Queen Bee | Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan | Joan Crawford at her conniving, devious best . . .

Queen Bee | Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan | Joan is the best B......

DVDs:

Queen Bee

	Queen Bee Joan Crawford, Barry Sullivan Sony Pictures, 2001 average customer review:based on 49 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

"Any man's my man if I want it that way." The speaker could only be Joan Crawford, as a wicked man-eater terrorizing her Deep South household in Queen Bee. Crawford's the whole show in this campy 1955 melodrama, which aspires to be second-rate Lillian Hellman but doesn't even reach that level. Having trapped a wealthy Southerner (Barry Sullivan) into marriage, Crawford takes her main pleasure in making life miserable for the other women of the mansion. This is fun to watch for a while, but director Ranald MacDougall (he wrote Mildred Pierce for Crawford) can't get the pace moving, and the final comeuppance is all too predictable. Crawford was going into her final high-diva phase at this point in her career, all chalky makeup and yard-long eyebrows, and Queen Bee clearly points the way toward What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Star power prevails, however, and at least the picture summons up its share of unintentional laughs. --Robert Horton

for more information click here

Joan Crawford at her conniving, devious best . . .

Joan rules the roost and this movie as Eva Phillips, whose sharp tongue tears her family apart one by one. She's married to Avery (Barry Sullivan)--or Beauty as they call him (despite the ugly scar on his face)--he's turned to drink because of his bitch of a wife. Avery's sister Carol Lee (played by a perky blonde Betsy Palmer, preparing herself for her later stardom as Jason's mother in 1980's "Friday the 13th"--"Queen Bee" is a horror flick of a different kind)--anyway, Carol Lee is in love with Jud (John Ireland), who used to be involved with--yup, you guessed it--Eva! But poor Carol Ann doesn't know this secret. And when she and Jud announce their engagement, Hurricane Eva doesn't take the news very well. You'll have to watch the film to find out what happens next to this dysfunctional clan--but four stars of my review belong soley to Joan (the remaining one is for the wonderful black and white cinematography), who is the reason to watch this melodrama. Her outfits are divine, her face is always lit perfectly in her every scene and her smooth delivery of outrageous lines that slap her "loved ones" across the face (and she even delivers an actual slap to one unfortunate soul) is a delight to watch. If you love Ms. Crawford, then you gotta see "Queen Bee"--it's one of my favorites of her flicks. And the DVD also includes the campy theatrical trailer, which is a hoot. You can't take "Queen Bee" too seriously or you'll be horrified by Joan's horrible behavior. Instead, you just need to sit back and enjoy a delicious dark comedy--that's the way I view this over-the-top classic--and laugh and hiss at Joan's evil ways. You'll have a great time!

for more information click here

Joan is the best B......

Joan Crawford proved in "Queen Bee" she was capable of playing the best villiness in motion pictures. From the moment she comes on the screen she owns it as well as all of her co stars. Crawford makes the film as a ruthless woman who destroys everyone around her in the South. The film was written by her "Mildred Pierce" scripter Ronald Mcdouggal who captures the coldness that Crawford can transfer to the screen. One is amazed at her performance and even her daughter Christina fled the movie theatre halfway through because it reminded her of how Joan was at home. Many Hollywood actresses could learn a few things from Crawford's stellar performance. A great picture with wonderful film and audio quality. A rare gem.

for more information click here

Crawford's fire-breathing characterization was too strong to die. It returned from the dead in MOMMIE DEAREST

From the moment Joan Crawford makes her grand entrance into this overblown penny dreadful, wearing just the gown a female impersonator would have chosen and asking "Well, do I look fairly human?" it's clear why this is the movie most beloved by the star's fans as well as by her detractors -- and for exactly the same reasons. There's not an inch of film wasted on anyone but Crawford, who vamps around her mansion in hostess gowns, fur stoles, and opera gloves while she cuts the rest of the cast down to size, remarking to one, "You look sweet -- even in those tacky old clothes," asking another, "Aren't I wicked?" and commenting to husband Barry Sullivan, "Darling, a party is to a women what a battlefield is to men -- oh, I'd forgotten, you weren't in the army, were you? Something about drinking, wasn't it?"

