Dear Joan

Anne Bancroft in The Turning Point (20th Century Fox, 1977)

"Producer Irwin Yablans is planning a film based on Mommie Dearest, the title of Christina Crawford's controversial recounting of life with her adoptive mother. Word is that the search is already on for the actress to play Joan Crawford, and that Anne Bancroft is the producer's first choice." -- Robin Sloan Adam's column, August 30, 1978

Joan Crawford by John Engstead, 1963

"As far as Mommie Dearest is concerned, Anne plans to start production this summer. She considers the Joan part a real challenge despite the feelings of some in show business that Christina Crawford's book about her mother was the height of poor taste." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, January 25, 1979

"Anne Bancroft's perception of the Joan Crawford role in the film version of the best-seller Mommie Dearest would make it a better film. That's the word from insiders. Anne is convinced that the dynamics of Miss Crawford's personality are far more dramatic and compelling than a chronicling of assorted child abuses. Thus the film would present Miss Crawford in a more favorable light..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, February 25, 1980

Joan Crawford in Harriet Craig (Columbia, 1950)

"Anne Bancroft is not giving second thoughts to [Mommie Dearest] because she is out of it. Disagreement was reached with producer Frank Yablans and director Frank Perry, who weren't calling Anne 'dearest' when they finally had enough of her demands for script and production changes..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, December 16, 1980

Anne Bancroft in 7 Women (MGM, 1966)

"The big screen translation of Christina Crawford's tale of childhood horror gets under way January 19, after countless script revisions and with Faye Dunaway replacing Anne Bancroft in the lead...Director Frank Perry explains the way the story line has finally evolved, what we'll see is 'a very sympathetic view of Joan...it would hardly be respectful to be less than respectful of her memory.'" -- Noreen Marcus' column, January 14, 1981

"The movie industry is still buzzing about the replacement of Anne Bancroft by Faye Dunaway to play the Joan Crawford role in Mommie Dearest. While Miss Bancroft may have been difficult and demanding, many Hollywood insiders still feel she was by far the better choice...Dunaway is considered by some as too bland and non defined a personality..." -- Robin Adams Sloan's column, January 22, 1981

Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest (Paramount, 1981)

Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

 

 

We hope, today, you get the respect that you're entitled to.

Business as Usual

"Miss Dunaway is not a professional at all! She's always late and doesn't know her lines. No, she is impossible and everyone in the industry knows it." - Bette Davis

The Biggest Mother of Them All

This ain't your first time at the rodeo; some of you recognized our latest Mystery Guest as full frontal Faye Dunaway! The mask was made for the film adaptation of Christina Crawford's poisonous memoirs, Mommie Dearest (1981), which effectively killed off two careers: Joan Crawford's, and Dunaway's. In spite of its critical drubbing, unintentional hilarity, and general ineptitude, the film's bizarre, fascinating hold on the public's imagination ensured that Crawford's regal reputation would go into a tailspin from which it still hasn't fully recovered; and that Dunaway would spiral from Oscar-winning superstar to straight-to-video industry joke almost overnight. Thirty years later, the names of both Joan Crawford and Faye Dunaway are still inextricably connected with Mommie Dearest.

"I really hate talking about Mommie Dearest! It is like an obsession with people! Why do people need to focus so much on one film I made over 20 years ago? It was not a great time in my life and the film was not an experience I want to think about. Period!"

In all fairness, even before the biggest mother of them all came along, Dunaway's career was marked by wild inconsistency. Her one-two knockout punch of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) was followed by the disastrous A Place for Lovers and The Arrangement (both 1969); the brilliant Chinatown (1974) and Dunaway's Oscar-winning turn in Network (1976) were bookends for such glossy, all-star pap as The Three Musketeers (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), and Voyage of the Damned (1976). But Mommie Dearest really ensured that Hollywood was Dunaway with Faye; her next film was the costume flop The Wicked Lady (1983), and such was Dunaway's infamy at this point, it was decided to not show her face in the advertising!

One can only imagine Dunaway thumbing through the script for her next picture, Supergirl (1984), and thinking to herself, "Why not? They want camp -- I'll give 'em camp!" Perhaps looking for a silver lining in the Mommie cloud, Dunaway decided to send up her over-the-top image by purposely camping up a storm as the villainess, Selena. Unfortunately, intentional camp almost always falls flat, and Supergirl was a super-flop.


