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Mommie Dearest: Directed by Frank Perry. With Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva. The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.
- Frank Perry
- 4 min
May 11, 2024 · “Anne Bancroft will bring the late Joan Crawford to life in Frank Yablans’s big-screen translation of the sad and sorry Mommie Dearest penned by Christina Crawford.” In fact, Bancroft had...
Jan 30, 2024 · The climactic ending of “Mommie Dearest” takes place in the year 2024, highlighting the ongoing impact of Joan Crawford’s actions on her daughter Christina and their unresolved issues. The film concludes with a poignant scene where Christina, now a successful author and advocate for child abuse survivors, confronts her mother’s grave ...
"Mommie Dearest" is a painful experience that drones on endlessly, as Joan Crawford's relationship with her daughter, Christina, disintegrates from cruelty through jealousy into pathos. It is unremittingly depressing, not to any purpose of drama or entertainment, but just to depress.
- Anne Bancroft Was Originally Attached to Star.
- “Mommie Dearest” Was A Term of Enslavement For Christina Crawford.
- The Crew Struggled to Work with Faye Dunaway.
- Crawford Was A Fan of Dunaway.
- Dunaway Got Physical with Rutanya Alda on Set.
- Dunaway Hated How Mommie Dearest Turned out.
- Christina Crawford Wanted to Write The Film, But Her Script Was rejected.
- The Idea of Freaking Out Over Wire Hangers Stemmed from Joan’s childhood.
- Costumer Irene Sharaff Walked Off The Set.
- A Chair in Crawford’s On-Screen Home Came from The Set of The Ten commandments.
According to TCM, The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson was set to play Joan Crawford, until she read Frank Perry and his co-writers’ script, which prompted her to drop out.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Christina Crawford opened up about the film’s famous title, saying that, “‘Mommie dearest’ was a term of enslavement. If we just called her ‘Mother’ or ‘Mommy,’ she corrected us over and over and over again.”
One of the most frequently reported rumors from the set of Mommie Dearest was that Faye Dunaway was a bit of a nightmare. “People despised Faye,” Rutanya Alda, who played Joan’s assistant Carol Ann, told the Bay Area Reporter. “Joan got her way in a ladylike way. Faye was despised because she was so rude to people. Everyone was on pins and needles ...
Regardless of what the film’s cast and crew thought of Dunaway, the woman she embodied loved her. According to Inside the Actors Studio, Crawford once said, “Only Faye Dunaway has the talent, class, and courage to be a real star.”
In an interview with Gay City News, Rutanya Alda recounted her uncomfortable experience with Dunaway. “When [Jocelyn Brando, who played the journalist] saw me go down after Faye hit me, she said, ‘I can’t afford to be injured, [I] just spent six months in the hospital,’” Alda recalled. “Initially, Frank wanted both me and Jocelyn to pull her off Di...
As reported by The Guardian, Dunaway couldn’t stand by the movie: “It was meant to be a window into a tortured soul,” she said. “But it was made into camp.” She later said on Inside the Actors Studiothat, “I feel uncomfortable with the persona that’s out there as a result of the Crawford picture. It was kind of a Kabuki performance.”
Robert Getchell, Tracy Hotchner, Frank Perry, and Frank Yablans were the film’s credited writers. According to Vanity Fair, Christina Crawford’s memoir, on which the film was based, outraged those closest to Joan. Even Cathy Crawford, Christina’s sister, noted: “It makes me very sad. Every time Mommie’s name is mentioned, that book is mentioned. I ...
In the documentary Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On, interviewees recalled the story about where that infamous line came from. Apparently, Crawford’s mother worked at a dry cleaner during a very difficult time in Crawford’s life growing up, thus triggering bad memories. Crawford’s thought process: Why have them in her home if she could afford better?
In 2015, Rutanya Alda wrote The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All, a memoir about the making of the film, which recalledhow costume designer Irene Sharaff was reduced to tears—and walked off the set—because she was so “horrified by some of Faye’s outfit decisions.” When Sharaff left, an assistant mocked Faye’s constant screaming of, “Clear ...
In a 1981 interview with Roger Ebert, producer/writer Frank Yablans took the famed critic on a tour of the film’s set, which he said cost $480,000. During the visit, he made sure to single out one particular piece of furniture. “This chair was originally built as a throne chair for Cecil B. DeMille for The Ten Commandments,” he told Ebert. “What di...
May 8, 2024 · Starring Oscar winner Faye Dunaway as Oscar winner Joan Crawford, the movie adaptation of a memory by Crawford’s adopted daughter, Christina, was intended to be a serious drama. An...
Dec 20, 2023 · 2. Who plays Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest? Joan Crawford is portrayed by actress Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. Dunaway’s powerful performance as Crawford is widely acclaimed and has become one of her most iconic roles. 3. Why is Mommie Dearest considered a cult classic?
