What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema.
Plot
A lengthy prologue set in 1917 introduces the two daughters of Ray and Cora Hudson as six-year-old Baby Jane Hudson, (Julie Allred) a highly successful vaudeville performer, and her older sister Blanche, (Gina Gillespie) who remains in her shadow. Jane is extremely popular with the audiences and doted on by her father. Blanche resents this but, out of consideration for their mother, keeps her feelings buried.
As the two become adults, in a second prologue set in 1935, Jane (Bette Davis) fades into obscurity while Blanche (Joan Crawford) becomes a renowned film actress. One night after a party, one of the sisters walks forward to open the gate to the driveway of the Hudson mansion. We see the other sister put her foot on the gas and crash the car into the gate.
As the film reaches present day, we see that Blanche is paralyzed after the accident, and Jane is apparently the responsible party. The two have become recluses in their decaying mansion, where Jane 'cares' for Blanche. When Jane learns Blanche is planning to sell the house and move in with their maid Elvira, and perhaps place her in a convalescent home, Jane holds her prisoner and increases her sadistic verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. She even kills Blanche's pet parakeet and serves it to her sister on her dinner plate. She later performs the same gruesome prank with a dead rat.
Jane decides to stage a show-business comeback and hires a shiftless pianist, Edwin Flagg, (Victor Buono) to accompany her. Although he immediately realizes she has no talent, he goes along with her plan in order to earn his fee. Jane, becoming increasingly more vicious, thwarts Blanche's efforts to contact their next-door neighbor, Mrs. Bates, (Anna Lee) who is unaware of Blanche's desperate predicament. When Blanche manages to climb down the stairs and telephone her doctor for help, Jane comes home, finds her on the phone, and violently beats her. She then gags and ties Blanche up in her bedroom. Impersonating her sister on the phone, Jane manages to dismiss the doctor's planned visit to the house. Jane then fires Elvira Stitt, (Maidie Norman) the maid, without good reason. Uneasy about the situation at the house, Elvira returns while Jane is out and finds the bound and gagged Blanche. As she attempts to free Blanche, Jane, who has arrived home, creeps up on Elvira from behind and kills her with a hammer. Late that night, Jane bundles up Elvira's body, loads it into the car, and drives off to dispose of it.
Later, Edwin Flagg comes to the house for his first payment. During his visit, Blanche manages to untie herself and knock over a bedside table. Edwin investigates the noise as Jane tries to stop him, but he manages to make his way to Blanche's bedroom and discovers Blanche starving, gagged and bound. In horror he flees from the house. Jane fears that Edwin will contact the police so, under the cover of darkness, she drives Blanche to a nearby (Malibu) beach which was reportedly the same site where Aldrich filmed the final scene of Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
As morning comes, dozens of people begin to arrive at the beach. A radio report and newspaper headlines reveal that the police have initiated a search for the once-famous sisters after the body of their maid, Elvira, was discovered. It is presumed by the authorities that ill Blanche has been taken against her will by her mentally unhinged sister Jane.
While lying on the beach in the blazing sun, the slowly dying Blanche confesses the secret she has held for 25 years: After the party Jane was too drunk and Blanche would not let her drive home. She drove. Blanche was angered by the impersonation Jane had given of her at the party and believed Jane had made a laughing stock out of her to their friends and acquaintances. When home she had Jane get out of the car to open the gates and it was her intention to run Jane down and kill her. Thus It was she, Blanche, who had tried to run over Jane outside of their house. However Jane saw the oncoming car and, scared, moved out of the way just in time. Blanche slammed into the entrance gates, snapping her spine. Jane was too drunk to realize what had happened and ran off and later believing she was the driver and she was responsible for the accident ever since, something Blanche had never denied.
Jane realizes Blanche could have been her friend, and goes off to a snack stand to buy ice cream cones for the two of them. She orders two large strawberry cones from Ernie the vendor (Ernest Anderson) and leaves without paying. Two policeman at the food stand recognize Jane and run after her. Soon, when the policemen catch Jane, a crowd gathers around her. The now completely deranged Jane begins to entertain them with a song-and-dance routine as they watch, giving her the attention she had so desperately craved. The film ends with a long shot of the beach. The police spot the limp body of Blanche and run over to her, leaving Jane happily dancing within a circle of onlookers.
Production notes
Bette Davis (left) as Baby Jane Hudson and Joan Crawford as her sister, Blanche Hudson
The house used for the exterior of the Hudson mansion was located at 172 South McCadden Place in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles. The final scene on the beach was shot in Malibu.
The small role of the neighbor's daughter was played by Davis' daughter B.D. Merrill who, following in the footsteps of Crawford's daughter Christina, later wrote a memoir that depicted her mother in a very unfavorable light.
