Cheap Queen Bee (DVD) (Joan Crawford) (Ranald MacDougall) Price

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Customer Reviews of Queen Bee

Certainly, the plot is pure soap opera (but if you know that at the outset and just take it for what it is, you'll find it enjoyable and a nice escape from reality).

Joan is in fine form as the Queen Bee in her little Southern mansion hive, ruling her unhappy family with an iron stinger. Particularly, the targets of Joan's ire are the other women of the mansion, whose men Joan is always determined to steal, as summed up in her classic line, "Any man's my man if I want it that way." And Joan usually succeeds in what she sets out to do. Plus, Joanie excels at emasculating the men of the mansion (such as her long-suffering husband Avery, who withdraws into an ocean of alchohol to escape his misery).

Of course, she eventually gets her comeuppance as punishment for all the unhappiness she's caused (a nice coda that doesn't happen nearly often enough to rotten people in real life).

Long story short, this DVD's very worthwhile. Joan fans get to see her in a superbly over-the-top performance, and it's a feel-good type story because Eva at long last gets exactly what she deserves, and the last laugh is on her. I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say that if you like to see good triumph over evil, you'll be very pleased at how things turn out.

Joan Crawford as you always wanted to see her!
This film offered a solid 90 minutes for Joan to play the ultimate b****. Her costumes were amazing. She was caustic, controlling, manipulative and catty. The more of this film you watch, the more you learn to hate her character, Eva. In the beginning of the film you are introduced to her husband, "Beauty". His reaction to her entering the room makes the viewer wonder why he hates her so much. By 30 minutes into this film you start to realize why. I won't give away the ending but Eva definitely gets what she deserves. On the other hand, if you REALLY want to see Joan as a terrible woman I'd recommend "Harriet Craig". This film is what I thought Queen Bee would be. Queen Bee is a definite thumbs up and it's always a pleasure to watch Joan chew the scenery. Watch it and watch it soon!

Godzilla in a Jean Louis Gown
Joan Crawford appears to have a field day in this silly, but extraordinarily engrossing, overheated family melodrama. Ranald MacDougall's script is like Tennessee Williams without the poetry or the subtext. And it's like Douglas Sirk without the sumptuous color or the inner turmoil those autumnal hues disguise.

Eva Philips is possessive, controlling, and self-absorbed, and Crawford plays her to the hilt. What more could any fan ask?

A monument of selfishness, Eva fascinates like a cobra about to strike. In one memorable scene, her cousin asks what the doctor said (about Eva's troubled child). "Such extravagant things!" responds Eva. She continues: "Did you see how the doctor trembled as he spoke to me? You'd think he'd never seen a beautiful woman before!"

Moments like these are pure gold (or should it be 'honey'?) in this wondrous opera-without-singing.

The rest of the cast consists of some more than adequate talent: Barry Sullivan (Eva's booze-soaked, trampled husband), John Ireland (a former lover, still caught by her stinger. He gets one of the best lines: "Whatever you are Eva, you're on wheels!"), Betsy Palmer (the deer in Eva's lethal headlights). Lucy Marlow (another deer, that starlet from the opening sequence of A STAR IS BORN, 1954) is passable. (In a TCM documentary, it is revealed that Crawford really slapped the younger actress with all her might.). Fay Wray makes a brief, but noteworthy appearance early on, a past casualty of Eva's rampaging ego.

The DVD is pretty bare-bones. But the transfer is luminous.

If you enjoy watching a 5' Godzilla in a Jean Louis gown, don't miss QUEEN BEE.