harriet craig start out a a stage success obviously and it strike familiar chord and saw at least one previous film version ( craig wife and star rosalind russell ) . remade in 1950 with joan crawford commandeer the part of the domestic despot and the movie take on a dimension that help define camp . it also offer an unadulterated middle period glimpse of the control monster she have begin ( mildred pierce and humoresque ) and continue ( torch song and johnny guitar and queen bee ) to play on film . ( and and if there be a sliver of verity in her adopted daughter cristina report from the front line and such role parallel her off screen personality ) . it a parable about the danger of social ascendancy and an illustration of thorstein veblen view of the affluent wife a agent of conspicuous consumption . joan crawford harriet craig have it all represent a husband in a grey flannel suit on his way up the corporate ladder ( wendell corey ) and and so can buy her what she most desire represent property and position . she obsess with who do and do not fit in with what she refer to a ` our set a she strike pose in her perfect ( and perfectly dull ) upper middle class abode . that her only interest in her husband be a a meal ticket be reveal by her avoid her wifely obligation under the pretext that bear child would be dangerous . but she not content to leave him be and maybe to enjoy a little action on the side while what might the other member of their et think . she crave total control . when he about to go out of town on a business trip and thus slither out at least temporarily from under her oppressive thumb and she intervenes and lie to his bos that he a compulsive gambler . finally and of course and the worm turn . but and in the closing shot and when crawford regally ascend her curved staircase alone among the splendor of her possession and you wonder who really win after all . this soapish melodrama remain surprisingly rivet . perhaps it the extra touch of authenticity crawford bring to her portrayal ( mary tyler moore play a late version of this upscale shrew in ordinary people while then of course there always martha stewart ) . the movie preserve an uncanny sense of upward mobility in america and circa midcentury and a lugubrious self importance that have not and ala and vanish from the land .