When denied an application for adoption, she enlists Gregg's help to secure a baby. Despite wanting a baby, she cannot get pregnant seven pregnancies when she was married to actor Franchot Tone ended in miscarriages. Joan is in a relationship with Hollywood lawyer Gregg Savitt, but her career is on a downswing. Helga, a new maid, thinks Joan's living room is spotless, but Joan finds a detail she overlooked, loses her temper, and begins compulsively scrubbing the floor to rid it of remaining dirt.

To prepare for work at MGM Studios, she rises at 4:00 a.m., scrubbing her face and arms with soap and boiling water before plunging her face into a bowl of witch hazel and ice to close the pores. Joan Crawford is a driven actress and compulsively clean housekeeper who tries to control the lives of those around her as tightly as she controls herself. Often considered to be one of the worst films ever made, it was nominated for nine Razzies at the 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards, and won five, including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for Faye Dunaway. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, the film's perceived bizarre script and performances, particularly Dunaway's, have brought a cult following to the film. The film grossed $25 million internationally against a $10 million budget. Released in September 1981, Mommie Dearest swiftly garnered a reputation among audiences for its highly-charged performances and melodramatic style, leading Paramount to retool their marketing campaign, presenting the film as an unintentional comedy despite its dark subject matter.

The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures, the only one of the Big Eight film studios for which Crawford had never appeared in a feature film. The executive producers were Christina's husband, David Koontz, and Terry O'Neill, Dunaway's then-boyfriend and soon-to-be husband. Adapted from Christina Crawford's 1978 autobiography of the same name, the film follows her and her brother Christopher's upbringing under their adoptive mother, actress Joan Crawford, depicting her as abusive, controlling, and manipulative. Mommie Dearest is a 1981 American biographical psychological drama film directed by Frank Perry and starring Faye Dunaway, Steve Forrest, Mara Hobel, and Diana Scarwid, with supporting performances from Xander Berkeley in his feature film debut along with Rutanya Alda and Jocelyn Brando.

Mommie dearest novel