Rating: 
Summary: Another of the Top 10 Kweenie Klassix
Review: "Darling, parties are to women what battlefields are to men. But, then...you weren't in the war, were you? Something about drinking..." Joan, Joan, Joan - completely over-the-top in this movie, yet, completely *under*-the-table in her private life. This is her last gasp of her semi-respectable moviemaking period before she gave way to the scream-queen roles and went full-throttle into her alcoholism. "If this is what America wants, then, by God, I'll give it to them," she was quoted as saying at the time. I don't know if it's what *America* wanted to see, but it's certainly what *I* wanted to see - Joan in her best "mow-`em-all-down" mode, chewing up the scenery, and looking divine in clothes by Jean Louis (that's *Zsh-an Lu-wee*). They don't make actresses like this anymore - and they certainly don't make movie roles like this anymore. The inherent Joan-violence was more insidious, rather than graphic, as it later became in such charmers as *Berserk* and *Strait-Jacket*. Except at home of course, where Joan performed her Queen Bee routine nightly under the name of Mommie Dearest. Daughter Christina has said that this movie comes very close to home in Joan's portrayal. The story (this time) seems to revolve around Joan (naturally), as Eva Phillips, wife of "Beauty" Phillips (Sullivan), who is anything *but*. The arrival of a cousin to fill a rather nebulous "secretarial" position for Joan/Eva sets off an ugly chain of events. The secretary, Jennifer, who is "so quiet we ought to put a bell on you," becomes the recipient of one of Joan's famous slaps. A lot of "Beauty's" dysfunctional family and friends hang around a lot, including Carol, played by Betsy Palmer ("Carol, don't you look sweet, even in those tacky old riding clothes!"), who hangs around so long, she winds up hanging on the business end of a rope. Everyone drinks a lot and Joan keeps the whole show hopping with her machinations and new outfits for every other sentence. With a particular shot of Joan in an evening gown, standing on the staircase in her home as its calling card, this movie definitely bears several viewings to absorb the excess of high camp, but, like drug store perfume, once absorbed, you'll never quite rid of it. Favorite moment: Eva "clearing off" Carol's mantelpiece with a sweep of her riding crop.
Rating: 
Summary: Quintessential Joan
Review: "Queen Bee" is a must for any Joan Crawford fan. As the self-absorbed southern socialite, Eva Phillips, Crawford barrels through the film, destroying anyone who stands in her way, chewing enough scenery to make even the most ravenous pirahna green with envy, all done with perfect clothes, hair and makeup.The soap-opera like plot revolves around Crawford's Eva (did you expect anything different?). As the film opens, we learn that Eva has already trapped her wealthy husband, Avery (Barry Sullivan) into marriage after destroying his engagement to Fay Wray (who seems to be heavily medicated here...perhaps she should stick to big apes!) Sullivan responds by turning to the bottle. Not the first person Crawford has driven to drink, I'm sure.
Still not content, Eva sets her sights on reigniting her love affair with Avery's sister's fiance, Judson (I told you it was a soap-opera). Judson (John Ireland), however, loves Carol Lee (Betsy Palmer) and wants nothing to do with Eva. Unwilling to let a little thing like love stand in her way, Eva schemes to break up the lovebirds and she succeeds in a big way! Finally, Avery decides he can take no more and resolves to put an end to Eva's back stabbing and attempts to atone for past sins (both his and Eva's). The film is not very good and is redeemed only by Crawford's over-the-top performance. Her lines are delivered with such sickenly sweet innocence that she could send any diabetic into a fatal coma!! Crawford's star was beginning to dim at this point but she continued to play the grand diva to the hilt, refusing to give in to a faultering career. Her acting in the film fairly screams...."LOOK AT ME! AREN'T I GREAT!" Funny stuff on the surface but also kind of sad too. Some of the film's dialouge is delightfully campy as well. After being caught in a near clutch with Judson by her visiting cousin, Crawford sweetly smiles and says, "I didn't see you. You're so quiet we'll have to put a BELL on you." Classic Crawford. For the average movie goer, this film may not make much of an impression. The pace is slow and the ending is all to predictable but for Crawford afficienados it's must viewing.
Rating:
Summary: That buzzing you hear...
