TOP 25 CAMP FILMS OF ALL TIME - 10

QUEEN BEE

We're now in the Top 10 so the camp factor has to be raised. This is evident throughout Queen Bee. Leading lady Joan Crawford plays basically an extension of herself according to her wicked adopted daughter Christina. In later life, Christina claimed to have had to run out of the movie theatre when watching this film as it was too close to real life for her. Well I've never been a fan of Christina but I must say, if any bitter interviews of Christina are anything to go by, I'm glad Joan was a bad bitch to her and in Queen Bee, Joan takes on "bitch" to a whole new level.

This is a Joan Crawford movie, no doubt about it. Joan plays a Southern socialite in a loveless marriage. She has a cousin Jennifer visiting and basically it all goes tits up for Joan as Eva. She wreaks her special brand of bitchery to her sister in law, Carol. She slaps Jennifer, manipulates Carol's fiance into continuing an affair and lies her way back into her husband's bed. It's set in the deep South but Joan clearly couldn't be bothered with this so sports her usual accent throughout.

There's also no apparent reason for Joan to be such a bitch, she's made her husband unhappy and seduces any man she wants but we never find out why she is the way she is. The only reason I can think of is it's because she can be!

The trailer for Queen Bee is outrageous. It has a montage of Joan looking stunning and also of her going crazy with a riding crop. She reigns supreme apparently until the end when she gets her just desserts. What also cracks me up is that the trailer actually shows Joan's final scene which kind of negates watching the film - if it weren't such a tour de force by a more manlier looking Crawford than we've seen. It was filmed in the early 1950s and Joan is looking tougher, she sounds tougher but still manages to show her gorgeous gams and eyebrows like African caterpillars. Everything is just that bit more exaggerated including Joan chewing the scenery and other cast members.

Famed designer, Jean Louis designed Joan's gowns although a lot of her ridiculous jewellery is from Joan's own collection. She vamps it up throughout with chiffon, boob tubes, waist cinchers, shoulderpads. It's a drag queen's wardrobe waiting to inherit!

HIGHLIGHTS
Eva (Joan) has a heart to heart with her cousin Jennifer. The rage builds in her throughout the scene as she walks around the room with her riding crop. She has something on her mind so sets about destroying the room with her riding crop. Crazy and this scene proves it.

Eva discovers that after all her treachery, her sister in law has killed herself. She tries to make up her already made up face and freaks out when looking in the mirror so smears cold cream all over it. Another sign that she's as mad as a box of frogs.

Eva decides to take her cousin Jennifer to task and gives her a good slap. Lucy Marlow plays Jennifer and it's obviously a real slap. Joan couldn't have had any patience with the bad acting from Marlow and decided to take matters into her own hands!

Jennifer wakes up Eva who is wearing an eye mask and silk gloves and a full robe. Who knew sleeping was such a big deal?!

Eva goes on the phone to get out of a dinner date so she can seduce Carol's fiance. She feigns illness and meanwhile wraps the phone cord round his neck. She asks him "Aren't I wicked?" and she is - no one does phone like Joan!

Eva appears on screen with the perkiest set of bosoms known to man. Every shirt or blouse is cinched at the waist to highlight the boobs! The slut!!

Fay Wray who was the heroine in the King Kong movies plays simple Sue Mckinnon. She was jilted by Beauty years earlier on her wedding day as he left her for Eva. She has a few scenes and seems a bit "soft in the head" as they would say in the day!

When Carol is discovered hanging in the stables, Lucy Marlow doesn't really act at all. She just looks at the body and turns away - no screams, no tears, no nothing. Someone call the bad acting police.

EVA'S NASTY LINES
EVA - My Carol you look sweet, even in those tacky old riding clothes.

EVA - I must say Jen, you're not the most sparkling company I've ever enjoyed.

BEAUTY - I've told you before, never come between me and my liquor, you;'ll get knocked down.

EVA - I'm an outsider and they hate outsiders. You don't know the things they've made me do trying to protect myself. And how ashamed I've been, sometimes because of it. You don't know how they are, as if you have to be from the South to be any good. I wish I could be rid of them as easily as this trash. (All this is done whilst she's trashing the room with the crop before she utters) I don't know when I've been in such a temper!

EVA - Carol and Jud, they're engaged, getting married. Jud's just told us this minute. ISN'T IT REVOLTING?!!! That he's only just told us!

EVA - Any man's my man if I want it that way.

EVA - You are so quiet, we'll have to put a BELL on you!

EVA - He actually trembles when I talk to him. You'd think he'd never seen a beautiful woman before.

BEAUTY - I've made a decision.
EVA - Really? A whole decision all by yourself?

All in all Joan runs the gamut here in her nastiest role ever on screen. This was one of the first movies she made after leaving Warner Bros and completing her Oscar nominated role in Sudden Fear. Joan was back in command and could do what she liked and she liked the role of Eva. It's a relatively unknown Joan movie but one of the campest ever - if only for the riding crop and cold cream scenes - but it's so much more! She is what it says on the box - A Queen Bee!