What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is about aging child star Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) and her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford). Blanche is refined to a wheelchair due to a car actident that may or may not have been caused by Jane. Now, Jane is resigned to spend the rest of her days looking after Blanche and has been slowly going insane due to an unhealthy mixture of anger, jealousy, guilt, sadness and alcohol. When Jane eventually snaps, she begins to starve and torture her sister to death and in the meantime attempts to get famous again with the help of drunken pianist Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono).
Joan Crawford puts on a fantastic performance as Blanche. Blanche is the kind, sympathetic, caring wheelchair bound sister that had everything Jane wanted. Blanche will forever be the more well-known and famous of the two sisters (she would grow up to become a famous movie star before the car crash snuffed out her flame), and this drives Jane mad as just about no one remembers who Baby Jane was. Blanche is shown to be just a tiny bit vain, but seems to genuinely care about Jane and her degrading mental health. When bad things start happening to Blanche, we are invested enough in her character that we actively root for her to find a way out of her new hell (and it hurts as we watch each of her plans fall flat).
Victor Buono is great as Edwin Flag, a pianist with a drinking problem and money issues. He is shown to be a really pathetic character as he spends his days living with his mother and drinking his troubles away. Once he meets Jane, he can immedieatly tell she'scrazier than a bag of squirrels, but goes along with her idea for fame because she is willing to pay him money for his piano playing skills. He is easily one of my favorite characters here as he has a nice twist in the end. The film plays with the notion that he could be a hero near the end, and the idea is twisted enough that it actually works and we do root for him to become the hero. Does he though?
Maidie Norman does a good job as kindly maid Elvira Stitt. She is mainly Blanche's aide, and she is the first to point out that Jane's degrading mental health could lead to some serious issues. SHe is wary of Jane and doesn't trust her, suggesting Blanche take action before it is too late. She does have a significant part to play here, but she isn't in the film much. That said, she still leaves a lasting impression.
Bette Davis shines as Jane Hudson. This is easily one of her best roles. Davis plays Jane with a crazed glee, making the character equal parts funny and terrifying. She has the most memorable lines in the film (But you AH Blanche, you AH in that chair!!!). Whenever I watch the film I can't help but laugh at Jane's complete loss of sanity. One of the more interesting things about the film, is that Jane's mental state continues to slowly degrade as the film progresses until at the very end she has regressed to a childlike mentality.....truly scary stuff. Bette Davis turns Jane into one of the more memorable screen monsters you can see.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is easily one of my all time favorite horror films, working beautifully as a character study, a horror film, and a black comedy (I'd say the film is more of a black comedy than a horror film). It succeeds at making you laugh and cringe, often at the same time. It's also got a deliciously upbeat theme song. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is an oft-overlooked masterpiece that deserves to be seen.
5 Stars- BETTER THAN SEX
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