reason she disliked Joan was that Joan had 'disgusting homosexual affairs' in the Brentwood mansion, right?

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:10pm

THose letters were priceless. I'll have to go home and read them when I get off work.

Serial Mom is great. The scene where Kathleen Turner pretends to be a phone operator and has the woman repeat the obscen messages is hilarious.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:18pm

Back in 1974, when I started my love of old theaters , I got involved with others in trying to save a local movie palace from demolition & put to other use.

Politics dictated it would come down & it did. We put up a good fight. One thing we did was get some famous people to send letters of support. Unltimately it made no difference. One letter (on Plaza Hotel stationary) was from Michael Love of the Beach Boys. Another was from Joan Crawford.

She was larger than life. Her signature on the letter ( I have a copy) was larger than life. Her J seemed to take up the whole page. One favorite line from the letter was " They don't make theaters like this anymore" She saw the end of a Hollywood tradition & maybe was reflecting on her whole career in that letter

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:25pm

and the woman she's screaming ****willow at, is none other than the wonderful Mink Stole.....

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 6:28pm

FYI -- Mommie Dearest is airing at 6:45 tonight on HBO Signature.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 7:32pm

yikes.....I've been censored, for naming a plant a p****willow. How very bizarre....

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 7:34pm

Don't be such a ****...censorship is for big boys

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/11/05 at 11:13pm

I walked by the local florist the other day, and they were displaying a big bouquet of ****willows in the window - I giggled. I'll forever hear KT snarling the word whenever I see or hear of them.

[Urban]

Posted: 3/12/05 at 7:36am

It is generally assumed that B.D.'s book on Bette Davis is garbage and B.D. did nothing but try to cash in on the success Christina had. In fact in the book B.D. could say nothing more then Bette was a strict mother, and alot of the 'claims' of various problems that Bette supposedly caused where refuted very easily. Read Bettes own book "This and That", Gary Merrill's autobiography etc.

Christina just had a horribly complex and unrequited relationship with her mother and thus wanted to put pen to paper. B.D. was just in it for the money and the 15 minutes of fame.

Of course several scenes from "Mommie Dearest" are considered to be falsified as well. Originally Christina Crawford handed to the publisher a mundaine manuscript and the publisher then proceded to insert some of the more shocking scenes to spice it up (the Rose Garden and the Talcum Powder scenes for example), which where nothing but pure fiction.

The twins (Cathy and Cindy Crawford), whome where dropped from the movie all together and pretty much stated in interviews that the movie is 99% bull**** and nothing ever happened like that in Casa Crawford.

Was Joan the perfect housewife and mother? Heck no, she had balls of iron which where the size of Texas, but that is the reason most of her fans love her!

The funniest thing is I think Joan and Christina where simply both Type A personality people and where just going to butt heads no matter what and both specifically went out of their way to spite the other. But in the end, they still loved each other in a real messed up needy kind of way that lonely people often get. Even in the book Christina admitted for the most part her relationship with her mother as an adult was extremely good.

[Pinky]

Posted: 4/25/05 at 8:01pm

NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!!!