What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Reviews
May 1, 2013
Two fantastic performances by Joan Crawford and Bette Davis (genius casting if there ever was) make this a fantastically disturbing experience.
April 24, 2013
The premise of the film is genius, though the films is completely implausible and full of plotholes, it is most definitely a classic and a all around good film. It tells a story that is funny as well as rather haunting, though it is not haunting in a traditional sense. Bette Davis delivers a charming, but at the same time frightening performance. The only problem is that her performance is so powerful that she completely overshadows the rest of the cast. I have to add that it is clearly obvious that this was the main inspiration for Stephen King's ''Misery''. Though i saw quite a few problems in the film i thoroughly enjoyed it!
April 14, 2013
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in a movie about one-up-manship, murder, and deciet. What more reason do you need to see it?
February 28, 2013
One of my favorite old timey films, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is a Hollywood treasure to behold for years to come.
April 14, 2013
I don't know how to rate this one. On a camp scale, it earns five stars easily. On a normal scale? Two at best. It's definitely an experience. Wow.
March 26, 2013
Bette Davis gives her greatest performance in this still terrifying and macabre tale of sibling rivalry.
March 25, 2013
Occasional misfires aside, this is the finest sort of grotesquery, prefiguring the horrible monochromatic imagery of films like Begotten by some 3 decades!
March 17, 2013
The film is almost flawless in its making and performances and there is Bette Davis and Jan Crawford revitalizing their career with outstanding and horrific performances and there is a nice twist being saved from a simple psyche-revenge tale, but what the main problem is it is caged behind the classical forms of golden era hollywood at different times. The film has got larger limits as a psycho-revenge tale and becomes confused to leave the golden era baggage to behind,so finally the audience couldnt get from it anymore.
March 12, 2013
Joan's acting is prime, but her character is so dumb that, despite all the harassment, you won't be able to feel any sympathy for her (well, maybe in some moments you can, but most of the time you won't). Although the ending might explain some of her character's behavior, something doesn't really quite fit and it ends up looking like she's dull and apathetic for the course of the entire movie (and seeing that this is a very long movie, this is something that will bother you until the very last second).
Believe or not, this is my first Betty Davis movie. Her character is clearly the most interesting, specially when you compare the two sisters. I think she nailed down her unstable and problematic character, and I enjoyed her performance very much (and I'm really eager to see more of her movies).
The thing that was most displaced in the plot was the neighbor. She doesn't really have a part to play in the story (well, maybe once or twice), and I don't wish a neighbor that stupid to anyone. Overall, the acting, editing and soundtrack for this movie are really impressive, and I really don't understand how they made a plot like that into a very nice movie. This is really its biggest accomplishment, turning a very absurd and silly premise into a exciting thriller. If you watch this movie you won't regret it, and you'll see its 3 hours fly by.
Wow. What can I say about this movie? The premise is ridiculous, but it's so well conducted that it turns out this is a very good movie with a very silly plot. I admit that some of the situations are very tense, but the whole thing is so absurd that half of the time I wasn't able to take this seriously. Some of the scenes made me jump from the chair or feel very tense, while others left me with a feeling of indignation, sometimes even like the movie was mocking me with its absurdness.
Joan's acting is prime, but her character is so dumb that, despite all the harassment, you won't be able to feel any sympathy for her (well, maybe in some moments you can, but most of the time you won't). Although the ending might explain some of her character's behavior, something doesn't really quite fit and it ends up looking like she's dull and apathetic for the course of the entire movie (and seeing that this is a very long movie, this is something that will bother you until the very last second).
Believe or not, this is my first Betty Davis movie. Her character is clearly the most interesting, specially when you compare the two sisters. I think she nailed down her unstable and problematic character, and I enjoyed her performance very much (and I'm really eager to see more of her movies).
The thing that was most displaced in the plot was the neighbor. She doesn't really have a part to play in the story (well, maybe once or twice), and I don't wish a neighbor that stupid to anyone. Overall, the acting, editing and soundtrack for this movie are really impressive, and I really don't understand how they made a plot like that into a very nice movie. This is really its biggest accomplishment, turning a very absurd and silly premise into a exciting thriller. If you watch this movie you won't regret it, and you'll see its 3 hours fly by.
axadntpron
Super Reviewer
March 11, 2013
The same could be said for unrequited love as well. Take a handful of your Fatal Attractions, some of your 500 Days of Summers, and throw in a dash of Casablancas, and you have the recipe for a rich history of films regarding forlorn love.
Yet, while passion has for so many years consumed celluloid, often the sultry reality behind the camera can be just as entertaining as what takes place on screen.
The examples of this are myriad: Brad & Jennifer, Ben & Jennifer, Whitney & Bobby (& Jennifer). These stars and their sordid love affairs have been splashed all over the tabloids, assuring readers of all kinds that just because celebrity closets may be filled with diamond encrusted footwear, their lives are just as empty as ours.
