"Scandalous Me" is a biopic of Jacqueline Susann, the author best remembered today for "Valley of the Dolls". This was the best-selling novel of the sixties, and, indeed, even at the time this film was made (1998) was still the best-selling novel of all time. I must admit that I have never read it, although I did see the film version many years ago.
Well, I now know that "Susann" is pronounced "Suzanne", not (as I had always imagined) "Susan", and that it was the author's genuine surname, not a pseudonym or (as I had always imagined) a second Christian name. She was born in Philadelphia in 1918, the daughter of a successful portrait painter named Robert Susann. She became an actress, despite having limited acting talent. Her main talent seemed to be for self- promotion, and she went on to become a minor television personality, assisted by her press agent husband Irving Mansfield, appearing in a series of commercials for artificial lace. Then she turned her hand to writing and discovered that her talent for self-promotion could equally well be used to sell books.
Jacqueline Susann appears to have been a larger-than-life character, and from what I can remember of the film version of "Valley of the Dolls" it was made in an over-the-top, larger-than-life way, reminiscent of a soap opera. (I wondered if it was an influence on later American soaps such as "Dallas", "Dynasty" and "The Colbys"). "Scandalous Me" is made in a similar soap opera style. The title gives us some idea of what to expect, even though Susann, for all her flamboyance, was probably less scandalous in her private life than many of the characters she wrote about. She was, for example, married to the same man for thirty-five years and does not appear to have been an alcoholic or a drug addict. Most of the characters in "Valley of the Dolls", at least the film version, seem to be one or the other, or both.
This soap opera treatment is extended even to the tragic events in Susann's life, the birth of a mentally handicapped son (her only child) and her premature death from cancer. Michele Lee, who as well as playing the leading role, gives a good impression of Susann's deliberately exaggerated public persona, but never really manages to suggest the real woman that lay beneath that over-the-top self- caricature. This is, in fact, one of those films which I couldn't really see the point of. Even in 1998, Susann had been dead for nearly a quarter of a century, and the appeal of the film was presumably to those of the older generation who could remember reading her novels in the sixties and seventies. Today in 2016 its appeal is probably even more limited than it was then. 5/10
Well, I now know that "Susann" is pronounced "Suzanne", not (as I had always imagined) "Susan", and that it was the author's genuine surname, not a pseudonym or (as I had always imagined) a second Christian name. She was born in Philadelphia in 1918, the daughter of a successful portrait painter named Robert Susann. She became an actress, despite having limited acting talent. Her main talent seemed to be for self- promotion, and she went on to become a minor television personality, assisted by her press agent husband Irving Mansfield, appearing in a series of commercials for artificial lace. Then she turned her hand to writing and discovered that her talent for self-promotion could equally well be used to sell books.
Jacqueline Susann appears to have been a larger-than-life character, and from what I can remember of the film version of "Valley of the Dolls" it was made in an over-the-top, larger-than-life way, reminiscent of a soap opera. (I wondered if it was an influence on later American soaps such as "Dallas", "Dynasty" and "The Colbys"). "Scandalous Me" is made in a similar soap opera style. The title gives us some idea of what to expect, even though Susann, for all her flamboyance, was probably less scandalous in her private life than many of the characters she wrote about. She was, for example, married to the same man for thirty-five years and does not appear to have been an alcoholic or a drug addict. Most of the characters in "Valley of the Dolls", at least the film version, seem to be one or the other, or both.
This soap opera treatment is extended even to the tragic events in Susann's life, the birth of a mentally handicapped son (her only child) and her premature death from cancer. Michele Lee, who as well as playing the leading role, gives a good impression of Susann's deliberately exaggerated public persona, but never really manages to suggest the real woman that lay beneath that over-the-top self- caricature. This is, in fact, one of those films which I couldn't really see the point of. Even in 1998, Susann had been dead for nearly a quarter of a century, and the appeal of the film was presumably to those of the older generation who could remember reading her novels in the sixties and seventies. Today in 2016 its appeal is probably even more limited than it was then. 5/10