What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
1962 - Warner Brothers
Directed By Robert Aldrich



SYNOPSIS

Baby Jane is the darling of the vaudeville scene during the World War I era. Her sister Blanche becomes a big Hollywood star in the 1930's while Jane's career flounders. Blanche is paralyzed in a car accident, leaving Jane to care for her. By the early 1960's, both women share the same home and psychologically torment each other. Jane (Bette Davis) is crazy and tries to feed her sister dead rats and parakeets and totally isolates her from the outside world. Blanche (Joan Crawford) is driven paranoid by her Jane. Their feud flares after others try to intervene.



MY THOUGHTS

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is an unusual thriller that teamed two great rivals for the only time.

The film has as much shock and suspense as any horror film, yet it's no horror film.... it's more of a psychological drama. It also shows the dark side of fame, much like Sunset Boulevard but in an entirely different manner.
There is little action most of the suspense comes from dialogue. The black and white photography is beautiful and creepy at the same time.



The key to Baby Jane's success lies in it's leads.
It was brave on Joan Crawford and Bette Davis' parts to make a film where they appear horrible looking and acting... far from their glamorous roles of the past. They make a great screen pair... despite the fact they loathed each other in real life... and tormented each other on set.

Bette Davis' makeup may appear a little overdone at times (so much so that she practically looks like a silent film actor at some points) but that's the eccentric role she's playing. Her character's fragile and unbalanced mental state causes her personality to turn on a dime. Davis is able to navigate the character without losing believability. This is what netted her an Oscar nomination.

Joan Crawford plays the 'victim' well. She's certainly more understated than Davis and is totally believable as a crippled woman. You can see the anguish and torment in her eyes. She doesn't have to say anything or use any other part of her body to convey this.

It's unclear who the real villain of the story is, both Blanche and Jane are in the end, equally bad. They are very unsettling characters both equally horrible and pathetic.
Their lives are like a train wreck, you can't look away.