What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

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Movie Details

• Genre: Drama, Horror, Suspense/Thriller
• Release Date: 0000-00-00 Limited
• Running Time: 132 min.
• Director: Robert Aldrich
• Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Wesley Addy, Julie Allred, Anne Barton, Marjorie Bennett, Bert Freed, Anna Lee, Maidie Norman
• Producer: Robert Aldrich
• Writer: Lukas Heller, Henry Farrell
• Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Official Site: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Official Site

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford deserve a place in camp heaven for their parts in this excruciating psychological horror flick from 1962, about a former child star (Davis) and her paralytic former movie-star sister (Crawford). Granted, it may be a stretch to call the stars' performances "self-loathing." But in creating a quasi-gothic drama about two very sick Hollywood megalomaniacs growing old together, Davis and Crawford were certainly in their element. No doubt they knew about the tawdry misery within a certain kind of dark L.A. mansion, where some damaged old soul hangs suspended in a half-life between the glorious past and total oblivion. (If anything, Baby Jane's vaguely kiddie-porn vibe accentuates Sunset Blvd.'s self-reflexive creep show while anticipating the clammy claustrophobia of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.) Apparently, nobody wanted to fund the film because of its aging female leads--even though Crawford is beautifully ravaged, and Davis is wicked-good. Which is to say that the movie's creepiest aspect is its ring of truth. The compulsion to please men is dangerous, and, in a realm where aging women are considered worthless, any gal who succumbs is setting herself up for a date with Old Man Crazy. (Kate Sullivan)