Rating: 
Summary: Well-told tale of Eclipsed stardom powered by 2 legends!
Review: "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is a classic that actually manages to hold up so well over time, that you wonder what were people thinking when they tried to remake it. (One version starring the Redgrave sisters is just a complete waste of time and talent.)
'Baby Jane' is the tale of the aging Hudson sisters. One sister 'Baby Jane' Hudson was a child star so popular she had a doll crafted after her. Blanche Hudson took a different, more permanent route to stardom, but her rise to fame was derailed in a horrible accident that left her crippled, and, unfortunately, at the mercy of her sister for caretaking. The result of the years of confinement and resentment culminate in a tragic but certainly not surprising end.
"Baby Jane" is a remarkable film in many ways, and, in my mind, most noteably how it examines the difficult transition many child performers can't make to 'adult' star, and how fame that young can irreversiblly alter one's perception of themselves and the world around them. It's also a fascinating look at the bad side of sibling rivalry. More than just a 'horror' flick (which I think is a stretch), it's really a very keenly crafted psychological thriller. What has made Davis's Jane so completely delusional? Is Crawford's Blanche as saintly as we are lead to believe? Excellent questions the film beautifully and slowly answers.
However, the biggest benefit to this is watching Davis and Crawford at the top of their game. It helps to know the back story of the deep-seeded, and legendary, hatred these two had for one another. You get the sense that Davis truly enjoyed getting to torture Crawford as much as Crawford enjoyed Davises decidedly disgusting Jane put against the Glamourous Blanche. Davis garned a well-earned Oscar for this picture, but both actresses prove why they are the stuff of Hollywood legend in this tale of sisters, deception, and faded stardom.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE BETTE DAVIS!
Review: Because she beat up Joan Crawford good in this movie! this was great and suspenseful!
Rating:
Summary: WHO the Hell is Norman?
Review: In "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" you really DO find out, indeed!
But what horrors you have to endure to see the truth and consequences! With twists, turns, torture & anti-climactic scenes all played to the hilt by the Miss Hudsons (Bette Davis and Joan Crawford), respectively, you will never be able to look at your pet parakeet the same way again.Miss Baby Jane Hudson, played with great, grotesque gusto by Davis who was once the belle of the ball. Kind of a Shirley Temple of her era. Baby Jane was daddy's girl and Jane, therefore, has quite an Electra complex that is and has been exhibited her entire life. Her sister, Miss Blanche Hudson, played "aptly and sapply" by Crawford, has a long and lasting career as an adult movie star but is now wheelchair bound because of a little "accident" betwixt the sisters many years back. Jane is the caretaker of Blanche since the "accident" and they both live off of the residuals of Blanche's long and prosperous film career before she became crippled. After a local California TV station decides to run summer afternoon, back to back Blanche Hudson films, Baby Jane gets that ol' jealous feeling brewing again and wants desparately to revitalize her childhood career. Baby Jane hires pianist from the classifieds, Mr. Edward Flagg, played in a great understated role by Victor Buono, who has his own Oedipal yearnings and problems. They make a great and perfect pair of drunks and crazies, let me tell ya. Jane is certainly unstable and is likened to a gin and vodka guzzling 60 year old broad with a six year old spoiled brat mentality. SCARY combo, right there! Let alone Jane's guilt of the "accident", her shameless jealousy, and her expressions of the antithesis of "SISTERLY LOVE". Filmed in glorious black and white, it lends itself to the dark, somber and horrific things that happen to Blanche vis-a-vis Jane... "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" is a cult classic and a true and genuine classic in it's own right. Happy Watching!
Rating:
Summary: This is a must see movie!!
Review: "You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I wasn't stuck in this chair!" "But you are Blanche you are!!" Any lover of truly great films should have this in there collection and if you do not you are simply just missing out on the best!!
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