Review of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) by James J — 25 Feb 2010

Well, I saw the French and Saunders spoof when I was a kid but had put off watching this film for ages until I finally had the pleasure a few nights ago.

What a total blast of FTW this movie is! I thought that maybe French and Saunders had exaggerated for comedic effect but after watching ...BABY JANE it seems like they actually downplayed some of what happens in the narrative!

I have to admit that after about 30 minutes of watching this I'd had enough of the pathetic Blanche and was fully rooting for the deeply sympathetic character of her sister and keeper Jane, cast adrift in her own neuroses and lost innocence. Blanche seems spineless, physically and metaphorically.

Both sisters live twilight existences in their over-large and slightly decrepit house. Blanche and Jane are saturated in the nostalgia of their past lives and careers to the point that they ignore the mundanity of their individual daily routines, replacing any interaction with the outside world with the brutal power-play of their own relationship.

Obviously Bette Davis had more of a chance to ramp up her performance given the nature of her character and the film's writing but Joan Crawford also turns in a sublime performance as the almost completely brow-beaten and penitent, but not totally innocent, Blanche.

There's a big twist right at the end and it's all solidly made stuff up to that point, with some clever, if now somewhat cliched, directing which takes metaphor a bit too far (including the suspicion that Blanche was never even really there).

A wee bit over 2 hours long but never really feels it; I was fairly kept glued to the screen just by Bette Davis' histrionics.

Overall I found this to be very enjoyable but a touch depressing. Totally worth watching though, I shouldn't have put it off for so long.