"Mommie Dearest" DVD: cult classic or fine acting? Ask director John Waters

You might think that when rebel film director John Waters — the man behind such offbeat cinema as "Hairspray," "Female Trouble" and "Serial Mom" — signs on to supply the 25th anniversary DVD edition commentary for the Joan Crawford bio film "Mommie Dearest" (Paramount Home Entertainment, $14.99), it's because he's on a mission.

Namely, that he's out to pump up the camp factor to a degree that surpasses the waist size of his notorious, cross-dressing leading "actress," Divine.

And true, Paramount is marketing the video by trotting out that classic Crawford catchphrase "No wire hangers, ever!" But to hear Waters expound on the 1981 film's virtues, it's not about the camp. Not even close.

"There are a few moments that give it its reputation for being campy," Waters says. "I get why people think it's campy, because Joan Crawford's life was over the top. But I think it's a really, really good movie. Except for her ripping up all those rose plants in front of the house and the wire hangers (she is appalled that daughter Christina uses them and beats her with one) — if you took those scenes out, it might have won an Oscar."

Yes, Waters admits, "Those two scenes are howlers. But it's certainly not like 'Showgirls,' where it's so bad it's good. It's not like (director) Frank Perry didn't know what he was doing."

Why is "Mommie Dearest" remembered as more of a quirky cult film than a serious melodrama? Waters thinks the Hollywood publicity machine is in part to blame.

"When that movie came out, it got bad reviews — and they tried to turn it into a 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' " he says. "They planted gays in the audience with wire hangers, screaming, 'Wire hangers!' "

To Waters, this is a crime. "It is a very serious movie and was very enjoyable for me — though for others it obviously failed."

He's also enamored of Faye Dunaway's performance: "I think she's great in the movie. When they always used to always say, 'So and so is' and then the (character's name), God knows she was Joan Crawford in the movie. It was as if method acting had taken over and stolen her soul. But she won't talk about the movie. I don't get it. I don't think she has anything to be embarrassed about."

Waters says that to do the commentary, he studied "Mommie Dearest" more closely than any film he has ever watched — "It was like being in school and analyzing a sentence" — but that he came away with a renewed sense of sympathy for Crawford, even though she's the object of Christina Crawford's scorn in the autobiography the movie is based upon.

"Joan was a big movie star, and in many senses, that was all she had," Waters says. "And in that time, you were never in real life. You lose all barriers and boundaries and you become this creature, really — and that's what's interesting to me. But Joan never saw herself in that way. She was lost in that world — and angry when it left."

Added features include: three new featurettes; interviews with Waters, Diana Scarwid (who portrayed Christina Crawford), producer/screenwriter Frank Yablans; and the original theatrical trailer.