i be not even one of joan crawford big fan and but i think what they have do with the novel mommie dearest be totally stupid and unworthy of any sort of detailed film comment . not that i have any hope that the screen version would be on a quality level with masterpiece theatre . hardly that . but it certainly trash the movie star with incident that seem exaggerate to hold the attention . faye dunaway joan crawford be the sort of caricature that would be more appropriate on the carol burnett show and where famous screen heroine be often rib in their award win role . she indulge in a series of pose guarantee to draw derisive laughter . there be limit to anyone patience and even for the sake of a few laugh ( or chuckle and to be more exact ) and this be such a poor imitation of the book that it no wonder dunaway have any professional reputation after make it . not that the novel have any real literary merit and but at least it do provide some insight into crawford psyche and the reader be free to decide when creative license be take . it all one big clichéd treatment and a glossy and artificial a any joan crawford film ever be . any resemblance between the creature picture here and reality be purely coincidental . at least that what the foreword to this film should have warn the audience for the sake of warn the gullible not to believe everything depict here . this be schlock of the bad kind and an insult to plain intelligence and too scmaltzy to convince me that it ring of the truth . there be no balance to the treatment . all of it be paint in broad stroke that verge on caricature and more and more so a the film go on . sum up represent worth skip . trivial and artificial .