I think the reason so many people think this movie is bad is because Joan Crawford's friends said the book was all lies and that Christina was treated like a princess. So they likely tried to drag it down.
Damn, even watching it through this review, I was terrified of Faye Dunaway's performance. This really won a Razzie? Really? There weren't worse movies in 1981, you know, the year that Zombie Lake, Frankenstein Island, Smokey Bites the Dust, and Tarzan the Ape Man came out?
I been watching this movie since I was a kid n finally hear sumone else notice how unfair the razzie was when Faye Dunaway did an AMAZING Joan Crawford?!?! Lol
I think Razzies sometimes nominate the most talked films of the year,not necessarly the worst (Example Rambo II,Mother !) luckly, they re nominating Christian or Political bullshit (Saving christmas,hillary's america)
I completely agree that if you take this film seriously, it's a highly effective and frightening drama. Dunaway is absolutely on point with her performance of Joan. I've always loved this movie.
It's unlikely, but I _really_ hope Faye Dunaway sees this review. After all the work she did on this role, and all the shit she took from the Razzies over it, I imagine it would be a vindication after all these years. Brad, you did a good thing with this review, and it's one of the reasons I appreciate your reviews more than most (even when I don't agree with them).
Showed this movie to my friend the other day and told him it's considered a camp classic. He summed it up perfectly by saying "The people who think this is camp have never been around crazy people before"
Kinda sucks Faye Dunaway never got to play Norma Desmond in the Sunset Blvd musical when she was supposed to. She actually would’ve been fantastic in that role.
Yes! So glad this was reuploaded! I know "No Wire Hangers," has always been the favorite line amongst fans, (and non fans alike) but mine were always: "TINA....bring me the AX!" (That pause is pure perfection) "Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt!" "I should've of known you'd know where to find the boys, and the booze." "Don't Fuck With Me Fellas! This ain't my first time at the rodeo." Even if you found Faye Dunaway's performance to be over the top, there's no denying, that young actress playing Christina Crawford as a child, put on an excellent performance! That, "Jesus Christ" moment alone, deserved a damn award!
Jake Voronkov I seriously felt the same way. I was actually pretty surprised to learn in post, that it received not only razzies, but several razzie nominations!
The ax line is iconic, and young Christina's lines in the entire wire hangers scene is damn chilling. How this movie won so many razzies is shocking to me since it wasn't the worst movie of the year.
My mom sure won the adoptive parent lottery, that's why this movie is special for me. It makes me grateful that there are good adoptive parents in the world.
Even though the Razzies think that this version of Joan Crawford is bad, the American Film Institute thinks otherwise, as this iteration was named one of their 50 greatest villains in their 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. If this gets named to the National Film Registry, the Razzie committee at the time will be eating their own words.
I just found out the actress wrote a memoir about what it was like working on the set, and oh boy, was it a doozy. Edit: The actress who played Carol Ann, and not Christine - which was my mistake.
...Why are my tan pants now brown? Maybe it's because I grew up with a mother who suffered early-life abuse (and went on to become a social worker), but I think the fact that they used a beautiful actress to "commit" such heinous acts just makes it even more terrifying. People thought/think this movie is funny... why? D:
I love this review so much! Those razzys were truly undeserved. Fays performance was so real that I want to walk out of the room just so she won't look at me with those eyes!
Ah, Mommie Dearest. I remember watching this late night when I was a little kid. Scared the shit out of me. Side note, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is one of my favourite movies of all time!
From what I've seen in this review, outside of Dunaway's Crawford, the rest of the movie around her seems...alright. Not as much of a camp classic like people nowadays declare it as, but not as gun-ho in love with it like Brad does. However, even just watching this review alone without seeing the entirety of the flick, I agree wholeheartedly with Brad with declaring Dunaway's performance as Joan Crawford being the single greatest motion picture performance of all time!
Frightening Fact: According to Christina's book, the wire hangers bit was simply one of Crawford's night raids where she lost her temper at the slightest provocation. Christina believed that it stemmed from her mother's childhood where her mother washed clothing for a living. One of the few jobs that Crawford and her brother were able to do was to hang clothing on the wire hangers. She realized that it was a status thing that clothing that belonged to poor people were hung on wire hangers and those that belonged to rich people hung on wood hangers or were wrapped up. While this is far from my favorite movie, I do agree with Brad on many things especially about Dunaway's performance. Joan Crawford was so over the top in real life that you have to be similarly over the top to play her. Jessica Lange gave a similar performance as Crawford in Feud: Bette and Joan (with an equally over the top Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis). I however find giving Mommie Dearest the Rocky Horror camp comedy treatment insensitive. Whatever you think of the movie, it was a true story and was about child abuse. If it were fiction, I wouldn't care as much. But, really to laugh and mock someone else's real life pain is really below the belt. 2:24 4:10- love the League of Their Own and Chinatown references. 😅😂 Yes that was true. For all her many flaws, Crawford personally wrote to each and every fan. She also got to know the crew members of every production that she was on and even called them by name when they worked together again. She also supposedly would give them nice expensive birthday gifts.