Crawford was infuriated when Davis was nominated for an Oscar and she was overlooked. She contacted the Best Actress nominees who were unable to attend the ceremonies and offered to accept the award on their behalf should they win. When Anne Bancroft was declared the winner for The Miracle Worker, Crawford triumphantly pushed her way past Davis saying "Step aside!", and swept onstage to pick up the trophy. Davis later commented, "It would have meant a million more dollars to our film if I had won. Joan was thrilled I hadn't."[1]
The film's success led to other projects featuring psychotic women, directed and/or produced by Aldrich, including Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?.
The film was remade in 1991 as a television movie starring real-life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.
Differences from the novel
In the original novel, Jane has dark brown hair dyed slightly red, whereas Blanche is described as 'the blonde girl with the sooty eyes'. Additionally, the maid, Elvira, is actually called Edna in the original novel. The novel also has a much darker and macabre tone than the film. In the novel, half of the scenes are set in late evening or night, whereas most of the scenes in the film are set in daytime.
Cast
- Bette Davis ..... Jane Hudson
- Joan Crawford ..... Blanche Hudson
- Victor Buono ..... Edwin Flagg
- Maidie Norman ..... Elvira Stitt
- Anna Lee ..... Mrs. Bates
- Julie Allred ..... Young Baby Jane Hudson (1917)
- Gina Gillespie ..... Young Blanche Hudson (1917)
- Russ Conway .... Police officer
- Anne Barton ..... Cora Hudson (billed as Ann Barton)
- Marjorie Bennett .....Dehlia Flagg
- Bert Freed ..... Ben Golden (billed as Robert Freed)
- Wesley Addy .....Marty McDonald
- Ernest Anderson .....Ernie the Ice Cream Vendor at the Beach
- Dave Willock .....Ray Hudson
- William Aldrich .....Lunch Counter Assistant at Beach
- Maxine Cooper .....Bank Teller
- Michael Fox .....Motorcycle Cop at Beach
- James Seay .....Police Officer
- Don Ross .....
- John Shay .....
- John Shepoldd .... What was John Shepoldd (shepodd)character on "What happened to Baby Jane?,,who was Paul Martin (with Cloris Leachman) on the TV Series LASSIE? Can anyone tell me?
- Peter Virgo .....
- Bobs Watson .....Clerk in Newspaper Advertising Department
- Debbie Burton .....Singing Voice "Voice" "I've Written a Letter to Daddy"
Critical reception
In his review in the New York Times, Bosley Crowther observed, "[Davis and Crawford] do get off some amusing and eventually blood-chilling displays of screaming sororal hatred and general monstrousness ... The feeble attempts that Mr. Aldrich has made to suggest the irony of two once idolized and wealthy females living in such depravity, and the pathos of their deep-seated envy having brought them to this, wash out very quickly under the flood of sheer grotesquerie."[2]
Variety stated, "Although the results heavily favor Davis (and she earns the credit), it should be recognized that the plot, of necessity, allows her to run unfettered through all the stages of oncoming insanity ... Crawford gives a quiet, remarkably fine interpretation of the crippled Blanche, held in emotionally by the nature and temperament of the role."[3]
TV Guide awarded the film four stars, calling it "Star wars, trenchantly served" and adding, "If it sometimes looks like a poisonous senior citizen show with over-the-top spoiled ham, just try to look away ... As in the best Hitchcock movies, suspense, rather than actual mayhem, drives the film."[4]
Awards and nominations
Box office
The film was a massive success. With a budget of $980,000 it grossed $9 million at the worldwide box office and $5 million in rentals.
Gross with inflation (2007): $94,999,526
In popular culture
The 1990 series of French and Saunders featured a parody called "Whatever Happened To Baby Dawn?", with Dawn French in the "Jane" role and Jennifer Saunders as Blanche.
The music video to Shakespear's Sister's single "Goodbye Cruel World" features a short scene at the start spoofing the film with Siobhan Fahey in the Jane role and Marcella Detroit in the Blanche role, this highlighted the real-life tension between the two musicians.
In 2000, one episode of The WB Television Network's series Popular parodied the rat dinner scene twice; the first time, Sam McPherson portrayed Jane and the second time, Brooke McQueen portrayed Jane.
In Christina Aguilera's music video for "Ain't No Other Man", released in 2006 on her album Back to Basics, she plays her alter ego, "Baby Jane", in reference to the film. Her license plate even reads as such.
Legendary shock rock performer Alice Cooper has stated that this film was what helped him develop his on stage character and show.
The film is shown playing in a movie theater in the 2005 remake of House of Wax.
No Doubt's 2003 song "It's my life" features imitations of a scene from the film in their music video.
References
External links
