Joan Crawford had a career that could be likened to a rollercoaster. So, how did it all go so wrong for both women? It also signalled the end of her career as a major film star, and saw her relegated to supporting roles and B-pictures, just as Crawford herself had been.
Instead, it became a byword for unintentional hilarity and camp excess, with Dunaway’s full-throttle performance as Crawford soon becoming a notorious target for mockery. It quickly became obvious that Frank Perry’s biopic about Crawford’s abusive relationship with her adoptive daughter Christina was not the prestigious and respectable picture that had been intended. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, co-stars and all,” wrote Variety, the major trade magazine for the film industry, as it lamented her performance. The production had been a troubled one, but, perhaps, something excellent had emerged from it. Yet Dunaway awaited the premiere of Mommie Dearest, in which she played Crawford, with justifiable anticipation. It did not seem impossible that, in a matter of a few months, she could be collecting a second Academy Award. The role that she had now taken on – that of the legendary film star Joan Crawford – should have cemented this reputation.
Since her emergence in 1967 as the outlaw Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde, she had established herself as one of the leading figures of this new period. She had attracted praise for juggling commercial films such as The Towering Inferno and The Three Musketeers with more artistically satisfying roles in Network or Chinatown.
She had won an Oscar for Best Actress four years previously for her portrayal of a venal television executive in Network. On the morning of September 16 1981, Faye Dunaway was one of the biggest stars of her era.
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