When I was about 13, my mom came into my room one day and noticed I had some clothes on wire hangers. She started ranting about her dislike of wire hangers and I thought it was hilarious because I assumed she was referencing the film. Turns out she hadn't seen it and just really didn't like wire hangers.
Ruby Doomsday the opposite happened to me. Before I had ever seen the movie or heard of it (I was like 11 or 12 I think), my mom came in my room ranting about wire hangers and I was really freaked out...she realized I didn't get the joke and was like "you haven't seen Mommie Dearest yet?"
I feel so bad for that little girl. My mother is bipolar qnd wont admit to it, so she snapped like that. She saw this movie and liked the way mommie dearest sounded, so we got our ases whipped for not calling her that. My mother dudnt like my sister and I's father, and she let us know about it almost every day. My trouble making younger brother knew he could get away with everything and did as much as possible. My sister got pregnant at 15 so she could move out. My mother beat her with a metal dog leash when she was 7 months pregnant. I know what that girl went through. I understand some discipline, like a slap on the hand or on the ass. But the shit in this movie and what we went through should result in jail time. But most times those people never face any type of hustice. Im going to have my first child in February, qnd pray that i can keep my temper and make my child happy, but also respectful.
Gotta agree with Brad here; this film isn't a comedy, unintentional or not. Sure, it's over-the-top, but child abuse just. Isn't. Funny. And Faye Dunaway is chilling.
The only thing I never quite understood was where did those wire hangers come from? I mean movie-wise, Joan is dead set on blaming Christina for it, but if I was just going by the movie, I would have suspected Joan put those wires there, just so she could have an excuse to abuse her.
That I can answer. Before she became an actress, Joan grew up poor. She used to work in a family laundry company. When she made it as an actress and a wealthy woman, that was her escape from that life. She fears going back to that life and any reminders of that justify her fear more. This fear later turned into a severe case of OCD. Wirehangers even back then were the cheapest hanger you can get, with plastic and wood being the more expensive. They are also known to dent and wrinkle delicate fabrics such as the dresses she bought Christina. So when she sees a $300 dress on a $2 dollar hanger it made her snap.
Shanethefilmmaker I'm guessing the help provided the wire hangers, not knowing what an issue they would be. Or maybe Joan was at one point okay with wire hangers, or saw them but said nothing (so they were continously used) and then one night used them as an excuse to berate her daughter just because she wanted to. Not uncommon behavior for abusers/manipulators.
In the case of the movie, I don't think Joan would have been ok with the wire hangers at any point of her rich life and on the off chance the help did do it, she would have fired her and blamed Christina for that too. She is also very manipulative, she pretty much threatened the board members of a very powerful soda company and got away with not only that but owning said Soda company. When I watch their moments, there seems to be a split personality between Joan the parent and Joan the actress. Whenever she plays Joan the Parent, she often tries to make her kids follow two simple but still cruel rules. 1. Live up to her standards. Which any of the kids even the ones that defend her can tell you is tough. 2. Love her no matter what. It's why she goes from a raging monster to a crying baby whenever Christina looks or talks to her condescendingly in rebellion of her abuse. However every time Christina comes remotely close to doing rule one, that's when Joan the Actress takes over. And Joan the actress hates competition, even from her own family. When Christina almost won the swim race, Joan cheated. When Christina got a gig at a soap opera, she stole her role.
Actually a strong movie with chilling acting. The film's misery is just that people couldn't imagine someone behaving so 'over the top' and dramatic in real life like Joan Crawford and thought it's just silly and hilarious writing and acting.
I saw Mommy Dearest as a kid with my mother on some station and it scared me. ^^ You know, I always found Joan a little scary, but mostly because of her looks. Have you ever seen her silent film work from the 20s? It was worse then. Anyway, Faye did a great job and I know she hates talking about this work, but I know if I met her, I would praise her and say that anyone who says otherwise is a fool and that she put on a damn good performance and that she has true talent. I still can't believe that this movie is now marketed as a comedy. I felt the same way when I saw this review when you originally did it years ago (still one of my favorite reviews by you, btw). Some people are just idiots.
Snob poking fun of silly movies makes my day as much as it does for everyone else, but I must say Brad pointing out that certain movies/scenes are better than people give credit usually leads to some of my favorite Snob moments ever! Like his very interesting quick comments about the representation of teen mental health and depression in Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and -back in the Friday the 13th video -about how female characters are often smarter and way more proactive in some slasher movies than in most action flicks. These smart tidbits are something quite unique to his videos, especially in the way he manages to deliver it: informative and yet snarky. I love it, man! Have a great mothers' day night, folks!
