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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Queen Bee (1955)

A young girl (Lucy MarlowA STAR IS BORN) comes to stay at her cousin's home in Georgia. Thereshe finds a family on the edgeruled by a manipulative bitch (Joan Crawford), the Queen Bee of the title. Based on the novel by Edna L. Lee and directed by Ranald MacDougallwho scripted the 1945 MILDRED PIERCE. Irresistible trashbadly acted (except by Betsy Palmer) and as subtle as a sledgehammer. This is perhaps the quintessential Joan Crawford vehicle. Crawford overdoes the wickedness to the extreme that you'd think she was playing the evil queen in Snow White. Any attempts at taking it at all seriously go right out the window. It may be her worst performancethere's not a note of sincerity in her entire performance. Her breakdown in front of a mirror with cold cream is simply godawful. Stillit's enjoyable in the way that only some truly bad movies can be. Except for Betsy Palmer's touching performance as one of Crawford's victimsthe rest of the cast seems stunned into submission by La Crawford. They include Barry SullivanJohn IrelandFay Wray and William Leslie.

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