Review: ...is Joan Crawford eating the scenery -- and you won't be able to take your eyes off her. This is a wonderfully campy film, and I'm very glad it has been released on DVD. Now, let's hope that other lesser-known Crawford films from this period -- such as The Damned Don't Cry and This Woman Is Dangerous -- are soon to follow on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Queen Bee
Review: A dozen years after her M-G-M contemporaries had settled into their involuntary and disgruntled retirements, Joan Crawford was still in the game. Her "Queen Bee" is not the world's greatest movie, but it's not the worst either, not by a long shot. Crawford plays Eva Phillips, doyenne of an Atlanta mansion and married to a facially scarred husband she's nicknamed Beauty, which gives a glimmer of how twisted Eva is. Eva gets her kicks out of manipulating hubby, her old lover, her old lover's fiancee (who is Beauty's sister- this is a very close family, if you know what I mean, and I'm sure you do), and dear cousin Jennifer. Crawford also has two pre-adolescent kids, a biological coup for a fiftyish woman in 1955, when this movie was made. Much has been said and written about Crawford's scenery-chewing in this one, but it's interestingly done. La Suprema Joan uses the movie as a showcase for all the acting tricks she had so painfully acquired over thirty years in front of the camera. So polished had she become, she's able to convey menace simply by entering a room with a smile on her face. And when she gets mean, no one is meaner, as the rest of the cast finds out by slow degrees. Crawford causes one character to commit suicide, and she has a little tour-de-force moment when Eva learns what has happened. She's seated in front of her dressing table, creaming her face, and suddenly, chillingly, loses it when she hears the news. Both the script and the actress have the intelligence to refrain from explaining the reaction. Is she horrified by what she's done? Is she terrified that she has the capacity to do it? Is she just putting on an act expected of her? We don't know, and it's to Crawford's credit that she is able to communicate the ambiguity in the middle of a bit of Grand Guignol. Most other actors in the cast take their cues from Crawford, acting more floridly than they ever had before or ever would again. Barry Sullivan and John Ireland do well by the husband and the lover, respectively. Betsy Palmer attempts to stand up to Crawford's acting and to assume a Southern accent: both efforts were doomed to failure. The great and underutilised Fay Wray plays a Southern belle whom Eva bested in the race to see who could get Beauty to the altar first; she's lost her mind over it, and Wray's portrayal is touching, if overdrawn. The one cast member who comes out smelling like a rose is Lucy Marlow, whose arrival as a guest sets the movie's plot spinning; Marlow is the one natural and unaffected thing in the cast, and in the movie. The camp aspects of the film are many, not least of which is Crawford's appearance -- wigged, sporting Kabuki-like makeup, and corseted so sternly Playtex should have gotten screen credit. Her wardrobe's a delight, with one knockout Jean Louis strapless in black velvet with a white satin fishtail, and more jewellery than you could shake a stick at, much of it Crawford's own. The Southern mansion in which all the action takes place is more lavish than anything really found in 1955 Atlanta (I'm from there, and the Coca-Cola heirs don't live this well), but it's properly grand and creepy. Watch this for what it is- a camp classic. Appreciate it for something else, as well. Crawford was the one star of her generation to have the studio system figured out so well, she was able to survive and prosper during its demise. "Queen Bee" may just look like fun to us today, but it's also a document of how hard one actress fought to keep working in the years when the lights were going out on soundstage after soundstage, all over Hollywood. Crawford may be the most villainous villainess ever on-camera, but her performance also reminds us of how ruthlessly she kicked aside the wreckage that was 1950's Tinseltown, and rose above it to get the one thing she wanted above all else: to stay a star.
Rating:
Summary: get this movie before another minute goes by!
Review: A laugh-till-you-ache classis, Queen Bee ranks up there with "Death Becomes Her" and "Female Trouble" as one of the campiest movies ever made. The only difference is that they didn't mean it! Or maybe they did? How else can you explain Joan's way over the top performance as the unhappy wife of an alchololic southern Gentleman? The entire movie is staged as an orgy of Joan-isms: No-one moves when she stands there, acting like fury. I think there should be a remake. With Ru-Paul. John Waters, are you listening?
Rating: 
Summary: Queen Bee Rules!
Review: Anyone who's ever seen this movie certainly does not need another review. I will say, however, that the description was very misleading. It claims that you get the color version as well as the black and white. It's not true. I just received my copy today and it's black and white only. Shame on you Columbia!
Rating:
Summary: CRAWFORD WAS NOT ACTING IN THIS MOVIE!
Review: As Christina Crawford said in her book, Crawford was not acting in this movie. This is the way she was in real life. I believe it. Crawford was a phony. But I love most of her films. This one is fun to watch simply because you know Crawford is at her evil best. When she tells Lucy Marlowe who plays her cousin Jen "don't oppose me. I don't like people who oppose me"....that was the real Joan Crawford, not EVA, from the film. Crawford had to be in control of everything. If you want to get a glimpse of what the REAL CRAWFORD was like, watch this film. Its campy fun and the production values are great. She is abetted with a fine supporting cast, especially the tragic figure of Betsy Palmer who is driven to suicide by Crawford.
The car accident scene at the end is totally unbelievable. Eva and her lover fighting over the wheel in a rainstorm causing them to crash??? Please!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent 50's Crawford Fare
Review: Crawford gives one of her brilliant, scenery-chewing performances that daughter Christina later dubbed "no acting job by Mother. That's how we knew her at home." Great dialog, great plot, an over the top performance, with children entirely too young to ber hers. It's classic Crawford, a must-see for any fan, or for anyone who enjoys a good plot and story.
Rating:
Summary: It's GOOD to be queen....
Review: I had waited a very long time to watch this movie, although my friends had recommended it over and over. It was very much worth the wait! Joan is as mean and hateful as she could be and she gets great costumes as well. Sure, the story line is pretty transparent, the overall acting is pretty awful (sometimes they all "try on" southern accents and then seem to abandon them), but it's Joan's show and she does her best to upstage everyone and usually does a very good job of it. For pure camp, you can't beat this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Grade A Crawford
Review: In one of her best and boldest. This film is really too amazing to explain. You will awe as Crawford smashes the living room with a riding crop. You will marvel when she slaps the young ecstatic girl across the face. You will be amazed as she easily steps into a bath that has to be at least 200 degrees! You will applaud as she seduces another man while her children lay in bed with the covers over their heads shaking in fear! Beauty bagged himself a real wild one here!
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