Pretty bad. Faye Dunaway, like an anaconda, not only chews the scenery, she vomits it up and eats it again. Her performance as Joan Crawford has to be some sort of actor's lesson in what not to do...EVER. Based on Christina Crawford's "memoir," MOMMIE DEAREST focuses primarily on Crawford in the 1940s when she adopted a few children and was, at least briefly, considered a good actress. For some reason Dunaway looks and acts like the Crawford of the 1960s --- think NIGHT GALLERY, TROG, BERSERK! Frank Perry, a previously classy director, clearly had no control over Dunaway. She runs amok and soundly dwarfs the rest of the cast including Mara Hobel as young Christina, Howard da Silva as Louis B. Mayer and the always unusual Diana Scarwid as the adult Christina. Steve Forrest appears as Dunaway's lawyer/lover/confidant. The film's become a camp classic, but it's actually just dull and awkwardly made for the first hour or so. It does reach a certain level of hysteria in the second half particularly when the 50-something Dunaway/Crawford replaces her ill 20-something daughter on a soap opera.