We'd like to believe that during the early stages of this film's conception, its makers aimed for a higher purpose.....to craft a riveting, compellingly serious drama based on Christine Crawford's best selling memoir, this saga of a legendary, deeply flawed woman and the unspeakable lifetime of abuse she heaped on a child she chose to raise as her own. They secured the participation of Faye Dunaway, who sat at the very top of Hollywood's A-List.....an actress greatly admired by Joan Crawford herself.
So what happened?
The resulting film unfolded like an alternate universe remake of "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane".....with Dunaway's Joan Crawford now playing the Bette Davis role, a shrieking, eye-bulging harpy from hell, unhinged and prone to bursts of violence. The Joan Crawford role in 'Baby Jane', that of the cringing, cowering victim, transferred over to Christina Crawford (Diana Scarwid). And as did 'Baby Jane', 'Mommie Dearest' wallowed in its lengthy Halloween Funhouse tour of vicious intimidation and jawdropping physical abuse.
In other words....a horror movie.....a freak show designed only to provoke head-shaking and nervous laughter from its viewers.
In her interpretation of Crawford as a pure monstrous id run amok, Dunaway was more than an equal to Bette Davis's Baby Jane Hudson. In place of Davis's massive layers of white pancake makeup, Dunaway smeared her face with cold cream, screaming as she crawled around on all fours. Like Baby Jane, Mommy Crawford attempts starving her designated victim....(only the revolting food of choice changes, with Baby Jane's dead parakeets and rats replaced by Crawford's plate of raw meat) While Baby Jane wields a mere ordinary hammer, Crawford's weapon of choice becomes the movie's touchstone, much like Leatherface's chainsaw and Freddy Krueger's claws.....wire hangers. All the better to beat you with, my dear.....
Critics howled, audiences (what little there were) laughed out loud......Christina Crawford was appalled at the results, the torment of her life reduced to a 'Rocky Horror Show' midnight-only special. Dunaway, who probably dreamed of an Academy Award nomination, recoiled from the film in deep embarrassment. She would never speak of it in public again.
Whatever the original intentions of the filmmakers were, the Paramount marketing department knew precisely what they'd inherited. They quickly revamped the film's ad campaign from prestige drama to grindhouse scare-fest, making use of Dunaway's signature rant ("No wire hangers!") and a killer slogan. ('The biggest mother of them all!') A camp classic was born....attendees brought their own wire hangers...
Blame game? We weren't invited on the set, so who knows. Director Frank Perry came to this film with a background of unusual, distinctive quirky little movies that always featured memorable, award-worthy acting. ("Play It As It Lays", "Diary Of A Mad Housewife", "The Swimmer") But BQ always thought the overall tone of his films floundered about, suffering from Perry's lack of any firm grip on his material or how to present it. He clearly had no grip on Dunaway as she tore through her role like she was performing for the upper decks at Yankee stadium. The deadly combination of Perry's barely-there control and his actress's Grand Opera theatrics reduced the film to a grotesque caricature, a movie that randomly bounced from cardboard melodrama to lurid horror.....a movie brazenly inviting ridicule.
Wait a few more years......and there's bound to be a TV mini-series with some actress portraying Faye Dunaway in the ripe, rambunctious story of the making of 'Mommie Dearest'. As for the movie itself, the BQ hangs up only 2 wire hangers....(**) The biggest mother of 'em all' coulda been a contender......
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