Oh, Joan, That hairdo, those eyebrows, hide the children. Someone said she looked like she was wearing 'warrior makeup'. But, we love ya, Joan when you're as bad as you can be. This was before the Joker in the Batman movies.
Other reviewers have already laid out the plot but there are a few scenes that simply delight me. There's the one where a seated John Ireland has a telephone cord gently wrapped around his neck by Joan while she's on the phone.
In another scene, she is talking to her young niece or whoever she is while semi-reclining on the sofa. Meanwhile Joan has her leg elevated admiring it and pointing her foot in her high heel shoe, somewhat distracted by its shapeliness, I guess.
Then, while the young woman and Betsy Palmer are on the floor looking at blueprints of the house Betsy will live in, they don't hear Joan enter till you see her high heel shoe with its ankle strap stepping on the blueprints and ruining their fun.
Another delightful moment is when Barry Sullivan, 'Beauty' is in his office pacing in front of his desk where Joan is seated out of camera range while he is trying to tell her he wants a divorce. It's a heavy, serious scene. The camera pans over to Joan who is admiring herself in her compact make up mirror in a wonderfully blasé, Joan Crawford way.
These little moments are worth sitting through some of the tedious plot development. There is one scene where Barry Sullivan is having a long dialog with John Ireland in Sullivan's bedroom while he is dressing for a formal dinner. The dialog is one long shot while Sullivan is tying his bow tie, something we don't see in today's movies with all the quick edits. Today's actors don't seem to be able to do a long scene without cuts like in these old movies.
I guess Joan didn't mind playing a character that was so nasty that the audience cheered her demise at the end of the film.
Other reviewers have already laid out the plot but there are a few scenes that simply delight me. There's the one where a seated John Ireland has a telephone cord gently wrapped around his neck by Joan while she's on the phone.
In another scene, she is talking to her young niece or whoever she is while semi-reclining on the sofa. Meanwhile Joan has her leg elevated admiring it and pointing her foot in her high heel shoe, somewhat distracted by its shapeliness, I guess.
Then, while the young woman and Betsy Palmer are on the floor looking at blueprints of the house Betsy will live in, they don't hear Joan enter till you see her high heel shoe with its ankle strap stepping on the blueprints and ruining their fun.
Another delightful moment is when Barry Sullivan, 'Beauty' is in his office pacing in front of his desk where Joan is seated out of camera range while he is trying to tell her he wants a divorce. It's a heavy, serious scene. The camera pans over to Joan who is admiring herself in her compact make up mirror in a wonderfully blasé, Joan Crawford way.
These little moments are worth sitting through some of the tedious plot development. There is one scene where Barry Sullivan is having a long dialog with John Ireland in Sullivan's bedroom while he is dressing for a formal dinner. The dialog is one long shot while Sullivan is tying his bow tie, something we don't see in today's movies with all the quick edits. Today's actors don't seem to be able to do a long scene without cuts like in these old movies.
I guess Joan didn't mind playing a character that was so nasty that the audience cheered her demise at the end of the film.