Finally have a moment to recap Feud. There is so much on Sunday night’s I can’t possibly get through it all and there comes a time where trying to do one more recap would result in a recap even more incomprehensible and typo ridden than the ones you are accustomed to. As someone with no idea about this feud at all, I think I am probably enjoying it more than those of you who know the real story and how everything turns out. This week is Oscars night and this should be good!
First of all, I need all of Kathrine Hepburn’s signage to go the hell way from her house. I love it. Also, wow, the nominations were all such big names. These days there are usually tons of people I’ve never heard of in the running. Poor Joan, snubbed again. Joan being Joan was not going to allow the Academy Awards to happen without her, so she demanded to be a presenter.
Bette calls Olivia de Havilland in Paris for moral support. This week we introduce another feud between Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine. Again, I had to Google to see who these characters were. I do recognize the name but both were before my time and believe it or not, I wasn’t exposed to TV much at all until the end of high school. Once I finally moved out of my parents house, I was the rebellious one who could now watch all the TV in the world. This is how I became addicted to television. And well also kind of slutty, but that’s another story. Let this be a lesson to the strict, religious parents out there, that technique often tends to backfire.
Mamacita walks through a scene with Joan and I am mesmerized. I truly need a spinoff of just Joan and Mamacita. She doesn’t even have to say a word and she is fascinating. Joan’s guest, Hedda is sitting on a couch covered in heavy plastic. Even the throw pillows. lol. Hedda devises a strategy for the two of them to poison the well with the academy voters encouraging them not to vote for Bette. Women are such cunts. Joan is so jealous of Bette she can’t see straight. She’s having a drunken breakdown with Hedda. Joan tells Hedda she can’t believe she “agreed to be a presenter.” She can’t do it. It will humiliating. But Hedda says she must.
I am missing the point of Joan calling another nominee and freaking her out. Oh, she wants Paige to stay home so that she can accept the Oscar on her behalf. And the poor woman agrees! Her next stop is to see Anne Bancroft. Joan compliments her performance to a half empty house. Such dedication. Oh, such condescension. Anne has to miss the ceremony because she is on Broadway and doesn’t want to let her fans down, so Joan convinces her to let her accept her award on her behalf even though Anne is on to her. Anne gives her a huge compliment on her role in Baby Jane, and seemed to be a true fan.
On Oscar Day, Mamacita runs a tight ship with a glam squad of at least a dozen people arriving midday to begin the process of getting Joan camera ready. For reasons I do not understand, her hair person covers her head in powder making it appear gray. It appears she was going for a head to toe silver look. Literally. I’m going to let Eric, or one of you tell me who the nice man is that tries to talk Joan out of trying to steal the night from Bette. I am mesmerized by the gown Joan is wearing. I want it. I could wear it to the ghetto liquor store or something.
Meanwhile, everyone is setting up Bette to feel confident of her win. This is making me nervous. Olivia does indeed arrive from Paris to sit with Bette at the ceremony. Both women bond over the glory of winning an Oscar making them feel loved. Bette admits it is kind of sad, but Olivia gets it. Olivia is a great hype girl for Bette on the red carpet.
Joan has completed a full takeover of the green room replete with a team of waiters, full catering and Mamacita at the helm, and at the bar. This is against the academy by laws and she is reprimanded but not stopped. I mean how do they even try to stop her? She brought cold cuts for everyone!
When Bette finds out that Joan is playing belle of the ball in the green room, she busts in like a bat out of hell. But before anyone takes of their earrangs for the brawling, Joan is called out to present best director. She does so with grace and aplomb and then leads the winner on a circuitous route through the mens room to the press room. I suppose she just wanted as many people as possible to see her?
Joan actually goes right back to the stage where she hovers behind the curtain during the best actress award hoping that one of her two choices wins so that she can accept the best actress award herself.
Holy shit! Anne Bancroft wins and out walks Joan to accept the award. Then she goes to the press room and has her photo taken with the Oscar. Wow.
Bette is devastated. Joan takes the Oscar home with her.
I just love this campy romp and Joan and Mama cita are stealing every scene. The man who tells Joan that what she is doing is beneath her is the 30’s and 40’s director George Cukor. They showed his name in the scene. I think he directed Joan in The 1939 film The Women which also starred Joan Fontaine. I have loved all this Hollywood stuff since I was I’m my teens. The Women also has Hedda Hopper in it and is the ultimate bitchy women’s story. The remake with Meg Ryan and Annette Bening sucked. I will be sorry to see this show end. It’s great fun.
Yes, if you have never watched the original The Women, watch it now! Perfect movie, and Joan was great in it.
Loved the original with Norma Shearer.. Loved the Bathroom scene with Joan in a clear glass swan tub. the kicker was when Rosalind Russel in there also and Joan wants to take a shower! Great Stuff
I’ve been listening to a podcast about Old Hollywood and George Cukor was one of the few, if not the only, directors that earned Joan’s respect. Early on she had a good relationship with Louis B. Mayer, and The Women came about when she went to him about the lack of quality in the films that were coming her way. I’m loving The Feud and the recaps–thanks TT!
Loved this episode. Whoever did the opening credits deserves an Emmy.
Zeta-Jones does a fabulous Olivia de Havilland. Pretty sure that she is the only surviving cast member of Gone With the Wind.
The Green Room scene was fantastic. Who was going to stop Joan? She made it nice!!!
I commented on the outstanding opening credits before. I have read like 6 Joan Crawford books. Nobody ever stopped Joan but Joan .
WAtched a lot of old movies in my youth . on tv. George Cukor was hated by male leads. Cukor was known as a woman’s director… Can’t believe the Academy let Joan take the Oscar home…thought they would grab it away and have the engraved one sent to Anne Bancroft. Talk about a Cat in the Canary Seat.. You could visualize the feathers around Joan’s mouth!
George Cukor was gay, right?
Not sure.. never cared.. He was a great director.
I never cared either, but I believe he was which accounted for him being a “women’s” director and disliked by males.
The trip through the men’s room back to the Green Room, whether real or fiction is wonderful! No shame for fame!
Joan won her one and only Oscar for Mildred Pierce. She is very sympathetic in this role. I hated her in The Women but lived Norma Shearer. Joan was gorgeous in her youth. The first silent film I saw was with her and Lon Chaney . I forget the name of it. I thought she looked awful in The Women. That hair!!
Probably billed as Lucille Laseur (sp) and not Joan Crawford. in the Lon Chaney Film. Wish i could remember the name of the movie in which she plays a Circus owner.. later in her career.
The Crawford-as-circus owner picture is Berserk! (1968). Another Joan-and-a-younger-man picture, in this case Ty Hardin.
Also in the movie is Diana Dors, England’s answer to Jayne Mansfield and first wife of Richard Dawson…probably best remembered today for being on the cover of The Beatles’s “Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.
Thank you… Ty Harden… thought he did cowboy pic’s? I remember Joan in the Circus ring with an outfit that looked like a bathing suit and tights.. and at her age..
Kudos to her. The movie .. less than a “B”.
George Cukor was the first director of Gone With The Wind. Most of the scenes he directed stayed in the movie, such as Melanie’s birthing scene and Scarlett killing the yankee soldier. He was fired by Selznick, much to the chagrin of Leigh and de Havilland, and the delight of Gable, who feared Cukor would give the film to the women.
He directed every major woman star in the studio. Some of his films were Gaslight, Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, My Fair Lady and Wizard of Oz.
It’s interesting to see the other influences on Bette and Joan in this great series.
Yes Cukor was gay. Gable could not stand him and got him canned from Gone with the Wind. He was replaced by Victor Fleming who Gable thought a man’s man so to speak. Very interesting since rumor had Gable being with men early in his career. True? Who knows.
He was really really gay. Kind of the don of the gay set in that period. Over-the-top house. I think Billy Haines did it. But maybe it was someone else.
Supposedly, Clark Gable endured the “casting couch” early in his career. One of the filmakers that allegedly took advantage of him was George Cukor. Once Gable had clout, Cukor was out. However, Vivian Leigh continued to to work with George Cukor privately while shooting “GONE WITH THE WIND”, going over every scene with him, long after Victor Flemming had taken over as Director.
Meant to write..”early on in his career…”
Gable.. wow .. Most women wanted Rhett Butler..
This also happened with the Wizard of Oz. Cukor started off directing and Fleming took over, or Fleming started and Cukor took over (too lazy to google from my phone, sorry!)
