FAYE VS BETTE: The Disappearance of Aimee (1976)

It's Miss Dunaway to you salad boy.

It's a pretty good. The off-screen tension may have helped fuel the dysfunctional mother-daughter dynamic in the movie, which was pretty twisted and sad.

Ann-Margret was originally cast as Aimee and dropped out.

Prompting Bette to publicly observe (after Faye pissed her off mightily with her tardiness during filming) that Faye Dunaway was nobody's first choice for any part—she only got cast after somebody else passed or quit.

In the 1975 movie "The Day of the Locust" there is a character called "Big Sister," who wasn't in Nathanael West's novel and is obviously based on Aimee. Geraldine Page played her well, but it wasn't much more than a cameo; the character has much more depth and shading in "The Disappearance of Aimee," thanks to the screenplay and Miss Dunaway.

I don't really understand why Faye Dunaway is even famous. Is it because during the decades when she didn't eat you can see her sharp hip and cunt bones?

I've started watching this, and boy is Faye stinking up the joint.

She's playing Aimee the same as Diana Christensen. Did she think that because it was a TV movie, she didn't have to bother with a new characterization?

Faye , sit down 🪑

we need to talk-

I’m not one of your FANS!

The actual story of Aimee is really interesting and should be a cautionary tale for the weak minded.

As for Faye, I think we've just about covered all of this sad womans' multiple train wrecks.

Bette may have been a cunt but she was a pro to the end.

R6, did Faye ever have a different characterization? Performance level always on 11.

All right, may as well show up in this thread.

R10 go on…

I've told the story before on DL, r11. Our payment as extras was a box lunch and we were asked to come in period clothing. It was in a Masonic Temple in Denver and it was sweltering hot. No air-conditioning and I don't remember there even being ceiling fans. We waited and waited...and waited for Faye to come out so that filming could begin. Finally Bette came out in her pin curls and wig cap and entertained us, finally singing I've Written a Letter to Daddy.

The only memory I have of Faye (when she *finally* emerged) was that she seemed a bit high-strung.

I remember Bette always having a cigarette between her fingers coming from or going to her trailer. I wish I had checked to see if she had tossed one of her butts. I can't think of a more appropriate Bette Davis souvenir.

[quote]The producers have certainly covered this exercise in pointlessness with touches of class. Old newsreel footage is used to generate a sense of period. A temple in Denver provides an effective simulation of Aimee's famous temple in Los Angeles. Hundreds of extras are used in the service scenes. The marvelous costumes were designed by Edith Head. And the photography, directed by Jim Crabe, is excellent, particularly in the beach scenes.

"Miss Dunaway is occasionally a bit too cool, too Mary Hartmanesque as Aimee, but she is always interesting to watch."

It's a long way from Diana Christensen to Mary Hartman...

When Faye is preaching in the opening scene, she sounds and acts just like Diana Christensen addressing the UBS affiliates conference.