With Love, Mommie Dearest

I recently finished reading With Love, Mommie Dearest by A. Ashley Hoff Foreward Written by Bruce Vilanch. The book discusses the making of the movie Mommie Dearest based off Christina Crawford’s memoir about her adoptive mother Joan Crawford who was physically abusive to her and her brother Christopher. The movie became an unintentional camp/cult classic with Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford.

Writing, Information & Interviews

I give A. Ashley Hoff a lot of credit for putting his research from the various interviews he’s done. Some facts were more interesting than others & there were times it dragged. One of them being I had no idea Christina Crawford herself wrote a script for the movie that was very close to the book. It does make me wonder how the movie would have been received if it was closer to the memoir Christina wrote? We will never know. Unless with how many remakes Hollywood is doing anymore, if they remake Mommie Dearest with Christina having more creative control. I did feel that the book was biased for Faye Dunaway & while you can’t blame her a hundred percent for why the movie was critically panned, Faye is known for not being easy to work with.

Overall

Overall if you are a fan of Joan Crawford, Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest (both the movie and the book) & Faye Dunaway this will be a great book for you! With Love, Mommie Dearest will be published on May 7^th! You are also going to enjoy the interview I did with A. Ashley Hoff.