Review of Queen Bee, directed by Ranald MacDougall

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

I ended up acquiring a Criterion subscription in order to try and nourish my brain in this way, and I have actually been watching a ton of movies on the Criterion Channel. I feel like I’m never going to get through the entirety of their catalogue in my life, especially considering I’m pretty broke to pay for this every single year—or at least right now.

That’s how I ended up watching Queen Bee one lonely Saturday night. I didn’t have any plans and decided to just scroll through the options, and landed on Queen Bee after some deliberation. I’ve been watching a lot of pre-1960s movies lately.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much.

In a Southern home, one woman wreaks havoc on the people and family all around her.

This movie takes place in Georgia, where a woman named Eva Phillips lives in her mansion. She lives there with her husband, Avery, who straight up hates Eva and uses alcohol as a crutch for his life’s problems. The movie starts when a cousin, Jennifer, comes into the home and sees what’s happening.

Eva is currently working on stopping the marriage between her husband’s sister and business manager, as the business manager, Judson, happens to be someone she was intimate with. Jennifer also finds out that Eva got her husband from someone else and pretty much stole him from that relationship—the woman, Sue, has been unwell since.

Not long after Jennifer starts dating Sue’s brother. Eva’s behavior and decisions continues causing tension around the mansion, and Avery ends up shooting Eva’s dog. It was already terminally ill, but he wants people to tell Eva that it had just died on its own. When Jennifer refuses to lie for him, Avery states that Eva prefers fiction anyways over the truth.

Carol ends up going to Jennifer and saying that Eva is a queen bee who will go after and kill anyone who gets in her way. Jennifer ends up becoming Eva’s assistant and a caretaker for two children: Tessa and Ted. Ted’s having nightmares about a car crash that killed his parents.

Next up Eva tries to unsuccessfully go after her former lover, and Jennifer sees this happening. Carol and he become engaged, but Eva hints about their love affair and Carol commits suicide by hanging herself in the horse’s stable. Jennifer begins her own affair with Avery, which Eva notices.

She tells Avery not to continue pursuing Jennifer, but he says no. She begins threatening him with a scandal and divorce. Jud, the former lover, returns after a few weeks and learns that it was Eva who told Carol about the relationship. At the same time, Avery starts acting loving towards Eva, and she even changes.

Because she thinks her husband now loves her, she says she’s going to change herself. Her former lover sees what’s going on and confronts Avery, determining that Avery actually plans to kill her. The night Avery planned to kill her Jud ends up driving Eva to a party.

While driving on a road covered in rain, Jud exposes Avery’s plan. Eva thinks Jud wants her dead instead and attacks him, leading him to accidentally drive them both off of a cliff. That kills them both in the process.

The movie ends with Jennifer and Avery living their best life romantically, as all of the people standing in their way are now gone.

Overall Thoughts

Considering this, like many other Criterion movies I’ve watched lately, I came in with zero expectations about, I was pleasantly surprised. It was fairly predictable, but the actors made it come alive in a way that felt engaging—although the dialogue slowed down the pacing at times. It also felt like it was very much from the fifties, too.

What’s also interesting to me is that this was my first Joan Crawford movie! She does an excellent job of playing this woman that’s so despicable that you’re rooting for her downfall by the end of the movie.

I say watch this one if you’re interested in the synopsis and all. If it’s something that might not fully interest you, though, then this might be worth skipping a for a bit. I wouldn’t call this a must-watch.

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