Loving "Mommie Dearest" With Mr. DVD
Bravo to Charles Taylor, Mr. DVD of the New York Observer, for his appreciation of Faye Dunaway's "reckless and extreme performance" as Joan Crawford in MOMMIE DEAREST.
While Christina Crawford's tell-all book dredged up every never-published rumor (verbal and physical abuse, bizarre obsessions, creepy sexual competition with her adolescent daughter), the movie was something more. "Ms. Dunaway gave audiences something they didn't want: a sense of how they helped create the monster before them."
As Taylor points out, the film opened to mocking reviews in 1981, but it soon became a camp classic. That's how Paramount's home entertainment division is marketing the new DVD of MOMMIE DEAREST--it's the "Hollywood Royalty Edition," with astute critical commentary from John Waters and John Epperson, aka Lypsinka.
Have a look at Paramount's DVD offerings.