The Olivia de Havilland/Joan Fontaine feud was epic. I don’t think they ever reconciled and, well, now Joan is dead. From the wiki page:
De Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have won Academy Awards in a lead acting category.[256] According to biographer Charles Higham, the sisters always had an uneasy relationship, starting in early childhood when Olivia had trouble accepting the idea of having a younger sister, and Joan resenting her mother’s favoring Olivia. Olivia would rip up the clothes that her sister was given to wear as hand-me-downs, forcing Joan to stitch them together again.[257] [258] This tension was made worse by Fontaine’s frequent childhood illnesses, which led to her mother’s overly protective expression, “Livvie can, Joan can’t.”[16] De Havilland was the first to become an actress, and for several years Fontaine was overshadowed by her sister’s accomplishments.[259] When Mervyn LeRoy offered Fontaine a personal contract, her mother told her that Warner Bros. was “Olivia’s studio” and that she could not use the family name, “de Havilland”.[259] In 1942, de Havilland and Fontaine were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress—de Havilland for Hold Back the Dawn and Fontaine for Suspicion. When Fontaine’s name was announced as winner, de Havilland reacted graciously saying, “We’ve got it!”[260] According to biographer Charles Higham, Fontaine rejected de Havilland’s attempts to congratulate her, leaving the other offended and embarrassed.[261]
Their relationship was further strained in 1946 when Fontaine made negative comments to an interviewer about de Havilland’s new husband, Marcus Goodrich. When she read her sister’s remarks, de Havilland was deeply hurt and waited for an apology that was never offered.[262] The following year after accepting her first Academy Award for To Each His Own, de Havilland was approached backstage by Fontaine, who extended her hand to congratulate her; de Havilland turned away from her sister.[262] The two did not speak for the next five years after the incident.[Note 18] This may have caused an estrangement between Fontaine and her own daughters, who maintained a covert relationship with their aunt, de Havilland.[261] Following her divorce from Goodrich, de Havilland resumed contact with her sister,[262] coming to her apartment in New York and spending Christmas together there in 1961.[262][263] The final break between the sisters occurred in 1975 over disagreements over their mother’s cancer treatment—de Havilland wanted to consult other doctors and supported exploratory surgery; Fontaine disagreed.[264] Fontaine claimed that de Havilland did not notify her of their mother’s death while she was touring with a play—de Havilland in fact had sent a telegram, which took two weeks to reach her sister.[258] The sibling feud ended with Fontaine’s death on December 15, 2013.[262][Note 19] The following day, de Havilland released a statement saying she was “shocked and saddened” by the news.[266]
You know, I almost included to a link to the story I had to pause and google. Then I remember that pretty much everyone except for apparently, Cheryl who has just discovered the Internet this week, is capable of Googling for themselves.
wikipedia? really?
Bwahaha!
I thought it was a little strange “Olivia” brought that up (her feud with her sister) in her talking head. But I actually think that maybe they are going to do that next. This was successful even if you didn’t know these women. There was a lot of these in Hollywood. But the sisters was epic. I think they might be considering another “FEUD”.
It has already been announced that Feud will be returning for a second season in 2018 and the feud is going to be Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
Oh wow! I am kind of shocked by this. Not sure I care…..I think I would rather see the old Hollywood kids go at it! LOL
Charles & Diana? Hasn’t that story been played out for the last 20yrs?? Don’t think I’d be interested.
Exactly! Give us something we didn’t see every bit of!
Oh no. The accents. They’re gonna be soooooooo bad.
This programme makes the little gay boy inside me quiver with excitement. I love it! It is everything.
When I grow up I want to be Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford. Has anyone else notice Lange is ageing backwards? That some good work, boo.
While we’re at it, can we have a small flashback of appreciation for Gregory Peck, and the fact that he was Original Daddy? *sigh*
Sidenote: Has anyone seen Big Little Lies?
@ Mark: LOVE LOVE LOVE Big Little Lies.
OMG the finale had me hanging off my seat which I NEVER do!!!
Have it on DVR. Will get back to you! Can’t wait!!!
I thought Joan was gonna have an orgasm when her girl won! That scene was absolutely incredible!
Jessica Lange is a national treasure!
Jessica Lange looks like Joan wished she looked at that age. Of course Joan had no access to Botox then. Also Joan had those very heavy eyebrows. I am not the biggest Lange fan but she was born to play this role. Oh yes Big little lies was everything. I lust after Alexander Starsgard but not in this role. However he looks hot in anything.
Google the real life pic of Joan Crawford that Oscar night (I know there is one where she is standing beside Gregory Peck) and Joan actually did look better than Jessica Lange portrayed. She was actually thinner and her face not as bloated.
And she had those crazy eyes. Love that.
OMG I know I was so confused. Like, “OMG You can’t do that that’s ghastly!!! Wait. Take your top off. I MEAN YOU MONSTER.”
You hooked me on this series with your recap. Caught up on the series today. Those two women were divas.