Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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57 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow!, April 8, 2005
Oh yeah! I've been waiting quite awhile to partake in this slab of metaphysical weirdness! Needless to say, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" is everything you've heard and more. People went back and forth, frothing at the mouth in anticipation of a Freddy Krueger versus Jason Voorhees duel in "Freddy vs. Jason," but if you want the real deal all you need do is check out Joan Crawford versus Bette Davis. By all accounts sworn enemies in real life, "Baby Jane" finally brought the two powerhouses together for a knock down, drag out fight of epic proportions in a movie that is so utterly insane it really does defy description. Every thing I will write about the film below won't do it justice. I imagine this movie is a lot like the Taj Mahal or the Grand Canyon--you can look at pictures and say "Wow! That looks incredible," but a two dimensional photographic image won't give you the full effect. You've got to go there to appreciate such natural wonders, and you'll have to rent or buy this DVD to appreciate the wonder of Bette Davis on autocamp as a former child star grown up into, well, read on and see.
Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) had it all when she was a child. A hit song insured that big audiences turned out to see her perform on the stage. Unfortunately, little Jane suffered from an ego the approximate size of Wyoming, an ego that resulted in temper tantrums with her parents and her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford). Eventually her raging sense of self torpedoed her career even as her sister's began to soar when the film industry blossomed. Jane Hudson sank into obscurity, liquor, cigarettes, and a monstrous case of mental illness that greatly accelerated when a tragic accident put Blanche in a wheelchair for life. Now the two sisters live together in a decrepit house reminiscing about the old days. Well, at least Blanche reminisces. Jane Hudson spends her time stalking around the house in pancake makeup and a gossamer gown now tattered and spattered, spewing sarcasm and veiled threats at her sister, the neighbors, and the maid who arrives once a week to see how things are going. Hudson still thinks it's possible to resurrect her long dead celebrity if only she can figure out a way to rid herself of the onerous burden that is Blanche. Obviously, she finds a way. She begins tormenting her sister by placing disgusting things in her food and making her sound crazy to outsiders. When that fails to work fast enough, she resorts to out and out physical violence.
With Blanche under lock and key in a bedroom upstairs, Jane begins the rigorous training all performers undertake to return to greatness. She hires a down and out musician by the name of Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) to drop by the house for voice and dance lessons. Now the real insanity starts as Hudson rapidly devolves back into her childhood persona. She prances about the house singing her old musical numbers, giving it her all without realizing how incredibly grotesque the idea of an elderly woman imitating a child is. Flagg thinks Jane is crackers, and he's right more than he could possibly know, but a paycheck is a paycheck. Until he finds out what is going on in a bedroom upstairs, that is. Faced with the distasteful presence of the local constabulary and the probability of a lot of probing questions about what's been going on between the two sisters, Hudson packs Blanche in the car for a trip to the beach. I won't spoil the conclusion of this cult classic for you, but let's just say a startling revelation at the seashore proves to be the straw that finally pushes poor Jane Hudson over the edge. The denouement is upsetting, the sort of ending that has you putting your hand to your mouth in a "oh my" gesture.
"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" is a masterpiece of casting, directing, and performing. The idea of putting these two lionesses of the silver screen in the same picture was a stroke of genius on the part of director Robert Aldrich, although many questioned his sanity for making such a decision. Wouldn't the two actresses tear each other apart on set? Apparently not, but there were a few confrontations--including a thrown back and some real kicks delivered in a certain scene--and sniping that hinted at the turmoil just under the surface. Aldrich moved forward, crafting a film that is both claustrophobic in its set pieces and one that uses the black and white photography to great advantage. The film really succeeds, however, because of Bette Davis. She blows Joan Crawford out of the water in this movie, although to be fair Davis from the start had the meatier role. Her garish appearance and screeching voice deliver the chills to the nth degree, and her progressive decline into total insanity is shocking and absolutely convincing. Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for her disturbing portrayal of Jane Hudson, and rightfully so. She should have won. I've seen hundreds if not thousands of horror films, and Davis's Jane Hudson ranks as one of the most disturbing characters I have witnessed in any of them.
