Daily Dialogue — October 18, 2013

Joan Crawford: [muttering to herself, hacking down the rose garden] Hollywood royalty! Parted friends… everyone already knows! Box office poison! Box office poison! Class! You’re… class… you’re… class… box office poison! Eighteen years in the business and we parted friends! Creative differences!

Notices the others.

Joan Crawford: Oh… good! I wan’t some help here! I want ALL of these branches cleared out of here now. Carol-Ann, Christopher, start clearing away all these branches, start gathering them up. [to Christina] Go on… get the wheelbarrow and the rake!

Suddenly noticing an orange tree.

Joan Crawford: Tina! Bring me the axe!

— Mommie Dearest (1981), screenplay by Robert Getchell, Tracy Hotchner, Frank Perry and Frank Yablans, 
book by Christina Crawford

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is psychotic, suggested by JasperLamarCrab.

Trivia: Writer of the film’s source book, Christina Crawford, once said of this movie after she had seen it: “My mother didn’t deserve that. Miss Dunaway’s performance was ludicrous. I didn’t see any care for factual information. Now I’ve seen it I’m sorry I did. Faye says she is being haunted by mother’s ghost. After her performance, I can understand why.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Sure, I could have gone for the wire hanger scene, but we just had to get a dose today of this line: “Bring me the axe!”