Since then, Dunaway has had the occasional minor success -- a Golden Globe nomination for her downbeat, deglamorized performance in Barfly (1987); an Emmy win for a guest appearance on Columbo (1993) -- and very public disasters of epic proportions. Dunaway's own, highly-touted sitcom, It Had to Be You, premiered in 1993, and was yanked after only four, critically-reviled episodes. The following year, Dunaway was set to make her musical theater debut in what promised to be her best role in years: Norma Desmond in the Los Angeles production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Dunaway was to take over the role from Glenn Close, who had triumphed as Norma on Broadway. It never happened; Lloyd Webber abruptly decided to shutter the musical after Close's final performance, rather than possibly subject Dunaway to "great embarrassment," due to what he deemed her inadequate musical chops. Ouch.


An oddly static ad campaign for Norell fragrances in 1998 introduced the beginnings of some seriously wonky plastic surgery to Dunaway's public; within a decade, her once-fabulous face had become virtually unrecognizable. Another high-profile misfire was The Starlet (2005), a short-lived reality competition show about young Hollywood hopefuls. Faye was the bitchy celebrity judge, a la Janice Dickinson; her would-be catch phrase was "Don't call us; we'll call you." Unfortunately, Dunaway's own phone wasn't exactly ringing off the hook.


Today, Dunaway continues to make small films which no one ever seems to see (Say it in Russian? The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi?), as well as the occasional television spot. And in spite of the spectre of Mommie Dearest which continues to loom, Dunaway just can't seem to stay away from other complicated, highly-strung, iconic women: her next role is playing no less a diva than Maria Callas in the long-awaited film version of Terrence McNally's Master Class, which Dunaway successfully toured with in 1997.



The enigmatic Klee was the first to recognize the lifelike visage of Miss Dunaway; we are caught without a proper prize, but hey -- we never promised you a rose garden!


We love that you seem to get into these Mystery Guest segments; if you have any photos of potential future guests that you think might stump the panel, please send them to us. As always, thanks for playing, darlings!

A Long Time Ago...

...in a galaxy far, far away.

And His Little Dog, Too

Poseidon3 has been riding the tidal wave of success with his last few guesses: he was the first, and only, to pinpoint legendary Italian film director Vittorio de Sica as our latest Mystery Guest. As the original photo amply demonstrated, de Sica may have been known for spearheading the neorealist movement in cinema, and for helming such stark classics as The Bicycle Thief (1948), but as an actor, and in his off-screen real life, he was quite the dapper Dan. Interestingly, when de Sica attempted to move out of his "kitchen sink" stereotype and into more stylish territory as a director, the results were soundly panned: A Place for Lovers (1968), starring Marcello Mastroianni and Faye Dunaway, boasted glamorous stars, gorgeous locales, and glorious music, but was dubbed the worst movie of all time by certain critics.




Poseidon3 wins Marcello's tie from the Place for Lovers poster, which we will then promptly steal back. Congratulazioni!

Our Last Mystery Guest...

...was not Faye Dunaway.


It wasn't Faye Emerson, either.


Heck, it wasn't even Alice Faye.


No, friends, as our dearest MC guessed right out of the box, it was the erstwhile Fay Wray - who survived not only the namesake simian of King Kong (1933), but a similarly nostril-flaring, chest-beating Joan Crawford in Queen Bee (1955).


As soon as MC sends us his measurements, we'll start cracking on his award: a pair of custom-made, printed silk hose. Everyone's guesses were fabulous, with special bonus points going to joe*to*hell and Jason for their cheekiness. Thanks for playing, darlings!

Up the Joan Staircase

There is, of course, an impostor in our midst...

...Introducing Faye Dunaway

The Three Faces of Faye

All of them quite mad. And fabulous.

Full Frontal Faye

Pure gorgeousness, before the fall.

THANKS

Mommie Dearest

Are we the last to know that La Faye's son, Liam Walker Dunaway O'Neill, is all sorts of hot?

I'll Save You All My Kisses

"Why, Grandma..."

Hollywood Royalty

Faye Dunaway (January 14, 1941)