Sadly, the DVD doesn't give us much in the way of extras aside from cast and crew biographies and a few pages of text describing the production. Then again, it's unlikely we would hear about the movie from the primary figures involved in its production since they are all long dead. Perhaps a commentary track with a film historian or a similar person could have been put on the disc; I know of other films that do this. Anyway, if you haven't seen this film you've got to run, not walk, to get a copy. It's that good, it's that disturbing, and it's that memorable.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic gets special treatment!, March 30, 2006
I decided to include this description in case Amazon doesn't put it up right away. Here is what is included on the new 'Baby Jane' Special Edition DVD due out May 30th, 2006!
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - The legendary dispute between rival divas Bette Davis and Joan Crawford fuelled the fire both on- and off-screen in Director Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Its Grand Guignol story of an aging ex-vaudeville child star (Davis) waging a psychotic reign of terror over her crippled ex-movie star sister (Crawford) became a smash hit and nabbed Davis her 10th Academy Award nomination for her acid portrayal of the title role. Nominated for an impressive five Academy Awards (winning for Best Costume Design), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is a mirthful masterpiece of the macabre.
DVD Special Features:
New 16x9 digital transfer from the original camera negative and restored audio elements (Enhanced for widescreen televisions)
Commentary by author and film historian , Charles Busch and film historian John Epperson (a/k/a "Lypsinka")
3 fabulous documentary profiles of the movie and its 2 immortal stars:
Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition (A new making-of documentary)
All About Bette, Biographical profile, hosted by Jodie Foster
Film Profile: Joan Crawford
Vintage featurette "Behind the Scenes with Baby Jane"
The Andy Williams Show
Theatrical Trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Espańol (feature film only)
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Celebrity Death Match, June 29, 2006
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" opened the floodgates for low-budget black-and-white psychological shockers in the early 1960s. William Castle's "Homicidal", Hammer Films' "Paranoiac" and "Nightmare", and Francis Ford Coppola's "Dementia 13" were just a few of these gritty and grisly films. Robert Aldrich, known for making rather macho films such as "Kiss Me Deadly", decided to produce a film based on Henry Farrell's book "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and had a gimmick of his own that gave Hitchcock and Castle a run for their money: he cast 2 legendary Oscar-winning actresses whose "glory days" were, for the most part, behind them...Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Davis' and Crawford's careers had fallen on hard times, and the two, to put it mildly, detested each other. Who better to play a crippled, former glamourous movie star and her sister, an alcoholic, demented, former vaudeville child star? Miss Davis gives one of her most outrageous performances as Baby Jane Hudson, chewing the scenery with relish and looking almost unbearably ugly (Miss Davis, in her own words, "Laid the makeup on with a shovel"), wears unflattering, grotesque outfits (deliberately made a half-size too small to emphasize her dumpy figure) and a blonde Mary Pickford-style wig, which, unknown to her, had been worn by Miss Crawford in one of her early MGM films! Miss Crawford plays her role of Blanche Hudson with equal gusto, suffering and emoting grandly, as if her very life depended on it. This is a grande dame battle royale, there's no mistaking it! "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" became a smash hit, garnered Davis an Oscar nomination, and launched a new trend of films which starred older actresses in a variety of low-budget shockers. DeHavilland, Stanwyck, Fontaine, and Tallulah Bankhead all went the "horror hag" route. Warner Brothers has reissued "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" in a special 2-disc edition, and is a real treat for Davis and Crawford fans. The film itself looks wonderful, with excellent picture and sound quality. The extras? They are a-plenty, tho THIS hag wishes there had been even more! A new documentary entitled "Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition", features interviews with various film scholars and biographers, including the brilliant drag artiste/playwright John "Lypsinka" Epperson, and actor/playwright Charles Busch. The other features include the Turner documentary "All About Bette", hosted by Jodie Foster; a segment from "The Andy Williams Show" featuring Miss Davis singing "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" (in which she looks like female impersonator Charles Pierce!); "Star Profile: Joan Crawford", an interview for British TV filmed at the time Miss Crawford was filming "Berserk!"; and a short feature entitled "Behind the scenes of Baby Jane", made during the filming. Also on the DVD is an audio commentary by Mr Epperson and Mr. Busch, who provide a lot of witty and interesting anecdotes concerning the film. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were larger-than-life ladies who had long careers in a male-dominated industry. They had drive, talent, and b***s. And so, my hat's off to both of them, they should be happy to know that they're still famous, and people are still watching their movies and getting immense enjoyment from them...and that's not even including the "straight" people!
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