QUEEN BEE is one of those films that some fans claim to love as "camp" or "so bad it's good", but the appeal of those films is always lost on me
The original meaning of camp was intentionally flamboyant and exaggerated.
I don't know when it changed to
unintentional, or why, and then after a while they started to stage/fake that unintentional camp which is absolutely the worst.
Awesomely bad films exist and the appeal is not just in the ineptitude (like most bad films) but also in the complete lack of awareness of how bad it is.
Untalented people with enough money to fund a film, combined with the delusional approach to what makes a film a good film (or just
watchable) often results in hilarious overacting and all kinds of shoddy techniques.
Obviously, these are not the kind of conditions you'd expect to see in a Joan Crawford or any typical Hollywood film, and when it happens it's mostly just disappointing.
The idea of Joan as a bitch dominating her family seems like a great premise for a soapy melodrama -- I mean, that's just FALCON CREST twenty-five years early, right?
Angela Channing has the leverage, Eva Phillips has not. It's not her mill, she's just an in-law with a bad attitude. It's the equivalent of Sue Ellen terrorising the Ewings based on a "just because" premise.
Not once did I get the impression that she actually had any kind of power, she doesn't even blackmail any of the characters.
There's a blink and you'll miss it suicide but perhaps it was better to ignore it because the reason for that suicide is seriously questionable.
Lovely cousin Jennifer with the squeaky voice is top level hateable. I wanted Joan to
stamp her to death.
It's just failure on top of failure and it goes on and on.
