Queen Bee (1955)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ranald MacDougall

Writers:

Edna L. Lee (novel)
Ranald MacDougall (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

She's so excitingly good . . . when she's so wonderfully bad!

Plot:

Eva Phillips is a Southern socialite whose manipulation and ruthlessness ruins the lives of everyone around her...

Plot Keywords:

Manipulation | Grief | Party | Recapture | Cousin Cousin Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Joan Crawford	...	Eva Phillips
Barry Sullivan	...	Avery 'Beauty' Phillips
Betsy Palmer	...	Carol Lee Phillips
John Ireland	...	Judson Prentiss
Lucy Marlow	...	Jennifer Stewart
William Leslie	...	Ty McKinnon
Fay Wray	...	Sue McKinnon
Katherine Anderson	...	Miss Breen
Tim Hovey	...	Ted Phillips
Linda Bennett	...	Trissa Phillips

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Christina Crawford, Joan Crawford's adopted daughter, recounted in her autobiography "Mommy Dearest" that she had to leave the theater midway through a showing of this film because it was too true-to-life in her mother's portrayal of the main character.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Avery 'Beauty' Phillips: The sun is shinin'; funny, I didn't expect the sun to be shinin'.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Die, Mommie, Die! (2003)

Quintessential Crawford

The producers of "Mommie Dearest" clearly took copious notes

from the real-life Crawford canon; traces of everything from

"Mildred Pierce" to "Harriet Craig" to "Strait-Jacket" show up in that

biopic-from-hell, but the film it most closely resembles is the 1955

cult classic, "Queen Bee."

Scenes of an imperious Crawford being served coffee in bed;

destroying a bedroom with a riding crop (wire hanger?); and her

children crying out in the dark are lifted directly from this movie;

and Crawford's stunning appearances in various Jean Louis

gowns--descending a grand staircase, posing in a doorway,

preening in front of a mirror--are a harbinger of the demented

fashion show Faye Dunaway would put on in her Crawford

assasination.

Like her rival, Bette Davis, Crawford is best-known for villanous

roles like this, although neither she nor Davis often played bitches;

but the times they did, the performances were so over-the-top, it's

what we remember them for. "Queen Bee" is the ultimate

late-period Crawford vehicle; she dominates every scene, even

when she doesn't directly appear in it, and her elegant bitchery is a

marvel to behold. No one, but simply no one, could throw a fur

stole over her shoulder like Joan Crawford, and certainly no one

could top her as an obsessive-compulsive, castrating shrew.

Crawford herself was happier playing heroines (like the "young"

widow of "Female on the Beach," or the brilliant playwright in

"Sudden Fear"), but she clearly was even more compelling in

full-on bitch mode. As cruel, evil and thoughtless as her character

may be, Crawford handles it with such glamour and panache, you

secretly find yourself rooting for her.