But there are still some stories so batty that no matter how starving the artist, one could never come close to concocting a story as satisfying as the twisted decadence of reality. One such example is the story of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
While both would share the distinct honor of being belles of the silver screen during their time, these women would detest each other for the better part of thirty years. The source of this scorn? Well it has recently come to light that Crawford, a rather licentious bisexual, was at one time spurned by Davis. To make matters undoubtedly worse, the love of Davis' life was snatched up by Crawford in her second stroll down the aisle. Even ten years after Crawford's death, still reeling from a recent stroke, Davis showed her capacity for grace when she stated, "She (Crawford) did it coldly, deliberately, and with complete ruthlessness. I have never forgiven her for that and never will." Only barely upstaging her previous comment, "I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she was on fire."
Although both would fight tooth and nail to be the ruling queen of Hollywood, subsequent decades would see these women fighting to merely stay afloat. Box-office disasters such as 1955's Storm Center, 1956's Autumn Leaves, & The Catered Affair, all left stains on their careers and psyches so large that no amount of bleach could wash them out. Both were in need of redemption. In need of roles that would finally show the world that in fact they were destined to reign supreme. What they got (and the world gratefully received) was the emotionally brutish fever dream Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Depicting the mental meltdown of former child star Baby Jane Hudson (Crawford) and the emotional and physical torture she inflicts on her invalid sister Blanche (Davis), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is the comeback film that nobody wanted. Director Robert Aldrich shopped this project around to various studios but was met with virulent opposition. Pitting these sour relics against each other seemed like a double dosage of box-office poison. Triggering studio head Jack Warner to retort, "I wouldn't give you one dime for those two washed-up old bitches."
Thankfully, somebody eventually relented and the results are nothing short of astounding. Like the congealed masses of makeup slathered on Crawford's face, the film is heavy-handed, excessive, & to borrow a phrase from Robert Palmer, simply irresistible.
It opens in the early 1900's as our future miscarriage of a human being Jane is at the peak of her fame. Following a polite curtsey, Baby Jane unleashes her brilliant smile before launching into her famous jingle "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" to rapturous applause. The audience shuffles out shortly after and in a shrewd bit of foreshadowing, aides are seen removing the sign with her name emblazoned on it; replacing it with the name of the next big thing. Her sister Blanche waits patiently behind the scenes for someone to kill the spotlight so they can finally go home.
Fast-forward roughly fifty years. Blanche has since drastically eclipsed Jane in the fame department, but was sadly the victim of a tragic automobile accident in which an "unknown" assailant left her confined to a wheelchair. Jane and Blanche spend their days decaying as rapidly as the gothic mansion in which they have sequestered themselves. Blanche watching reruns of her films on television, Jane drowning her sorrows in cheap gin. Nursing her handicapped sister, her own deteriorating mental state, long history of jealous rage, & daddy issues. (Possibly some childhood "consensual sex issues" as well.)
The situation worsens when Jane catches wind that Blanche has plans to sell their tomb of a house and live elsewhere. What ensues is a nightmare on par with the likes of anything Cronenberg or Tarantino could produce. Blanche tries desperately to call for help as her sister starves her, cooks up and serves their pet parakeet for lunch, delivers blow after blow to her cranium, and even drags her limp body to the beach to watch Jane play in the waves.
Mirroring reality, tensions were hot on set as the women did their best to outsmart each other. In one particularly infamous scene that has Jane delivering a rather devastating kick to her sister's scalp, Davis's foot actually made rather forceful contact with Crawford's head. In a rather clever act of retaliation, Davis donned a lead weightlifter's belt under her clothes for a scene in which Crawford would be forcefully pulling her out of the one place that she had been trying to get Davis for years: the bed. When she endeavored to try to lift Davis, Crawford shrieked "My back! Oh, God! My back" before hobbling off to her dressing room.
That the final product was so berserk should not have been a total surprise as Aldrich was also no stranger to crazy. His iconic 1957 noir Kiss Me Deadly was so nihilistically nutty that shooting these two women starve and claw at each other must have been akin to filming two kittens lightly bat around a ball of yarn for a couple of weeks.
Word of mouth spread like a virus and for the first time in a long time people came out in droves to see Crawford and Davis on the big screen. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a monster hit and garnered massive amounts of praise and money for the duo.
Although the hatchet may have temporarily been buried in a heap of greenbacks, it would quickly be unearthed when the Oscar nominations were released. Davis would recieve a Best Actress nod while Crawford would only walk away with more fuel for the inferno that blazed deep inside. Yet in a strange twist of fate, Crawford would be the only one clutching a statue at the end of the evening, accepting the award on behalf of Anne Bancroft.
Aldrich would later attempt to reteam the women for another film, but alas succumbed to their toxicity, eventually shutting production down. Both spent their remaining days on earth sucking down drinks & using their precious remaining interviews to further drag each other's names through the muck. Death would prove the only way to truly cease the slander; at least for the slanderer. As stated before, Davis would continue to commit every last breathe to defaming the deceased. When one director begged her to stop since Crawford was no longer able to hear her remarks, Davis replied, "Just because a person is dead, doesn't mean they've changed."
So while love may be a many splendored-thing on screen, in the real world it is also vindictive, enduring, & yields strange fruit.
Love is a many splendored-thing. Or so the cinema would lead us to believe. Over the years we as a people have been subjected to countless tales of loins-churning romance. In fact, it is well known that one could fill the Grand Canyon with the countless reels of film that have captured chiseled jaw lines colliding with pouty lips and still have plenty to boot.
The same could be said for unrequited love as well. Take a handful of your Fatal Attractions, some of your 500 Days of Summers, and throw in a dash of Casablancas, and you have the recipe for a rich history of films regarding forlorn love.
Yet, while passion has for so many years consumed celluloid, often the sultry reality behind the camera can be just as entertaining as what takes place on screen.
The examples of this are myriad: Brad & Jennifer, Ben & Jennifer, Whitney & Bobby (& Jennifer). These stars and their sordid love affairs have been splashed all over the tabloids, assuring readers of all kinds that just because celebrity closets may be filled with diamond encrusted footwear, their lives are just as empty as ours.
But there are still some stories so batty that no matter how starving the artist, one could never come close to concocting a story as satisfying as the twisted decadence of reality. One such example is the story of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
While both would share the distinct honor of being belles of the silver screen during their time, these women would detest each other for the better part of thirty years. The source of this scorn? Well it has recently come to light that Crawford, a rather licentious bisexual, was at one time spurned by Davis. To make matters undoubtedly worse, the love of Davis' life was snatched up by Crawford in her second stroll down the aisle. Even ten years after Crawford's death, still reeling from a recent stroke, Davis showed her capacity for grace when she stated, "She (Crawford) did it coldly, deliberately, and with complete ruthlessness. I have never forgiven her for that and never will." Only barely upstaging her previous comment, "I wouldn't piss on Joan Crawford if she was on fire."
Although both would fight tooth and nail to be the ruling queen of Hollywood, subsequent decades would see these women fighting to merely stay afloat. Box-office disasters such as 1955's Storm Center, 1956's Autumn Leaves, & The Catered Affair, all left stains on their careers and psyches so large that no amount of bleach could wash them out. Both were in need of redemption. In need of roles that would finally show the world that in fact they were destined to reign supreme. What they got (and the world gratefully received) was the emotionally brutish fever dream Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Depicting the mental meltdown of former child star Baby Jane Hudson (Crawford) and the emotional and physical torture she inflicts on her invalid sister Blanche (Davis), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is the comeback film that nobody wanted. Director Robert Aldrich shopped this project around to various studios but was met with virulent opposition. Pitting these sour relics against each other seemed like a double dosage of box-office poison. Triggering studio head Jack Warner to retort, "I wouldn't give you one dime for those two washed-up old bitches."
Thankfully, somebody eventually relented and the results are nothing short of astounding. Like the congealed masses of makeup slathered on Crawford's face, the film is heavy-handed, excessive, & to borrow a phrase from Robert Palmer, simply irresistible.
It opens in the early 1900's as our future miscarriage of a human being Jane is at the peak of her fame. Following a polite curtsey, Baby Jane unleashes her brilliant smile before launching into her famous jingle "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" to rapturous applause. The audience shuffles out shortly after and in a shrewd bit of foreshadowing, aides are seen removing the sign with her name emblazoned on it; replacing it with the name of the next big thing. Her sister Blanche waits patiently behind the scenes for someone to kill the spotlight so they can finally go home.
Fast-forward roughly fifty years. Blanche has since drastically eclipsed Jane in the fame department, but was sadly the victim of a tragic automobile accident in which an "unknown" assailant left her confined to a wheelchair. Jane and Blanche spend their days decaying as rapidly as the gothic mansion in which they have sequestered themselves. Blanche watching reruns of her films on television, Jane drowning her sorrows in cheap gin. Nursing her handicapped sister, her own deteriorating mental state, long history of jealous rage, & daddy issues. (Possibly some childhood "consensual sex issues" as well.)
The situation worsens when Jane catches wind that Blanche has plans to sell their tomb of a house and live elsewhere. What ensues is a nightmare on par with the likes of anything Cronenberg or Tarantino could produce. Blanche tries desperately to call for help as her sister starves her, cooks up and serves their pet parakeet for lunch, delivers blow after blow to her cranium, and even drags her limp body to the beach to watch Jane play in the waves.
Mirroring reality, tensions were hot on set as the women did their best to outsmart each other. In one particularly infamous scene that has Jane delivering a rather devastating kick to her sister's scalp, Davis's foot actually made rather forceful contact with Crawford's head. In a rather clever act of retaliation, Davis donned a lead weightlifter's belt under her clothes for a scene in which Crawford would be forcefully pulling her out of the one place that she had been trying to get Davis for years: the bed. When she endeavored to try to lift Davis, Crawford shrieked "My back! Oh, God! My back" before hobbling off to her dressing room.
That the final product was so berserk should not have been a total surprise as Aldrich was also no stranger to crazy. His iconic 1957 noir Kiss Me Deadly was so nihilistically nutty that shooting these two women starve and claw at each other must have been akin to filming two kittens lightly bat around a ball of yarn for a couple of weeks.
Word of mouth spread like a virus and for the first time in a long time people came out in droves to see Crawford and Davis on the big screen. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a monster hit and garnered massive amounts of praise and money for the duo.
Although the hatchet may have temporarily been buried in a heap of greenbacks, it would quickly be unearthed when the Oscar nominations were released. Davis would recieve a Best Actress nod while Crawford would only walk away with more fuel for the inferno that blazed deep inside. Yet in a strange twist of fate, Crawford would be the only one clutching a statue at the end of the evening, accepting the award on behalf of Anne Bancroft.
Aldrich would later attempt to reteam the women for another film, but alas succumbed to their toxicity, eventually shutting production down. Both spent their remaining days on earth sucking down drinks & using their precious remaining interviews to further drag each other's names through the muck. Death would prove the only way to truly cease the slander; at least for the slanderer. As stated before, Davis would continue to commit every last breathe to defaming the deceased. When one director begged her to stop since Crawford was no longer able to hear her remarks, Davis replied, "Just because a person is dead, doesn't mean they've changed."
So while love may be a many splendored-thing on screen, in the real world it is also vindictive, enduring, & yields strange fruit.
December 24, 2012
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is an excellent film that is a great drama, a great horror film, and a great suspense film that still packs a mean punch after all these years. The film just oozes with tension and is also a damn creepy film, thanks to Bette Davis's superb performance as Baby Jane Hudson. Her co-star Joan Crawford also does a fantastic job as the crippled sister Blanche who is endlessly terrorized by her sister. It's a great film and a definite classic. If you are a fan of either star, or you just love a good suspense film, then you gotta see this film because it is one hell of a ride.
Spencer S
Super Reviewer
July 13, 2010
A thriller that is so chillingly terrifying, not solely because of the amazing and out of this world performance from Bette Davis, but because of the relationship between these two women, two actresses giving the performances of their lives. I should point out that this isn't complete hyperbole. The tension and utter bitterness between these two sisters comes in part through the real life relationship between rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. At the time these actresses were in decline from their former star studded endeavors. Still, the two actresses set aside their differences in order to become friends for a short time and make this film. The story revolves around two sisters, one a spoiled former vaudeville star (Baby Jane) and the other a former film star of the thirties. Thirty years ago, when her starlet sister couldn't keep her in her contract any longer, Baby Jane paralyzed her sister, and eventually traps her in their large home, taking care of her yet hiding her from the world. Once Baby Jane snaps at the suggestion of the house being sold, her sister becomes the victim of a lunatic, watching as she murders those that get in the way of her trying to reclaim her former youth. The narcissism, obsession, and madness in Davis' performance are poignant and yet you feel very little empathy for someone who would tie their sister to a bed frame. Crawford in turn acts like the perfect victim, high mannered and poised, not visibly showing that she feels a great deal of anger towards her sister. Instead she's a fragmented and fragile creature who has quiet sensibilities and little power. She plays a victim so well to Davis' madwoman, but gives a performance as blithe and impersonal as the silent roles she took on so long ago. The plotting, climactic peaks of Baby Jane's terror spree, and a gracious and uneven performance from Victor Buono in a side story, make this a genuinely devious and different kind of thriller. You will love to see two women who obviously hate each other...hate each other, but in a loving way.
December 8, 2012
As horror, it's all-over-the-place, as later Grand Guignol films go on to repeat, but like those films, as a black comedy it's gold, and perhaps - out of all the films I attribute to this collective - this one being the first, it has the round-one charm and works the best out of them.
January 4, 2013
Both women portrait their carachters so madly that it's marvelous. The music takes on you on this ride of suspense and creppyness through the whole 2 hours! It's sourprising how just these two women carry the film. Scary, disturbing and brilliant, it's a classic that almost 45 years later remains perfect!
William David Robert
January 13, 2013
Total classic of its day, that still shines bright 52 years later, its a great story and Joan and Bette play it with total joy and relish, even more fun when it came to light that they hated each other, I bet filming was a total delight from these two silver screen Icons
