Andrew Sarris
“Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford? You've got to be kidding. When will these mod types learn that they can't mimic the old glamour queens? At least that's what I hought my lead sentences would be before I saw the film version of Mommie Dearest. After all, I had been forced to witness such woeful waxworks impressions as Gable and Lombard and teh many deservedly forgotten travesties on the life of Jean Harlow. Faye Dunaway is something else again as Joan Crawford. Somehow she has forced herself deep inside the tormented psyche of the star and the repressive ethos of the old studio system. She consequently makes the alleged cruelties of Joan Crawford, model Hollywood mother to her adoring public, both credible and comprehensible.
“I have never fully understood the wide-spread skepticism and ridicule that greeted Christina Crawford's pathetic memoir….
“Why were most people in Hollywood and the book world so eager to believe the worst about Margaret Sullavan [in her daughter's account of their life, Haywire] and not about Joan Crawford?….
“My love for Maggie may have made me unjust to Joan, but I cannot believe that anyone has ever had any illusions about the extent to which Crawford was power-mad and ego-oriented. That was part of her fascination on the screen. That was the essence of the message projected by those mesmerizing eyes, so nakedly ruthless and ambitious. Her publicity, however, took a different tack….
“…. It was Christina's misfortune that she grew up with her stepmother when Norma Desmond time had come for the Crawford career. The private rages erupting away from the prying eyes of the press in a home that was pathologically scrubbed and shiny to fit in with the Norma Desmond syndrome….
“…. The image of Crawford as a hard-bitten, increasingly mannish survivor of the ferocious Hollywood wars have endeared her to many people who would not for a moment have fantasized wishfully about being stepchildren under her powerful thumb. In a sense, Crawford reflected the monstrous obsession with power and status that was the legacy of the old Hollywood. One could admire Crawford without loving her or even liking her. She had spent her whole life making herself into an image that would enable her to succed within an evil system….
“Fortunately, Faye Dunaway has softened what could have been a pure gargoyle into a complex creature of conditioning and compulsion. There were rumors from the set that Dunaway insisted on making Crawford more sympathetic than was the original intention. I cannot evaluate these rumors, or consider the possible alternatives. I think Diana Scarwid's marvelously controlled and dignified protrayal of Christina maintains a balance with Dunaway's somewhat more humanized "Mommie dearest."….
“Ultimately, Mommie Dearest is an engrossing drama not because it makes us hate Joan Crawford, or even see her in a new and unfamiliar light, but because in acknowledging her gallantry and courage it completes the exorcism of a monstrous chapter in her life . . . It is a story, unfortunately, that is more common than we would like to believe, and it spans the generations. Crawford herself once spoke of her intense hatred of her own mother and brother. Is it possible not to be sympathetic even to a moster who had to come so far and rise so high in the dangerous jungle known as the "American Dream"? The scars of Joan Crawford's struggles can be seen in all her films--not just in A Woman's Face. No makeup man could ever remove them….”
Andrew Sarris
Village Voice, September 16-22, 1981
“Strangely, it was a better year for actresses than for actors. I tend to agree with Arthur Bell that Faye Dunaway deserved best actress over Glenda Jackson. No disrespect intended to Glenda, but Faye transformed the material for a campy horror show into something else and something more, and forget the squeals of the Spocklings over the hangers….”
Sarris, Dec 30-Jan 5, 1982
“I have never fully understood the wide-spread skepticism and ridicule that greeted Christina Crawford's pathetic memoir….
“Why were most people in Hollywood and the book world so eager to believe the worst about Margaret Sullavan [in her daughter's account of their life, Haywire] and not about Joan Crawford?….
“My love for Maggie may have made me unjust to Joan, but I cannot believe that anyone has ever had any illusions about the extent to which Crawford was power-mad and ego-oriented. That was part of her fascination on the screen. That was the essence of the message projected by those mesmerizing eyes, so nakedly ruthless and ambitious. Her publicity, however, took a different tack….
“…. It was Christina's misfortune that she grew up with her stepmother when Norma Desmond time had come for the Crawford career. The private rages erupting away from the prying eyes of the press in a home that was pathologically scrubbed and shiny to fit in with the Norma Desmond syndrome….
“…. The image of Crawford as a hard-bitten, increasingly mannish survivor of the ferocious Hollywood wars have endeared her to many people who would not for a moment have fantasized wishfully about being stepchildren under her powerful thumb. In a sense, Crawford reflected the monstrous obsession with power and status that was the legacy of the old Hollywood. One could admire Crawford without loving her or even liking her. She had spent her whole life making herself into an image that would enable her to succed within an evil system….
“Fortunately, Faye Dunaway has softened what could have been a pure gargoyle into a complex creature of conditioning and compulsion. There were rumors from the set that Dunaway insisted on making Crawford more sympathetic than was the original intention. I cannot evaluate these rumors, or consider the possible alternatives. I think Diana Scarwid's marvelously controlled and dignified protrayal of Christina maintains a balance with Dunaway's somewhat more humanized "Mommie dearest."….
“Ultimately, Mommie Dearest is an engrossing drama not because it makes us hate Joan Crawford, or even see her in a new and unfamiliar light, but because in acknowledging her gallantry and courage it completes the exorcism of a monstrous chapter in her life . . . It is a story, unfortunately, that is more common than we would like to believe, and it spans the generations. Crawford herself once spoke of her intense hatred of her own mother and brother. Is it possible not to be sympathetic even to a moster who had to come so far and rise so high in the dangerous jungle known as the "American Dream"? The scars of Joan Crawford's struggles can be seen in all her films--not just in A Woman's Face. No makeup man could ever remove them….”
Andrew Sarris
Village Voice, September 16-22, 1981
“Strangely, it was a better year for actresses than for actors. I tend to agree with Arthur Bell that Faye Dunaway deserved best actress over Glenda Jackson. No disrespect intended to Glenda, but Faye transformed the material for a campy horror show into something else and something more, and forget the squeals of the Spocklings over the hangers….”
Sarris, Dec 30-Jan 5, 1982
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