What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a melodrama of the grotesque shot in stark black and white.Two ageing actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play two has beens living in a cycle of hate and vengeance.Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford) was a glamorous actress in the 1930s crippled in a car accident where her sister was thought to be the driver.'Baby' Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) was a major child star in the beginning of the 20th century. She was spoilt and taunted her sister Blanche who will find fame when she is older. By the 1930s Jane's career declines as she is not as talented as Blanche.In the present days (1960s) both are forgotten and living in gothic mansion. Jane is a drunk, getting madder everyday, being cruel to Blanche and dreaming of a come back on the stage. Blanche is wasting away upstairs in her bedroom, starved and living is despair, gagged and bound.Only their black maid shows concern but Jane gets rid of her, however Jane's madness leads to murder.Bette Davis went to the edge for her unhinged portrayal as Jane, even applying her own makeup. Crawford is more sedate but still manages to get under the skin of her sister when she in in her wheelchair. Both taunt each other unmercilessly because of past slights.It really is a claustrophobic chiller, another cynical film of shattered dreams of Hollywood and fame. Even the subplot about cash strapped pianist Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) is another player who did not make it in Hollywood.

Blanche never thought to scream to the neighbor from the window? Blanche couldn't moan when she heard the housekeeper at her door? The housekeeper doesn't have the sense to turn around and look at Jane after discovering Blanche tied up in bed with tape over her mouth? Who wrote this? Bette Davis was up for an Oscar for this crap???

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? is a crackling psychological thriller made in the post-PSYCHO world and a ghastly old Southern Gothic horror film to boot. It's notable for featuring two great actresses of yesteryear, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, knocking heads and sparks off each other as a pair of old-time actresses with the ultimate in love/hate relationships. As shot by Robert Aldrich, this film is very well made and one of a kind for its time; the psychological approach is second to none and the sheer level of demented hysteria that builds after a slow start is remarkable.

I'm so engrossed in the Ryan Murphy's series "Feud" that watching again "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane" was unavoidable. "Feud" works on so many levels and the performances are so spot on that I suspect What Ever Happened To Baby Jane will have another life and in this new reincarnation it will teach us something important about Hollywood, about acting, about fame and about the fragility of the human mind. All this in great part due to "Feud" Jessica Lange's performance as Joan Crawford is already, for me, in a pantheon of its own. There is not a moment in which the illusion falters and this is more true episode after episode. Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis is also superb but her character is the more educated, stronger. A Yankee. So she provokes a very different kind of emotion. To all fans of the actresses and of Baby Jane you can't afford to miss "Feud" and, please, give it a couple of episodes to adjust but once you get to the third episode "Mommie Dearest" you'll be hooked in the greatest possible way. Enjoy.