Joan is in a steady romantic relationship with Hollywood lawyer Gregg Savitt ( Steve Forrest), but her career is in a bit of a downswing.

She very clearly intimidates the maid, as well her new live-in personal assistant, Carol-Ann ( Rutanya Alda). We learn early on that Joan is obsessed with cleanliness and wants those around her to follow her instructions to the letter when a new maid thinks she has Joan's living room in spotless condition, Joan finds one minute detail that the maid overlooked and momentarily loses her temper over it. She engages in a slightly neurotic morning ritual where she scrubs her face vigorously with soap and hot water, then plunges it immediately into ice with alcohol in it to close the pores. HuggoĪt the beginning of the film, we see Joan Crawford ( Faye Dunaway) as she rises very early in the morning to prepare for a work day at the MGM Studios. Despite the physical and emotional abuse Joan hurls at Christina over the course of their relationship, Christina, who often wonders why Joan adopted her seeing as to the abuse, seemingly still wants her mother's love right until the very bitter end. However, Joan sees much of her actions toward Christina as Christina purposefully provoking her. Joan's treatment of Christina is often passive-aggressive, fueled both by the highs and lows of her career, the narcissism that goes along with being an actress, and alcohol abuse especially during the low times.

Joan believes that her own difficult upbringing has made her a stronger person, and decides that, while providing the comforts that a successful Hollywood actress can afford, she will not coddle Christina or her other children, she treating Christina more as a competitor than a daughter. Her lover at the time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lawyer Greg Savitt, was able to go through a brokerage to adopt a baby girl, who would be Christina, the first of Joan's four adoptive children. Unable to bear children, Joan, in 1940, was denied children through regular adoption agencies due to her twice divorced status and being a single working person. The relationship between Christina Crawford and her adoptive mother Joan Crawford is presented from Christina's view.

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