MovieChat Forums > Mommie Dearest (1981) Discussion > Ok I have a question about the "No money...

Ok I have a question about the "No money" scene

posted 8 years ago by greenfairyXO
4 replies | jump to latest

The scene in the basement/laundry room when Joan tells Christina they are broke....and she'd have to be on a work study scholarship...

Then Christina sees her passed out drunk with tons of expensive shopping bags and says to Carol Ann "She told me we were broke.."

Did Joan "act" and completely lie, so she could be greedy with her money, and torture Christina even more by making her work AND go to school on a work scholarship just to eff with with her life even more? Or was she telling the truth and just spending excessively even though she didn't have the money to do so, so a big reason she was broke was spending too much and not being financially responsible?

[–] thenakedeye 8 years ago

Joan was ULTRA competitive, and the one big sore spot she had her whole life was the lack of opportunity she had to be formally educated early on (she fell behind in school, having to work for her board). School life was hell for Joan in ways that Christina probably couldn't have imagined.

She did absolutely resent that Christina was given such an opportunity at a very well regarded school, for which the girl may have seemed ungrateful. It wasn't about the money for Joan (which is made clear when she spends the same amount on shoes).

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cookiela2001 8 years ago

Mmmmmmmm....maybe compared to her previous income. But in practical terms, No. She always had her own high profile address, a maid, assistants, her jewelry, etc. She wasn't exactly hurting, in the way most of us think about it.

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[–] GroovyDoom 7 years ago

You really have to get inside Joan's head for this one. She probably was telling the truth about running short on funds, but the last thing she would have considered was cutting corners on her wardrobe. She would cut corners on her daughter's education and make her daughter pick up the slack. She didn't feel sorry that Christina had to work and go to school, she was embarrassed about what it looked like that Joan Crawford's daughter had to do a work study. It was a dent in her image.

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