I have always thought that Faye Dunaway was a lousy actress, and her over-the-top "performance" in MOMMIE DEAREST bears this out to the nth degree. There is not a shred of characterization to be found in Dunaway's work on this film; the woman on the screen is a cartoon character right out of the old horror comics. Dunaway, a woman who has the reputation of taking herself VERY seriously as an actress, makes a complete fool of herself in this movie, mugging for the camera in ridiculously overdone makeup while attempting to duplicate Crawford's throaty voice (she succeeds in sounding a bit like Crawford once or twice, but that's it). The rest of her "acting" consists mainly of screaming like a banshee and crossing her eyes.
The beauty part of this is that this movie is so dreadful that it's wonderful! I have seen it many times, and I literally HOWL with laughter each time I see it.
To be fair, Dunaway is not the only thing that makes this a REALLY REALLY bad movie. The script is so utterly ridiculous that one wonders if Mel Brooks had a hand in writing it. The director must take a great deal of the blame as well; he apparently thought he was making a work of art, but obviously he has no idea how to tell a serious story.
Dunaway has since said that MOMMIE DEAREST nearly ruined her career; see it and you will understand why.
But Dunaway is not the only actress in the film who suffers from the director's sheer incompetence. Diana Scarwid is a fine actress, but she has never quite been able to rid herself of her Southern accent. So here we go (in a VERY awkward transition) from Mara Hobel as the child Christina (whose accent is appropriately Southern California) to Miss Scarwid (who looks WAY older than 13) reading from Anhouil's ANTIGONE in a Southern accent so thick a knife couldn't cut it. And it get's worse when she gets mad; check out the way she delivers the line "Whah did yew adopt me?"
The movie plays fast and loose with the facts here as well. Greg Savitt is a composite character based on several men in Crawford's life (including two of her husbands). There was a Greg Bautzer with whom Crawford was involved, but unlike the depiction in the film, SHE dumped HIM. She also walked out on MGM and not the other way around.
But this is not a biopic; it is a campy black comedy whether it was meant to be or not.
The beauty part of this is that this movie is so dreadful that it's wonderful! I have seen it many times, and I literally HOWL with laughter each time I see it.
To be fair, Dunaway is not the only thing that makes this a REALLY REALLY bad movie. The script is so utterly ridiculous that one wonders if Mel Brooks had a hand in writing it. The director must take a great deal of the blame as well; he apparently thought he was making a work of art, but obviously he has no idea how to tell a serious story.
Dunaway has since said that MOMMIE DEAREST nearly ruined her career; see it and you will understand why.
But Dunaway is not the only actress in the film who suffers from the director's sheer incompetence. Diana Scarwid is a fine actress, but she has never quite been able to rid herself of her Southern accent. So here we go (in a VERY awkward transition) from Mara Hobel as the child Christina (whose accent is appropriately Southern California) to Miss Scarwid (who looks WAY older than 13) reading from Anhouil's ANTIGONE in a Southern accent so thick a knife couldn't cut it. And it get's worse when she gets mad; check out the way she delivers the line "Whah did yew adopt me?"
The movie plays fast and loose with the facts here as well. Greg Savitt is a composite character based on several men in Crawford's life (including two of her husbands). There was a Greg Bautzer with whom Crawford was involved, but unlike the depiction in the film, SHE dumped HIM. She also walked out on MGM and not the other way around.
But this is not a biopic; it is a campy black comedy whether it was meant to be or not.
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