Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

Many good moments in this Bio Pic

[rdooley123 · 7/10 · 19 August 2006]

I found this a very good complement to the equally underrated, in my opinion, Isn't She Terrific. There are several memorable, and very effective moments in this film. Michele Lee does a very good job. A small film, but very enjoyable version of a wonderful love, and success story.

I remember how shocked we all were when Ms. Susanne's death was announced. In this film I remember her husbands' quiet pleading for her not to kill herself. I liked the depiction of the depths of Susannes demoralization as she chases "fame", over which she and her husband triumph. Her defense of the criticism of the frank passages in her book, as when she was confronted by her publisher that she couldn't write "You know how bitchy fags can be!" "It's true!" she declaims. I'm a gay man, she was right to defend her writing, and I loved the way Lee played it.

This version includes several EXCELLENT Ethyl Merman scenes, lots of fun, and very well played. I could go on: I saw this once, and was very impressed. Very Different than the Bette Midler version, which, in my opinion is an unusual vehicle to combing two wonderful stage performers, Midler and Nathan Lane. (Unusual yes, but people forget that this is both Midler and Lane together. (two performing legends, together)

Over the Top, Larger than Life

[JamesHitchcock · 5/10 · 11 July 2016]

"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

This bio is as campy as anything Jacqueline Susann ever wrote.

[jkinoz · 10/10 · 22 April 2000]

This bio is as campy and trashy as anything jacqueline Susann ever wrote. Michele Lee does an excellent job in her impersonation of Susann. Unlike Bette Midler's recent performance as Jackie in the movie "Isn't She Great", Lee is believable and makes the audience care. As an added treat, Barbara Parkins show up as Susann's book editor and gets to mutter the line, "Where is Barbara Parkins?" as she watches a scene from "Valley of the Dolls" be filmed. Whether you are a Jacqueline Susann fan or not, this one is worth checking out.

Susann would have loved it!

Mediocre at best.

[marblehead-1 · 25 November 2002]

This is better then the Bette Midler vehicle but still doesn't work in my opinion. Michelle Lee looks a lot more like Susann then Bette Midler but she doesn't have Susann's spark, you need both. Lee produced this I assume because she wanted to play Susann. The same thing happened with Jessica Lange in the Patsy Cline story, she produced it, she played it, it didn't work,totally miscast. Bottom line: watchable but a missing something.