What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Rating:
Summary: Where is the director's cut?
Review: Unfortunately, this version of "Baby Jane" has distorted the original intention of the director. Until Warner Brothers comes up with the original cut scenes and eliminates the last quarter of the film as seen here, we have only a fragmentary and very distorted film. Most viewers have assumed, based on this release, that this is a sort of gothic horror movie about two aging sisters, one an invalid, and another (Bette Davis) a mad former child star. The released version ends with the two on the beach - Baby Jane mad as a goose and Crawford's character near death as she confesses to being the cause of her own crippling accident. THIS IS NOT WHAT WAS IN THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT!! Warner Brothers screened the film and found the original happy ending so unmarketable that they demanded reshoots and turned what was meant as a gentle hymn to sisterly love into a garish spook show. The director needed a hit and he caved in to the powers that be, but he always regretted selling out his artistic vision for a few bucks as he knew the original film had a dignity which this released version did not. The original script has Crawford actually convincing the doctor on the phone that Jane needs help. An ambulance arrives. In a scene reminisicent of Tennessee Williams, Jane is led away to the mental hospital where she receives the help she needs. After two years, Jane returns, slimmed down, radiant with good mental and physical health (those who saw the screening say that the transformation of Bette Davis in her grand re-entrance was "spectacular"), Jane becomes archivist of her sister's films and begins a major revival of her sister's film career which ends with the two of them touring Europe and the main film festivals where Jane takes great pride in the work she has done to revive her sister's prestige. The final shot is of the two of them, tear filled eyes, being greeted by a standing ovation in Paris. Too bad that we may have to wait until the DVD to see the reconstruction. PLEASE write Warners and ask them to release it!!!!For more information, see the article, "Whatever happened to "Whatever happened to Baby Jane?""

Rating:
Summary: I've written a letter to Daddy................
Review: Oh the humanity! What a great flick! I put it on when I want to clear the room! Bette Davis ruled this one. She so's horribly ugly you can't take your eyes off her! This film is as predictable as grass growing during a Florida summer, but it's oh so fun. Watching Joan Crawford being kicked and beaten by an insane Baby Jane can never get old. What does one do when your cutoff by the liquor store? Call them up and use your sister's voice of course! What do you do when you have a symphathtic housemaid? Bash her! After killing, maiming, and continued lunacy what do you do? Take your crippled, half dead sister to a crowded beach in the middle of the day! And once you finally discover the topsy-turvy ending? Sing and dance in front of the cops as they lead you away! Dance and sing on Baby Jane, God bless you.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST of entertainment, that's Baby Jane!!
Review: I can watch Baby Jane over and over and never get sick of it. The insanity, jealousy, entrapment by an insane sister, it's just fabulous! You'll find no sex, no swearing, no nudity, just a total fantastic thriller of a movie. Hollywood ought to get their acts together and go back in time and start making movies like they used to. I'm not an older person either and I love this movie!...

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Macabre!
Review: This was the first "classic" movie I ever saw when I was 10 years old. My godsister made me watch it because she was bigger and older, so she controlled the TV dial (remember those days?). Glumly, I watched her "stupid movie" and found myself totally engrossed. Even as a child, the mania and dysfunction of these sisters' relationship was gripping... like a car accident -- you don't want to see what happened, but you can't help BUT wonder what happened!

As a result, I have become a life-long classic movie fan. No matter how many movies I have seen, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is still my absolute, all-time favorite. The lines are classic, the suspense builds... and as a student of psychology and familial dynamics, I still find myself analyzing the relationships and speculating on outcomes, factors, etc.

This is the stuff great movies are made of! "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is wonderfully macabre.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
Review: I'm 21 years of age but I love old movies from the 50's and 60's and this one is my all-time fave! They really don't make them like this anymore...that's a shame.

Rating:
Summary: the movie I got a DVD player for
Review: I have seen this movie maybe 20 or 30 times, starting as a kid in the 70's on late night tv. I can tell you- this movie is a good reason to get a DVD player. The transfer is great- you can now enjoy the film almost at the aspect ratio that Aldrich meant you to see it at, rather than the piched version you see on TV. The picture is razor- sharp, with details I have never seen. There aren't much in the way of extras (where is the original trailer?), but the production stills are great- Joan's costume is scarlet!

As for the film itself- I won't repeat what 50-odd others have said. Suffice it to say that without Bette & Joan (& Victor & Anna), this would just be a tawdry little thriller (see the re-make with the Redgrave sisters if you don't believe me, or read the book). Both of them deserved Oscars; both of them deserved better than the dreck they were forced to make later in their careers.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful shocker
Review: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is delicious black comedy served up raw. Bette Davis gives a tour de force performance as the egomaniac, delusional, alcoholic Baby Jane Hudson. Nursing a Daddy complex, Jane gradually slips into insanity (and wonderful over the top acting) murdering her wheelchairbound sister's bird, and cackling insanely as she serves up a plate of rat. Also great in this film is Victor Buono, one of my favorite scenes is where Buono's character Edwin Flagg wheels around in Blanche's wheelchair carrying the Baby Jane Hudson doll-priceless. The film is hilarious and creepy at the same time. The old decaying house, with its wrought iron doors and staircase is great also.

Rating:
Summary: She's now known as Geriatric Jane
Review: I had wanted to see this movie for yonks. I had assumed that Bette Davis' character had never been a star, and that she was only cruel to Joan Crawford's character because SHE had been a child star! Once all this confusion was cleared up, I began to actually watch the film.

Bette Davis was excellent as Baby Jane because she was so ugly, unpredictable and desperate. She never missed a beat... unless she was having a particularly insane day. You know what it's like when you're stuck in the past and you can't get over the fact that you're not five years old anymore... you don't know what that's like? Oh, good.

There are a couple of slip ups in the movie, deeming it a little unrealistic, but if you didn't let them pass, you'd have the movie end prematurely I guess.

It is kind of haunting and sad to see the photos and memoirs of both women when they were young, loved and famous. It really shows what damage you can do to yourself when you're not willing to age gracefully. (Take note, Melanie Griffith)

This was quite a demented flick, and I was left with a slightly off after-taste once it ended. It makes you wonder if Shirley Temple was ever that crazy, or maybe whether Macauley Culkin is going to end up in an asylum. Worth a look, but not if you're looking for a reason to smile!

Rating:
Summary: Can't see Bette Davis w/o thinking about Baby Jane Hudson!
Review: I first saw this movie when I was about 10. It's not a horror movie per se, but it is the only movie that I still (I'm 34) can't watch alone (other than The Exorcist, which I couldn't watch in a room full of people!). Don't get me wrong -- it's a wonderful movie. But it is very dark, and the combination of Jane's grotesque caricature of her former self and the evil she inflicts on her paraplegic sister is as horrific as watching Linda Blair's head spin around. The scene that always gets me in that nail-biting, sitting-on-the-sofa-with-my-arms-wrapped-around-my-legs position is the one in which Blanche tries to make it down to the first floor to use the telephone and Jane subsequently catches her pleading for help.

Since I saw this movie, I could never see Bette Davis without seeing "Jane." I understand what an accomplished actor she was, but THAT FACE stuck in my mind forever!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Review: This is a wonderful movie! One of Bette Davis' best! A must see for any Bette Davis/Joan Crawford fan! It's almost the exact opposite of Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte.