Joan Crawford’s daughter says her “Mommie Dearest” should have been tossed in the slammer.
Christina Crawford, whose memoir about her abusive Hollywood movie star mom was turned into a 1981 film starring Faye Dunaway, said her nightmarish parent would be rotting behind bars these days, according to a report.
In an interview reflecting on life after her adoptive mom Joan Crawford’s violence — portrayed in the movie by Faye Dunaway — Christina said modern-day cops would have “hauled [her] off to jail for attempted murder,” according to the the UK Guardian.
But back in the 1950s, as the abuse — which included being hit, strangled and beaten with a clothes hanger — was unfolding, she once called police to report it, Christina, who is now 80, told the paper.
“[My mom] was trying to kill me,” she said. “I was 13 or 14. And it was then that I realized the world had gone insane.”
A cop showed up but did nothing, she recalled. “The officer was very kind. He told me that there was nothing he could do because there were no laws to protect me. He told me: ‘You have to try to live [here] until you are 18 and can go free. But, otherwise, if anyone calls me again on you, you’ll have to go to juvenile detention,” she said.
Today, authorities would likely slap cuffs on her mother, she said.
“She would have been in jail! She would’ve been hauled off to jail for attempted murder. What is the excuse for that? There’s no excuse,” she said.
Christina, who is now a victims’ rights advocate, added, “I’m not a martyr, but I think, looking back, it is truly amazing to me what one person can do.”
Crawford won an Oscar for the movie “Mildred Pierce” in 1945. She adopted Christina in 1940 and died of a heart attack in 1977.
A musical version of the memoir, “Mommie Dearest: The Musical,” opened earlier this month at the Birdland theater in Manhattan.