Queen Bee (1955)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Why so much hype?

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Today, Thanks to Step-Daughter Christina and Her Book and Subsequent Movie Mommie Dearest (1981), Films like this and the Real Joan Crawford are Inseparable. The Post-Modern Take on Queen Joan is not Flattering but does Stand in Awe of the Workhorse Actress and Her 60 Year Residence in Hollywood.By this Time there were Cracks in the Facade. That being the Glamorous Crawford Last Dying Attempts to Keep an Image as Beautiful. Fatally Attractive is more Apt, but Even that is a Stretch. Here, yet Again. there are Screen References to Her Beauty and Magnetism but it is Doubtful that even in 1955 Audiences were Buying it. But They were Buying Tickets to See an Aging Actress Burn Up the Screen with Increasingly Caustic Portrayals of Devilish Demeanors that Stung Anyone Around. There are Many Quotable Lines and Interesting Grotesque Scenes. It is a Crawford Freak Show so Send in the Clowns. But no one is Laughing. But that was then. Today People Laugh at the Melodramatics, the Eyebrows, the Unmasking of the False Female Allure, and so on. This is Another in a Group of Films that Crawford made around this Time that are Easy Targets for Her Detractors. But it is Undeniable that She could Still Dominate the Proceedings and Keep Audiences Glued to the Screen, if for no other Reason than to Watch what Outlandish Thing She would try and Pull Off Next. That is Star Power.This is Heavy Southern Syrup Served so Thick that the Film is Fascinating with Everyone Contributing to the Story and the Actors, and Especially the Cinematography all Compliment Joan as She Destroys Lives and Compliments Herself. When Barry Sullivan as the Husband Shoots the Dog because it is Old and in Pain, that could be Seen as Metaphor.

Joan Crawford's least likable character could be the one she played in this film, as a controlling and vindictive woman of wealth who runs and ruins (or nearly ruins) the lives of all those whom she has relationships with in her large southern plantation mansion. Apparently the relationships come out of her money and their lack of it, as well as the level of her misdirected intelligence and lack of empathy for others, none of which gets explained very fully. Even to her own children, the product of her marriage to heavy drinking philosophizing character played by Barry Sullivan, she shows a cold disregard, especially the choice of a nanny, who's even meaner than Joan. Into this dysfunction comes Jennifer Stewart as a young cousin from Chicago who upsets the strange family chemistry that has been developing over the years, befriending the poor kids, and catching a lot of eyes. John Ireland seems a natural as the one guy who can and does (in some well done scenes) stand up to Queen Bee Joan, presenting his usual suppressed aversion to injustice while also straddling the fence. It's worth sticking with for the ending.

This film is all about Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford), the glamorous, spiteful, self-centered, vain, cruel, and overbearing matriarch of a Southern mansion, who makes life miserable for everyone in her orbit. The entire overwrought melodrama is one big soap opera.I couldn't identify with any of these sorry sobs. They emote, they quarrel, they whine, they speechify, they have no outside interests. Morose and brooding, all the characters are preoccupied with themselves and their own problems. Not surprisingly, the film's acting is theatrical and exaggerated. And there's a ton of dialogue. Yet, for a film set in the South, there's a curious absence of Southern accents.Most scenes take place indoors. That, combined with all that talk, makes the film seem almost like a stage play. The B&W cinematography is competent. I like those noir shadows; they render a depressing and melancholy look to the visuals that is totally in sync with the drab story. The drippy elevator background music is so 1950ish.A little bit of dolefulness in a film is okay. But in "Queen Bee" it just goes on and on and on. There is a neat plot twist near the end. But overall, this film is a real downer.There may not be any joy in this Southern mansion. But it's a movie to watch anyway, if for no other reason than to marvel at Joan Crawford's hammy performance, and to gawk at her caterpillar eyebrows.

Young innocent Jennifer Stewart (Lucy Marlow) goes to visit her cousin Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford). She meets Eva's alcoholic husband Avery (Barry Sullivan), brow beaten daughter Carol Lee (Betsy Palmer) and handyman Judson Prentice (John Ireland). She slowly comes to realize that Eva cruelly manipulates the lives of all around her.Not well known Crawford film which is a shame because it's one of her best. Crawford pulls out all stops and goes full force as a totally evil vicious woman. She's quite obviously enjoying herself and her incredible performance saves what otherwise is a pretty routine drama. The plot is pretty predictable and all the other characters pale next to Crawford. Marlow isn't that good and Sullivan and Ireland are downright terrible but Palmer was very good and seeing her so young is pretty amusing (she's now best known as Jason's mother from the "Friday the 13th" movies). Worth seeing just for Crawford alone. I don't think she ever played such a cruel character before or after this one. Purportedly (according to Christina Crawford) she was playing herself! I give this an 8.