‘Mommie Dearest’s Rocky Road to Becoming a Cult Classic

Anna Maria Italiano from the Bronx traveled almost as far to become Anne Bancroft as Lucille LeSueur did to become Joan Crawford.

When she was one month short of graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a casting director gave her a role in Turgenev’s Torrents of Spring for the TV show Studio One. The following year she tested for a movie role at 20th Century Fox. Studio head Darryl Zanuck saw her screen test, said, “Sign that girl,” and presented her with a list of new last names. “They all sounded like I should have looked like Lana Turner, or been a stripper, all except Bancroft, which sounded dignified,” she remembered, then spent the fifties typecast as a film noir starlet in movies ranging from New York Confidential to Gorilla at Large to The Girl in Black Stockings.

The last straw came after a string of forgettable roles. “I began to realize you can’t wait for the gods to bless you with the right part,” said Bancroft. “Finally, I thought I’d help the gods help me. So I went to New York.”

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