Queen Bee (1955)

Academy Awards, USA 1956

Nominated Oscar	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Charles Lang
	Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Jean Louis

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Ranald MacDougall
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Let's see, Joan Crawford is married to Barry Sullivan, whose character is named "Beauty" because of a scar on his face. Beauty is an alcoholic who no longer loves his wife. One night he makes a pass at poor little Lucy Marlow, a naive cousin visiting for awhile, who of course falls in love with him despite their large age differences. Meanwhile, Beauty's sister is in love with John Ireland, an employee in the family business. Joan once had an affair with Ireland many years ago, but still loves him, and when he gets engaged to the sister she is determined to stop it by revealing their romance. This leads to a suicide, which in turn provides a motive for all of the remaining characters to murder Joan. This trashy melodrama has a mild plot twist for the ending and is nicely shot in black and white by old pro Charles Lang, but the lasting impression is a poor imitation of Tennessee Williams. Joan has played the bitter, aging matriarch a few too many times now, and it is starting to wear thin.