“As a rule, the housewife is not considered interesting enough to be feature-length material--unless she happens to be a bit ‘off.' In art cinema, she's a prostitute on the sly; in Hollywood she becomes a case study. Five years after appearing as the economically-determined Mildred Pierce, Joan Crawford has returned to the suburbs with a more successful version of Mildred's husband Burt and without the kids. As Harriet Craig, she plays a housewife who fetishizes her domestic role to the point where fastidiousness and security become obsessions of psychopathic proportion. Somewhere along the way the ‘lady of the house' loses perspective, transforming the ‘man's castle' into a bastion of waxes, cleansers, and visits from the Fuller Brush man. Driven by the need to maintain the home at any cost, Harriet stops at nothing (including ruining romance, job advances, and friendships) to hold on to what she has created. In the end, her weary husband (Wendell Corey) refuses to be superseded any longer.” Laura Thielen