Queen Bee (film)
Encyclopedia
Queen Bee is a 1955 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, John Ireland
John Ireland (actor)
John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...

, Fay Wray
Fay Wray
Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

, Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...

, and Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...

 in a story about a family dominated by a ruthless woman. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall was an American screenwriter who scripted such films as Mildred Pierce , The Unsuspected , June Bride , and The Naked Jungle ....

 was based upon a novel by Edna L. Lee. The film was directed by Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall was an American screenwriter who scripted such films as Mildred Pierce , The Unsuspected , June Bride , and The Naked Jungle ....

 and produced by Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald was an American producer and screenwriter for motion pictures and radio shows.Born Jerome Irving Wald in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were active in show business. Jerry began writing a radio column for the New York Evening Graphic while a student at New York...

. Queen Bee has been released to DVD.

Plot

Ruthless Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

) dominates her Georgia mansion and her husband Avery (Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...

), an alcoholic mill owner who hates his wife. A cousin, Jennifer Stewart (Lucy Marlow), visits and watches in horror as Eva maneuvers to prevent the marriage of Avery's sister Carol (Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...

) to Judson Prentiss (John Ireland
John Ireland (actor)
John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...

). Judson was once Eva's lover, and, when Carol learns the truth, commits suicide. Jennifer and Avery are drawn together. When Eva senses the developing relationship, she increases her malevolent actions. Judson, guilty over Carol's death and determined to avenge it, takes Eva driving and when Eva discerns from Judson's conversations that he wants her dead, she frantically attacks him resulting in a crash over a cliff, killing them both. Jennifer and Avery are free to love each other.

Cast

  • Joan Crawford
    Joan Crawford
    Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

     as Eva Phillips
  • John Ireland
    John Ireland (actor)
    John Benjamin Ireland was an actor and film director.-Biography:Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he was raised in New York City from the age of 18. He started out in minor stage roles on Broadway...

     as Judson Prentiss
  • Betsy Palmer
    Betsy Palmer
    Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...

     as Carol Lee Phillips
  • Barry Sullivan
    Barry Sullivan (actor)
    Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...

     as Avery Phillips
  • Lucy Marlow as Jennifer Stewart
  • William Leslie as Ty McKinnon
  • Fay Wray
    Fay Wray
    Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

     as Sue McKinnon
  • Katherine Anderson as Miss Breen
  • Tim Hovey
    Tim Hovey
    Tim Hovey was an American child actor and later a road manager and an audio engineer for rock bands.He is best known for his first film role as Cadet Thomas in The Private War of Major Benson ....

     as Ted Phillips
  • Linda Bennett as Tessa Phillips

Reception

Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...

 of the New York Times noted, "[Miss Crawford] is the height of mellifluous meanness and frank insincerity." William K. Zinsser of the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...

wrote, "Miss Crawford plays her role with such silky villainy we long to see her dispatched."

Accolades

Queen Bee was nominated for 2 awards at the 28th Academy Awards
28th Academy Awards
The 28th Academy Awards were presented at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Marty, a simple and low-budget film usually uncharacteristic of Best Picture awardees, became the shortest film to win the top honor.This year also was notable for having only 2 of the best picture...

 in 1956 for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

 (Charles Lang
Charles Lang
Charles Bryant Lang, Jr., A.S.C. was an American cinematographer.Early in his career he worked with the Akeley camera, a gyroscope-mounted "pancake" camera designed by Carl Akeley for outdoor action shots...

) and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Jean Louis
Jean Louis
Jean Louis was a French-born, Hollywood costume designer and an Academy Award winner for Costume Design. Louis worked as head designer for Columbia Pictures from 1944 to 1960...

).
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK