Today’s Reel Classic looks at the eerie and unsettling film from 1962 starring two of the most well-known actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The film is What Ever Happened to Baby Jane starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and was adapted from the 1960 gothic horror novel authored by Henry Farrell.
Davis and Crawford play aging sisters who were both once popular Hollywood stars but now reside together in a mansion owned by the crippled Blanche (Crawford). In 1917 “Baby Jane” Hudson (Davis) is a child star on the vaudeville stage performing with her father. She is extremely successful on the stage, and her success leads to the marketing of a porcelain doll in her image — “Baby Jane.” The older sister, Blanche, is shy and is treated with contempt by her younger sister Jane.
As the girls grow older, things change. Vaudeville falls out of favor, and the popularity of film rises. Blanche becomes a popular and applauded film star while “Baby Jane” falls by the wayside. Jane’s decline leads to a dependence on alcohol. Blanche tries to assist her sister by getting the film producers to include roles for her, but Jane’s resentment of her sister’s fame (and her sister) continues to grow.
In the early part of the movie, there are film clips of both young actresses showing them in their younger days. The clips of “Baby Jane” came from the Davis films Parachute Jumper and Ex-Lady (both 1933). The clip of Blanche was from Crawford’s Sadie McKee (1934).
On an evening in 1935 Blanche’s career in films comes to an end when she suffers injuries from a wreck in a car reportedly driven by her drunken sister, Jane. Blanche is paralyzed from the waist down, and Jane is found three days later drunk.
That is the back story—now we find ourselves in 1962 in the mansion owned by Blanche in which the two sisters reside. Blanche is in a wheelchair and pretty much confined to her room upstairs. She is persistently tormented by her sister Jane, who keeps Blanche trapped in the house and does such things as serve her dead rats for breakfast. It is apparent that Jane is not only still insanely jealous of her sister, but also insane. She harbors the belief that she will once again rise to fame on the stage with her “Baby Jane” persona. Jane has her face coated in makeup and works to maintain the image of that little “Baby Jane.” Blanche becomes increasingly fearful of her sister and is desperate to escape what has become for her a prison.
The note in the movie poster above states: “Please don’t tell your best friend what happened to Baby Jane!” And I’m not going to spoil it for you.
The pairing of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in this film is interesting as it was well-known in Hollywood that the two actresses had long despised each other. They did not get along well at all, and went out of their way to, at the very least annoy each other, and at worst even hurt the other. An example of this ongoing tension between the two is that during the production of the film Bette Davis had a Coke machine installed on the set. She knew this would upset Joan Crawford as Crawford’s late husband had been an executive with Pepsi. Another example is during a scene in the film where Crawford’s character is on the floor and Bette Davis is kicking at her, Davis kicked her in the head. The resulting wound to the head required stitches. To retaliate, Crawford loaded her pockets with weights to increase her weight, and Davis ended up straining her back while dragging Crawford across the floor.
The film also included actor Victor Buono, who played the part of Edwin Flagg. He visits the house and plays piano for Jane’s rehearsals. He encourages her in her efforts but has his own agenda. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his effort. Peter Lawford had been considered for this role but had been convinced by family to turn it down as there was some concern about how the image may reflect badly on his family (which included his brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy).
The role of Liza Bates, the teenage daughter of the next-door neighbor, was played by Barbara Merrill. She was the actual daughter of Bette Davis.
An interesting note is the list of actresses who had also been considered for the lead roles. Reportedly Ingrid Bergman, Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Katherine Hepburn, Jennifer Jones, and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Jane. Those considered for Blanche included Tallulah Bankhead, Claudette Colbert, Olivia de Havilland, and Marlene Dietrich.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane was released in December 1962 and was both critically acclaimed and a box office success. It took only eleven days to recoup the cost of the film, and it went on to earn $9 million (over $70 million in today’s dollars). It was nominated for five Oscars, including the above-mentioned Best Supporting Actor Victor Buono) and Best Actress (Bette Davis). It won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black & White.
Bette Davis was upset that she did not win the award, which went to Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker. Joan Crawford reportedly actively campaigned on behalf of Bancroft and even offered to accept the award on her behalf. When Bancroft was announced as the winner, Crawford was indeed present to accept it on her behalf and reportedly walked past Bette Davis without a word onto the stage.
The ongoing feud between these two actresses has been well documented both in print and film. Shaun Considine wrote a book about it entitled Bette & Joan—The Divine Feud. In 2017 there was a televised miniseries entitled Feud which starred Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis.
Back to the film. As mentioned above, the movie was well-received by film critics. A review in Variety described it as “an emotional toboggan ride... Although the results heavily favored Davis (and she earns the credit), it should be recognized that the plot, of necessity, allows her to run unfettered through all the stages of oncoming insanity... Crawford gives a quiet, remarkably fine interpretation of the crippled Blanche, held in emotionally by the nature and temperament of the role.”
The Washington Post critic wrote “Miss Davis has the showiest role and bites into it with all her admired force, looking a fright from head to foot. I doubt if she would regret some of the laughs she gets. She plays for them and psychologically, they are needed. If Miss Crawford has the passive role, that is not without rewards. Suffering is one of her particular gifts.” A review in TV Guide stated, “As in the best Hitchcock movies, suspense, rather than actual mayhem, drives the film.”
Speaking of Hitchcock, another interesting note is that when the producer William Frye was looking at obtaining rights to the novel for making the film, he and his friend Bette Davis approached Alfred Hitchcock about directing the film. However, at the time, Hitchcock was very busy promoting his latest film, Psycho, and working on developing the screenplay for his upcoming film The Birds.
In 1991 a remake for television was done starring sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.
In 2003 the American Film Institute ranked the character of “Baby Jane” number 44 on their list of 50 Best Villains of American Cinema. The film has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and is also included on Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” list.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) rates What Ever Happened to Baby Jane at 8 of 10. Rotten Tomatoes has a critic’s score of 92% and an audience score of 91%.
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Regarding streaming options. I could not find any free streaming sites. However, the Clark County Public Library does have a copy of the DVD on the shelf.
Information for this Reel Classic review was gathered from Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and Wikipedia.
This film is now considered a “cult classic.” As mentioned in the reviews above, it is an entertaining, tension-filled thriller that also reflects the ongoing tension between two of Hollywood’s most famous stars. Until the next Reel Classic, I leave you with the trailer below.
[Editor’s note: This YouTube video of the trailer to the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is apparently not embeddable. Click the link above to view it on YouTube.]
