LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Faye Dunaway: Joan Crawford
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Faye Dunaway insists that "Mommie Dearest" hurt her career, but that is not accurate. The film is actually one her finest performances. She channels Joan Crawford with an intensity that makes the movie a classic similar to "Sunset Boulevard," which ... portrays the raging desperation behind Hollywood illusion.
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Next for Dunaway was "Mommie Dearest" (1981). For her role as Joan Crawford, Dunaway wore white pancake makeup and heavily penciled eyebrows and lips. The movie became a cult classic, the character unforgettable. While the film did enjoy success, Dunaway says that, ultimately, it hurt her career because of the stigma attached to the character, and the cult status of the film.
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After 1979's The Champ, Dunaway starred with Frank Sinatra in The First Deadly Sin. An over-the-top turn as Joan Crawford in the tell-all biopic Mommie Dearest followed in 1981, as did another biography, the TV feature Evita Peron. Her career was again slumping, a fate which neither the Broadway production of The Curse of an Aching Heart nor another telefilm, 1982's The Country Girl, helped to remedy. After 1984's Supergirl, Dunaway spent much of the decade on the small screen, appearing in a pair of miniseries -- Ellis Island and Christopher Columbus -- and in 1986 appearing as the titular Beverly Hills Madam. The 1987 feature Barfly found a cult audience, but almost without exception, Dunaway's subsequent films went unnoticed; even the 1990 Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes was a failure. In 1993, she starred in a short-lived sitcom, It Had to Be You, and continued to appear in little-seen projects. Dunaway's most prominent roles of the mid-'90s included a supporting turn as the wife of psychiatrist Marlon Brando in 1995's Don Juan DeMarco and as a barmaid/hostage in the directorial debut of actor Kevin Spacey, Albino Alligator (1996).
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In 1999, Dunaway gave a nod to her screen past with a cameo appearance in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. That same year, she took on the more substantial role of Yolande d'Aragon in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide.
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Screen legend Joan Crawford had once proclaimed Dunaway as one of the best young actresses around so it was of some note that producers tapped Dunaway to portray Crawford in the feature version of "Mommie Dearest" (1981). Based on the memoirs of Crawford's adopted daughter, it depicted Crawford as a child abusing monster, more concerned with her screen career and fame than with her children. Dunaway's central performance wildly divided audiences and critics; some felt it was on the mark while other claimed the actress chewed the scenery. An instant camp classic (with lines such as "No more wire hangars!"), the film, an unmitigated box office failure, found limited success as a midnight movie (replete with drag queens done up as Dunaway as Crawford). For a brief period in the early 80s, Dunaway seemingly offered one campy, self-parodying performance after another (e.g., "The Wicked Lady" 1983; "Supergirl" 1985). It took 1987's independent "Barfly", in which she essayed a drunk, to remind critics and audiences of her thespian skills.
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Just what EXACTLY is wrong with Faye Dunaway? Has she just lost her mind or what? She cannot be that damn cheap! She seriously needs medication. She really IS turning into Joan Crawford.
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Joan Crawford