Members bellcurve Posted July 3, 2006 Members Share Posted July 3, 2006 OK, so I bought Mommie Dearest on DVD the other day and all of a sudden, everything I remembered about that movie came back to me. And it was FUNNY AS HELL. It was disturbing what happened to Christina Crawford, but the over-the-top campy acting and editing made this movie so funny to me. Especially the long wire-hanger/Ajax scene. Mara Hobel(little Christina) was fabulous, as was Faye Dunaway. When I tell people I laughed during this movie, they think that I am just wrong for laughing. What do you think? Have you laughed during a movie that was supposed to be portrayed seriously or that IS serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shawn Posted July 3, 2006 Members Share Posted July 3, 2006 This movie is hilarious, only because it was so unbelievably bad. "Christina, get me the ax!" "I'm not one of your FAAAAAAAAAAANS!" "Don't F**k with me Fellas!" Totally a drinking game movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roman Posted July 3, 2006 Members Share Posted July 3, 2006 One of the best comedies in motion picture history. And that's bad, because it's supposed to be a drama. But all the time she bugged out her eyes, the wire hanger scene, the skin cream she had on, it was so over-the-top how can you not laugh at it. But, it's an all-time classic. They don't make them like that anymore. So, don't feel guilty at all. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted July 3, 2006 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hehehe. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jecca Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 Pardon the correction but I've seen this campy movie so many times I have a lot of the dialogue memorized. As Joan Crawford sits at the meeting table surrounded by a bunch of big-shots from Pepsi, she warns them. "This isn't my first day at the rodeo, boys, so don't f**k with me." Adding to that I loved how she took over Christina's soap role when Christina was hospitalized. The scene from the soap, I've forgotten which one, where Crawford was supposedly playing her daughter's much younger character is hilariously funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ClassicsSoapFan Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 Take a look at my banner below! That is a picture of Joan as she filled in for Christina on the Secret Storm! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jecca Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 OMGosh, that is priceless. Thanks for pointing that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ms. Walsh Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 OMG, that is the funniest movie I've ever seen! I love it! I love Joan Crawford. There's this amazing site about Joan. http://www.joancrawfordbest.com. Here's what they had about her appearance on The Secret Storm: Joan's adopted daughter Christina was hospitalized for an abdominal operation and could not perform. Joan contacted Gloria Monty, director and offered to step in for her. Gloria accepted, delighting Fred Silverman, chief of daytime programming at CBS. He cleared the use of a studio for rehearsals. On the night before rehearsal, Gloria visited Joan at her apartment; Joan was excited about the role she was to play, comparing it to "Mildred Pierce". Joan asked that no publicity be issued for her appearance but the network couldn't resist the temptation. On the first day of rehearsals, Joan was greeted by the press which added to her nervousness. During rehearsal, Silverman visited the set and thanked Joan for her help. On the day of taping, Joan brought a Pepsi-Cola cooler of vodka. Monty attempted to keep her away from the alcohol during taping but Joan's performance was poor. Afterwards, the director pieced together what he could of the performance into the series. When asked to comment, Christina said "I couldn't exactly jump and down in bed about it, but it was fantastic she would care that much." --Joan Crawford: A Biography by Bob Thomas LOL That's hilarious! I can't imagine what it was like for people who watched the show, and suddenly Joan Crawford is portraying the role of a younger character on the show. Imagine if that was live...it would have been great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bellcurve Posted July 4, 2006 Author Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 Fred Silverman was head of CBS daytime during this fiasco? Same guy who head of ABC during the Farrah drama at CHARLIE'S ANGELS? Cool! Gloria Monty was in charge of SECRET STORM during this stunt? They had the producer's name as something else in the movie! LOL! And the way the movie made it seem, STORM was live! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ms. Walsh Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 I'm not sure about the show being taped actually. On the Wikipedia profile, it says that Joan's performance was live. I'm just going to assume that it was live b/c that would have been hilarious! But maybe someone else on the board knows about it, since the two websites seem to contradict one another. I know that it was around this time that soaps started taping instead of going live, but here's what it says on Wikipedia: Thirty years after the show's cancellation, the show is most famous for, arguably, the most shocking case of stunt casting in soap history. When Christina Crawford suddenly fell ill with an ovarian cyst, her adoptive mother, Joan Crawford, filled in for her, even though she was thirty years older than the character. She was a major embarrassment to Christina as it was evident that she was drunk on the live episode transmission. Christina's character was written out soon after. Christina's illness, her tenure on the soap and her battles with her mother are well chronicled in her book Mommie Dearest, a tell all book of her life with her famous mother. While Christina does not draw an explicit parallel, she implies that her character, a !@#$%^&*]y persona named Joan, is somewhat based on the stories she told of her mother. Christina's character was really called Joan? That's just too much. Gloria Monty was a director for the show for a long time. She didn't become exec. producer of GH until 1978. Fred Silverman was exec. producer of CBS at the time. He's the one who's responsible for getting rid of rural-based shows (like Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith, etc.), for more socially-conscious sitcoms like Mary Tyler Moore and All in the Family. He did eventually go to ABC, if I remember, in the mid-70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ClassicsSoapFan Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 I may be wrong but I thought TSS was already on tape by then. According to our very own resource archives Gloria Monty was with the show from 1954 to 1969. She was a director but she pretty well ran things back then.The show started to falter when she left. In the movie she was called Belinda Rosenberg but that was Monty. I don't know why they changed it. A lot of things where changed in the movie.For example,the character Carol Ann,Joan's housekeeper,was a amalgamation of several housekeepers. If you haven't read the book,I encourage you. Crawford was something else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sweet_VeeVee24 Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 Everytime I think of that movie, all I can hear in my head is Joan Crawford screeching "No...more...wire hangers!!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JinkiesP Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 I have never watched Mommy Dearest but I did laugh during Passion of the Christ. The part where the little kid turns into Satan and is driving Judas nuts. The facial expressions it was making struck me as funny not scary. I happened to be watching it with my Mom and she was shocked that I would laugh at something during this serious movie. She said I had a weird sense of humor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bree Posted July 4, 2006 Members Share Posted July 4, 2006 Yeah, it is unintentionally funny. The scene where older Christina (Diana Scarwid) yells "I am not one of your fans!" and then she and Faye start going at it rivals any of the catfights seen on Dynasty and daytime soaps. The movie is so over the top, you can't help but crack up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ms. Walsh Posted July 5, 2006 Members Share Posted July 5, 2006 Joan: Why can't you give me THE RESPECT that I'm ENTITLED to?!? **GASP** Why can't you treat me like I would be treated by any STRANGER ON THE STREET?!? Christina: Because I AM NOT one of your FAAAAAAAAANS! ***CHOKE*** What a great movie! I laugh at the most inappropriate parts of movies and TV shows. People will be getting shot, and I'll burst out laughing. It's not to be rude. I just laugh when I get nervous, so when I laugh at parts of movies that I'm not supposed to laugh at, it makes me laugh even more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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