Cast here as a neurotic diva who married into an unhappy Southern clan, Crawford amuses herself by ruining their lives. Cousin Betsy Palmer tells new arrival Lucy Marlow, "I read a book about bees. There's a whole chapter devoted to the queen who stings all her rivals to death. She'll sting you one day. So gently, you hardly feel it -- till you fall over dead." Marlow doesn't need that book: Crawford destroys Marlow's guest room with her riding crop while explaining, "I'm an outsider and they hate outsiders. You don't know the things they've made me do trying to protect myself. And how ashamed I've been, sometimes because of it. You don't know how they are, as if you have to be from the South to be any good. I wish I could be rid of them as easily as this trash!" Noticing that she's reduced the room to rubble, Crawford shrugs her shoulders and says, "I don't know when I've been in such a temper."

At night, her children cry out, alone in the darkness (was Christina Crawford's memoir MOMMIE DEAREST inspired by this movie, or was the film copying Crawford's home life?), while Crawford is downstairs wooing her old beau John Ireland: "Isn't there anything left of us?" When Ireland responds, "You're like some fancy kind of disease -- I had it once, now I'm immune," Crawford lies to his fiancee that "ANY man's my man if I want it that way." The distraught woman hangs herself, causing even Crawford to admit to Marlow, "I'm not a very nice person. Once I was a great deal like you -- young and innocent." When Marlow remarks, "That must have been a very long time ago," Crawford snarls, "Sounds like something I might say. You see, there's a little bit of me in every woman." Perish the thought! One of her co-stars finally drives Crawford off a cliff, but this fire-breathing characterization was too strong to die. It returned from the dead when Faye Dunaway played Crawford in the film MOMMIE DEAREST.

for more information click here

Unintentional Laughs, but all old movies have that

I had to watch this film after reading Christina Crawford's "Mommie Dearest". Christina wrote "I went to see my mom in 'Queen Bee' and I hated it. She wasn't acting, she was being her true self in that movie, that's exactly how she was at home when she was drinking and at her very worst." Well, yes, Joan's character was pretty insane in the movie, but she wasn't into physical abuse, she was mostly into psychological abuse. I enjoyed it. Sometimes it is good to watch a silly old film.

"She'll sting you one day"

The South must hold the monopoly in bitter, fractured families. In QUEEN BEE, based on the novel by Edna Lee, every member of the Phillips family has their own axe to grind...and it all stems from matriarch Eva (played brilliantly by Joan Crawford). Eva manipulates everyone around her with precision skill. In a loveless marriage with alcoholic husband Avery (Barry Sullivan), Eva is also dallying with her cousin's fiancee (John Ireland). When Eva's distant relation Jennifer Stewart (Lucy Marlow) comes to live with the Phillips clan, Eva's "sweet sting" soon infects her as well. The machinations continue as Eva twists the lives of her family members until they all shatter.

Joan Crawford lets the venom flow with her masterly performance as Eva, the queen bee of the title. Dressed in some gorgeous Jean Louis gowns and filtered through soft lighting, "La Crawford" commands the screen in every possible way. Notice too, how her voice changes from soft and honeyed when Eva is trying to get what she wants, to gruff and unforgiving when her temper snaps. The brilliant supporting cast includes Betsy Palmer as ill-fated cousin Carol-Lee, and Fay Wray as the jilted Sue McKinnon. Contract player Lucy Marlow, in one of her first lead roles, provides the innocent core of the story, yet our eyes remain riveted to Crawford. She was the ultimate Queen Bee!

The DVD includes the trailer plus talent profiles and vintage advertising gallery. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

for more information click here