pretty bad . faye dunaway and like an anaconda and not only chew the scenery and she vomit it up and eat it again . her performance a joan crawford have to be some sort of actor lesson in what not to do . ever . base on christina crawford memoir and mommie dearest focus primarily on crawford in the 1940s when she adopt a few child and be and at least briefly and consider a good actress . for some reason dunaway look and act like the crawford of the 1960s think night gallery and trog and berserk . frank perry and a previously classy director and clearly have no control over dunaway . she run amok and soundly dwarf the rest of the cast include mara hobel a young christina and howard da silva a louis b. mayer and the always unusual diana scarwid a the adult christina . steve forrest appear a dunaway lawyer or lover or confidant . the film become a camp classic and but it actually just dull and awkwardly make for the first hour or so . it do reach a certain level of hysteria in the second half particularly when the 50 something dunaway or crawford replace her ill 20 something daughter on a soap opera .