Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Review

        The 60s have been a transformational era in terms of the horror genre. Over the decade, we’ve seen a lot of films pop up that were basically like seeds in terms of planting the sub-genre that they will spin off. From Night of the Living Dead and Psycho, these were the films that basically get the ball rolling as far as introducing a new type of horror. We can classify them as proto films. I believe this one that I’m going to talk about is going to be interesting. It’s the only horror film to have a notoriety of having a feud among the actresses that paid off as far as the movie is concerned. This is what I think. 

1. Jane and Blanche Hudson

        The film is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell, so I’ll be judging the movie as its own thing. It’s a very interesting horror film in the sense that the characters involved were actors and that they’re only fondly remembered through the movie reruns that pop up. We follow the Hudson sisters as they’re living together in a dilapidated mansion as Jane is taking care of her handicapped sister Blanche. Jane gets word that Blanche is thinking about selling the mansion, which tips her off to insanity. 

        This is a very different kind of horror movie where there isn’t a jump scare or anything such as that. What I like about the film is that it has a very psychological angle towards it. No gore or jump scares and very reflective of the time since it was this one, Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby that had aesthetic in their respective films. The main takeaway is that Jane is slowly losing her mind, since she wants to restart her acting career. Although not being aware that she’s practically a has been. 

        The introduction perfectly sets up who the women are as we see that Jane was a petty brat. For instance, as she finishes her vaudeville performance, Jane throws a fit in front of her dad who inevitably relents to her whim. Blanche is jealous and I like the establishing shots of her looking from the side of the theater at her since she wants to be her. It’s smart that after seeing them as kids, the roles are reversed as they get older. Now Blanche is getting the recognition while Jane has become an alcoholic. 

        From there, we see just how much Jane gives so much Hell to Blanche. From belittling her and even murdering her pet bird and presenting it in a dinner tray. This is the horror where it’s just dread and feeling a lot of empathy for Blanche since she can’t go down the stairs and leave. Making it worse is that she has her phone removed and the only available one is downstairs where she can’t just go down simply. It’s refreshing since it takes a while for the dread to present itself in the atmosphere in the film. 

        Since I’m talking about the elements what makes the horror work is that we feel sorry for Blanche since she’s practically helpless. Everything that she does to get help doesn’t work or Jane inevitably knows about and mocks her. The level of abuse that is levied at her is just heartbreaking. I listed the earlier ones but it gets to the point where Jane practically has her tied up. The side characters as well make it work. One of them being the housemaid Elvira, who is suspicious of Jane and puts it together that Blanche is in trouble. 

        Now, this is going to be those rare moments where I give away the ending. I think it’s significant enough to bring it up since it practically upends both sisters. Mind you, Jane is the antagonist in the story, although that gets flipped as it’s revealed who got Blanche handicapped. As Jane is on the run and bringing her sister with her, Blanche confesses that she did it. The jealous older sister tried to run over Jane, but inadvertently caused her own handicap. This is probably the early example of a plot twist in a movie, but one where we easily see just how messed up the sisters are. The ingenuity of it is just something since we’ve been feeling sympathy towards Blanche but now making us question our emotion of her in the film.

 

2. The Feud 

        It’s very rare to have the behind the scenes of the movie be the selling point. Now, there will be drama in making any movie as far as egos among the actors or anyone in the production. Whenever it gets to the point that the public is made aware of drama, it can go in two ways. Either it becomes a hit like this, or it could bring doom to a Hollywood movement that is still being felt 40 years today. This one was massive since the two actresses were among the best in their era. And it’s apparent that they hated each other. 

        The feud was highly publicized as they rattled each other on gossip columns. My understanding is that it stemmed from Crawford being jealous of Davis’ love life and becoming more popular than her. I was even more surprised by how big the rivalry was as they were filming the movie. To the point that Crawford was concerned of Davis hitting her and Joan getting back at Bette by making herself heavier to lift since Davis had back problems. 

        All of this is to say that their feud and chemistry is what makes the film one of the best in the 60s. Mind you, it’s tough to have the hostility be real when it comes from a story based on jealousy and deception. More surprising was that the film didn’t suffer for it but the whole feud itself worked in the film’s favor. Nowadays, it’s practically rare to have film be successful in the core of leaked drama. I think the last film that had any drama such as Don’t Worry Darling was mired with so much conflict that it involved the director and the stars in the film. 

3. Legacy

        I wouldn’t be talking about if it wasn’t a huge success. I was surprised to learn that the film added another life to the two actress’ careers. Moreover, the film was nominated at the Academy Awards, winning one which was a rarity at the time for any horror film before The Exorcist. The director of the film made another adaptation of Henry Farrell’s other book Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and bringing back Bette Davis. Although Joan Crawford wasn’t involved since well, it could’ve gone either way for the two women to meet again. 

        This is the first film that I’ve read that started another sub-genre in horror that I was not aware of. The Psycho-Biddy style of horror movies was dubbed whenever it involved an older woman, usually dubbed as Hagsploitation. Very few films deal with that one and well my first exposure to the sub-genre was with the horror film that came out in 2022 called X by Ti West. One could also interpret that the film is the first horror film to employ the torture method as seen in various moments of Jane’s hostility towards Blanche. 

4. Overall

        Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is one of the best horror films of the 60s.