vincentlynch-moonoi It's not that this is a bad film, but it doesn't quite work...and I'm not sure why. I just know that as I was watching it -- a story about a woman who manipulates everyone in a southern mansion -- I couldn't help thinking that Lillian Hellman could have fixed it.I can't fault the acting here. Joan Crawford is at her bitchy best. Even Barry Sullivan, whom I always thought of as a competent actor (though far from a favorite of mine), is very, very good. John Ireland does well. Betsy Palmer is excellent. Lucy Marlow as the visitor is very good. And it's interesting to see Fay Wray as the nut case in the early scenes.The basic story line seems fine -- A ruthless and unsatisfied wife at a southern mansion manipulates everyone (including the children) into a miserable life that includes multiple suicide. And you just know that in the end the witch (Crawford) will get her comeuppance...but how? But somehow, it just doesn't come together. Although the story line was fine, maybe the script was weak...or the direction. But that doesn't mean that it's not watchable. And of course, watching Crawford play a character that some say was very close to her real personality is extremely interesting.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Over the top drama with manipulating back stabbing and blackmailing Eva Phillips, Joan Crawford,trying to have things her way at the expense of everyone else in the movie. The Chicago born Eva had gotten hold of southern gentleman Avery "Scarface" Phillips (Barry Sullivan), who was in Chicago attending a business convention, to marry her 10 years ago by claiming that she was in the family way and that it was Avery who put her there.Now the big shot wife of the richest man in the county, outside of Atlanta Georgia, the power hungry and control freak Eve wants to keep things her way by controlling everyone in the Phillips household. It's when her cousin from the "Windy City" Jenniffer Stewart, Lucy Marion, shows up to look after the Phillips' kids Ted & Trissa, Tom Hovey & Linda Bennett, that things get real hot and heavy at the Phillips' Mansion. Eva who had a affair with her husband's best fiend and now textile mill manager Judson Paretiss, John Ireland, before they were married is a bit ticked off that he's now planning to marry her sister-in-law Carollee Phillips,Besty Palmer, since she still has the hots for Judson after all these years. Eva in spreading rumors that Judson is involved with another woman-and guess who that woman is-has a distraught and heart broken Carollee, and expert equestrian, go to the Phillips Mansion's horse stables and hang herself. Jennifer herself got a taste of Eva's hostility when she after telling her how great is was that Judson & Carollee were to be married,that's before Carollee did herself in,that she almost got a couple of her teeth knocked out by a vicious right that an enraged Eva threw at her.The already alcoholic Avery now drinking more then ever in order to get Eva out of his mind falls in love with Jennifer and secretly plans to marry her after dumping, via divorce, Eva. Finding that out Eva starts to plant rumors about her unfaithful husband Avery having an illicit affair with his new babysitter,Jennifer Stewart, that can destroy his standing as a God fearing and straight shooting southern gentleman in the close-nit and church going southern community. ****SPOILERS**** Judson who's life was already destroyed by his former lover Eva Phillips in driving his fiancée Carollee to suicide now takes matters into his own hand to finally put and end to Eva's jealous and insane tyranny that's destroying almost everyone that she comes in contact with in the movie. Having Avery get good and drunk, which wasn't that hard to do, Judson takes Eva out for a ride in the country that's to be the last ride that he and Eva will ever have. Thinking that Judson is taking her to some motel to rekindle their previous relationship Judson going at speeds of over 100 MPH on a rain slick highway drives the car off a cliff with a frantic Eva unsuccessfully, by him having the doors locked, trying to jump out before the car hit bottom!P.S Joan Crawford's performance as Eva Phillips was so much like her in real life that her 16 year old adopted and abused daughter Christina found it impossible to sit through a showing of the film and ran out of the movie house that was playing it before the movie ended!

writers_reign I remember stumbling on this several years ago and admiring Barry Sullivan's dialogue, both the dialogue itself and the way Sullivan delivered it. Although one line that stayed in my mind appears to be missing I still get a kick out of Sullivan's dialogue and even John Ireleand, a graduate of the Charlton Heston Redwood School Of Acting, weighs in with a half decent performance and handles a couple of Sullivan left-over zingers with something approaching style. They are, of course, merely the hors d'ouevres, setting up the palate for the caviar that is Joan Crawford and arguably the best example of late-blooming Crawford on celluloid. Although we're smack dab in the middle of decaying magnolia country no one makes much of a stab at a Southern accent but almost everyone makes a decent fist of this out-and-out meller.

RanchoTuVu Joan Crawford's least likable character could be the one she played in this film, as a controlling and vindictive woman of wealth who runs and ruins (or nearly ruins) the lives of all those whom she has relationships with in her large southern plantation mansion. Apparently the relationships come out of her money and their lack of it, as well as the level of her misdirected intelligence and lack of empathy for others, none of which gets explained very fully. Even to her own children, the product of her marriage to heavy drinking philosophizing character played by Barry Sullivan, she shows a cold disregard, especially the choice of a nanny, who's even meaner than Joan. Into this dysfunction comes Jennifer Stewart as a young cousin from Chicago who upsets the strange family chemistry that has been developing over the years, befriending the poor kids, and catching a lot of eyes. John Ireland seems a natural as the one guy who can and does (in some well done scenes) stand up to Queen Bee Joan, presenting his usual suppressed aversion to injustice while also straddling the fence. It's worth sticking with for the ending.