What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Seen for free with Byron on 19 August 1997 at Bryant Park.
What ever happened to Baby Jane? What *didn't* happen? Thirty five years later, it is rather difficult to review this movie I have so often seen and which is a common reference and often parodied and imitated film. Dueling divas (on and off screen) Joan Crawford and Bette Davis at the helm, *What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?* is a cult classic, especially in the campy world of gay men.
Seeing it uncut is a pleasure. I think a lot of the preamble disappears on TV. The opus opens in 1917 when curly blonde Baby Jane Hudson appears before vaudeville audiences singing treacle like "I'm Sending a Letter to Daddy" and "I Would Never Trade My Daddy" (cue instant campy hooting from the gay segment of the audience). Plain "Jane" sister Blanche Hudson watches on and bristles as Daddy prefers mealticket Jane to her.
Later, Blanche (Joan Crawford) is the breadwinner is the only reason Jane (Bette Davis) has a studio contract. As an actress, Jane stinks--she's the Brigitte Nielsen of 1935. Finally, after a wild Hollywood party, Blanche is paralzed in an accident attributed to Jane.
Flashforward to me present. Invalid Blanche is practically a prisoner to her alcoholic, mentally disturbed sister Jane. She is wants to sell the house, commit Jane, and make other life arrangements. Jane is pretty cagey, though. She knows just what is happening, and she is not about to have Blanche sell the house Daddy bought her toss her aside.
Jane gets busy. Jane dismisses Elvira the maid. Jane sasses the nosy neighbors. Jane orders a lot of liquor. Jane hires an accompanist to update her "I love my Daddy" act. Jane is serving special lunches to Blanche involving domesticated pets and household pests. Jane is *just getting started*.
Director Robert Aldrich's film has all the makings of a modern suburban horror movie. The glamorous movie stars next door are locked in mortal combat. The black maid cannot come to work for you too--Jane's killed her! This is sibling rivalry gone terribly awry.
I have seen this film many times and I ha ve never once rooted for Blanche. She is so sickly sweet and condescending, it is not too hard to laugh along when Jane imitates Blanche to her face and while surreptitiously ordering liquor from the store. Jane brings out the worst in an audience, sh e really does. Why is that? In its day, the movie was probably quite disturbing. Demented drunk terrorizes sister who is confined to a wheelchair. Metes out revenge and a savage beating readily. Horrible, yes. Hilarious? Apparently. Perhaps audiences have been treated to so much worse since 1962 that watching Davis kick Crawford in her ribs is a day at the beach compared to movies like the disgusting *Se7en* and the sadistic, satirical *Scream*.
Happily, it is only a movie. It's dated, and simplistic psychodramas of sibling rivalry and never-ending girlhood, provides a lot of unintentional humor now. Using black and white adds to the horror of it all. The biggest technical bugaboo for me is the insistent use of the then-relatively new zoom lens, used poorly most every time.
This movie is also a rare exception when I would encourage talking during the movie. It's an older gay man's *Rocky Horror Picture Show*. There are the favorite lines (even the professional loafer played by Victor Buono has one!), the goofy styles, the bad incidental music, all contribute to this. But, it is still a great movie. Watch it whenever you can. But being in a lively crowd is the best circumstance.
Book Note: The book *Bette and Joan* provides a nice background to the film. It tracks the lives and rivalries of the actresses themselves, who never worked together before this film, which revived their sagging careers. Apparently they never really even met much in person, which didn't stop them from being rival divas. A must read for movie queens everywhere. It's the flipside to Mast and Cohen's *Film Theory and Criticism*.
Copyright (c) 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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