What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

It took a long damn time but I finally got around to checking this piece out.  Sunset Boulevard is one of my favorite movies of all time and this seemed like it would be in the same vein.  There’s something about has-been entertainers that really interests me.  From a filmmaking standpoint it presents a wealth of material for an actor to draw from and usually results in a depressing yet sympathetic performance.  But in both film and reality there are many forgotten about celebrities that are totally delusional.  That’s the good shit and this film delivers just that.

We start in the old vaudeville days where we see that baby Jane is a dancing and singing little girl.  The audience loves her and she even has her own doll for sale.  The problem is that she’s a stinking brat that throws tantrums.  Jane’s sister, Blanche, seems annoyed and perhaps jealous of her success.  Cut to 30’s Hollywood where the tables have turned and now Blanche is a famous adored actress while Jane is a rotten one that nobody cares about.  One night the two of them get into a car accident causing Blanche to become paralyzed from the waist down.  Now skip to modern day (of 1962) where the sisters live in an old dilapidated mansion.  Blanche (Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce)) is wheelchair bound and confined to the upper floor of the house.  She looks to be in good health though and seems like a nice person that enjoys reading fan mail and getting a kick out of her old films.  Jane (Bette Davis (All About Eve)) on the other hand looks like total shit.  It’s like they cast Leatherface with her sagging skin, enormous amount of lipstick and dreadfully messy hair.  She’s grown frumpy, lumpy and dumpy.  Jane is also mean and controlling.  Since Blanche depends on Jane to feed her and take care of everything Jane takes advantage of her position by doing shit like taking Blanche’s telephone away and imitating Blanche’s voice to order booze over the phone.

Almost the entire picture takes place inside the house and that helps to give it a real confined feel.  Whenever there are shots of anything other than the house it’s a relief and then depressing when we eventually go back to the mansion (just like Sunset Boulevard).  Blanche is more or less a prisoner and things escalate pretty quickly when Jane kills Blanche’s pet bird and serves it to her for lunch.  From there on Blanche fears all the food that Jane gives to her causing starvation.  And that’s just the beginning.  Jane goes on to do even crazier shit and by the end she sinks totally into her own mentally distorted mind.

Speaking of the ending (don’t worry I won’t spoil it), it’s the key to the film.  So the whole time we’re chugging along taking sides and figuring out what’s what but then at the very last moment the filmmakers throw a monkey wrench into the damn thing.  For me it completely changed how I viewed these characters and the overall movie.  They present us with something that’s genuinely fucked up and makes the picture you’ve witnessed seem even more fucked up than before.  They got me.  I never saw it coming and I’m very happy that this ending is almost never talked about. 

The only thing that kinda bothered me throughout the film was the score.  Only sometimes did it fit well with the images on screen while most of the time it was too bright and/or peppy.  And I want to make clear the distinction between busy and peppy.  You can have a busy dark score that evokes feelings of creeping and impending doom.  Psycho is a good example of that.  It’s very unsettling and nervous.  Peppy has a bounce to it that isn’t so concerned with what’s going on or what’s to come.  This movie’s score is more suited for a drama that isn’t so heavy and gloomy in my opinion.  Ultimately the music doesn’t ruin the film but it’s out of place enough to be noticed.

C'mon guys, tell me that's not Leatherface

Both Crawford and Davis give great performances here.  Davis has the harder role and really nails this character.  There’s a lot for her to work with and she truly becomes this person.  Crawford’s role is hard too but in a different way.  She’s limited in her movement and restricted as an actor because of the wheelchair.  Crawford makes it work real well though.  What was interesting to find out after seeing the film was that these actresses really did hate each other in real life.  I kind of wish I had known this going in because it would have been another layer added to the viewing experience but the film was pretty great anyway.

So what ever the fuck did happen to baby Jane?  She became an absolutely insane psychotic bitch.  It’s not as good as Sunset Boulevard but few movies are.  I think you should see it.  It’s a good take on the same idea.  Damn, I can’t get over how disgustingly extreme Bette Davis’ face looked in this.