Since I was kicked around as a kid this movie was legit hard to watch and we watched it in psychology senior year. The wire hangers scene was too much I think it was one of the times I got in trouble for laughing at a part in a movie in class. The other time was in college with the slapping scene in China town.
Channel Awesome has both paying gigs and non-paying gigs. The anniversary movies happened to be ones that were made on a volunteer basis, but this wasn't a secret, we knew that far ahead of time. I have been in TONS of movies that were volunteer roles. And even though they were non-paying roles, CA still payed for all of our travel, our food, and our hotel costs. None of us were forced to make crossover videos during the anniversary movies. If we did, they asked if they could be on their channel to help cover expenses, however, we still got to keep any extra features we shot or any commentaries or outtakes that we could feature on our own channels. Later we could even post the crossovers on our own channels. Having crossovers posted on their channel was extremely beneficial to me, because their channel had more subscribers and I had a significant boost in viewers after Kickassia and all its crossover videos.
I tried to just play the video and walk away to give you the view (to make up for watching on another channel) but I still end up watching the whole review
Wow, it's already been four years! I remember when this was originally uploaded. One of my favorite reviews of yours. It convinced me to watch, and eventually buy, this film.
Terrefing....Chilling...Wich heart and honesty....It`s one of the moust intens film .....I wont to say somthing but I can`t. I have no other word`s. One of the best revie from Cinema Snob indied. Thank You.
My Mom had severe untreated mental illnesses when I was young. Once at a party an adult accidentally witnessed some of the abuse and joked "No wire hangers!" before walking away. So thank you Snob for your dead on criticism, and fuck the Razzies.
*Cinema Snob has an upload due on Mother's day* *Re-uploads "Mommy Dearest"* Brad, this is why we love you. And yes, that is one HELL of a performance.
Cheese & Rice _Mommie Dearest,_ I saw that movie when HBO was a box that you sat on top of your television set in your living room. Now that I'm older, I'm going to go back and take a look at it.
In regards to bringing up the title of the movie in the movie, as CinemaSins would say, "Roooolllll credits!" Also, great content! You also make me laugh with your humor. Keep it up, please, good sir!
I remember seeing this movie on Logo during some sort of broadcasting event. They were making jokes about it and quoting the movie in a light-hearted way and I was literally so confused. I'm thinking to myself "Ok either I just don`t get the joke or something is seriously wrong here...." I sat through Cannibal Holocaust all the way through and even I can't finish Mommie Dearest.
Excellent review. I’ve always figured that some folks and critics thought this was oh so hilarious and campy, because if they took a minute to take it seriously, it would truly terrify them. That being said, I can relate the OCD of Faye’s portrayal of Joan, and to try to take the edge off with alcohol, been there:)
this one is rough because I had a mother with similar mental health issues, lots of deeply felt abuse. it's so well acted that I don't know if I could actually watch it but I damn well respect it.
I have always liked this movie. I read about Joan Crawford before I saw the movie, so I was blown away by Faye Dunaway's performance. It's like you said, if the clips are taken out of context, they look so absurd that they are funny. However, in the context of the movie, and knowing how Joan Crawford was, this was a good movie.
+Gracekim1 I didn't read the book so I can't say, but perhaps she was terrified of being shut up in the boarding school and essentially abandoned by her mother because, as Brad points out, for all the abuse Joan dealt her Christina still saw her as her mother and loved her and wanted to be loved by her. No child wants to be abandoned by a parent, it's much less traumatizing (theoretically) for the child to willingly cut ties with their parents/family on their own terms when they're ready for it.
I agree with the above comment-it was probably also a little bit of a “the devil you know” situation. She probably didn’t really want to venture into the unknown, because even though it’s obvious to US, the viewers, that she would probably be happier at the boarding school, SHE had no way of knowing that. And there is the whole abandonment thing too. Nobody wants to be dumped by their own parent at that age.
Considering how expensive Christina's dresses are, I would find it safe to believe that Joan had her dresses dry cleaned. Usually when you get your clothes back from the dry cleaners they come hung up on wire hangers. I think Christina was expected to take the dresses off the wire hangers, throw them out, and put the dresses on the nice wooden hangers that are covered in the pink padding. My guess would be Christina forgot to switch out the hangers, and when Joan saw the wire hanger she snapped.
“Joan you have to understand, this is not Hollywood where you get rid of problems with a phone call, This is the real world” of the the best lines of the movie and in classic movies ever and it came from pepci.
For such a supposedly cheesy film, that sure was one of the best final lines to a movie, and most FITTING, I've ever seen. It's almost like you said, Snob...like the Razzies exist just to be assholes and invent bad reviews for films that don't really warrant them, so they will have an excuse to...exist... Naaaah, I'm sure the movie totally sucked.
This is a damn fine performance. I dont know if Joan Crawford was really like that but the film is pretty good IMO. Also probably one of the scariest films I have watched
