What Happened To Baby Jane? When Hate Becomes Art
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, two great actresses, a lot of talent and a lifelong hostility. But why did they hate each other so much if, in the end, they weren’t that different? The two of them had a bad relationship with their daughters, their romantic relationships failed, and both got involved in alcohol. It is arguably the most commented upon Hollywood hostility in history; hostility from which, despite all the uproar, we saved a movie gem: What happened to Baby Jane?
The point is that the life of these actresses is already like a movie. It is not surprising therefore that Baby Jane was successful and that even today it is still considered a classic. This film is currently back on the agenda since it was rediscovered by young people thanks to the FEUD series : Bette and Joan, which recreates the hostility of the two actresses and the problems they had during the shooting.
It is true that young people today feel a certain rejection towards black and white films, it seems that such an old film makes us allergic and that the effort involved in viewing in black and white white is too important to us. However, part of the magic of these films is precisely the absence of color.
Hatred and terror
When we think of horror movies today, images of demonic possessions, special effects, haunted houses, and gore scenes come to mind. It all started in the ’70s, coinciding with the release of films such as The Exorcist , which would forever change horror films.
Until that date, the great master of terror had been Alfred Hitchcock ; most of the films had been shot in black and white and we were used to a different kind of terror, more subtle, more psychological, where almost all the weight rested on the interpretation of the actors, on the music and on the suggestion, without hardly show anything.
That has all changed today, and many people will have a hard time seeing Baby Jane as a horror movie. Despite everything, that is how it was worded at the time. Indeed, many special effects are not necessary for Bette Davis to frighten us with her gaze, for us to feel anguish when Blanche (Joan Crawford), prostrate in a wheelchair, desperately seeks attention. neighbor or pick up the phone to ask for help.
Can there be anything more terrible than hate? If someone hates us, they will be capable of anything and even more if they lose their minds, like in the movie Baby Jane . The fear and angst of the film is based on this hatred, resentment, and eternal rivalry. When we hate we can become irrational, we don’t care about the damage we can cause, and we rarely think about the consequences.
Baby Jane , two sisters and two actresses
Baby Jane tells the story of two sisters who had their glory days and who fell into oblivion. One, Blanche, lives in a wheelchair and depends on her younger sister. Younger sister’s name Jane (Bette Davis) has long lost her sanity due to the guilt she feels for leaving her sister paralyzed and lives mulling over her glory years, feeling she can again become a little girl again and sing and dance with her father while the audience admires her.
The hatred between the two, the resentment and the ego will be the main protagonists of the film; almost like in real life . Baby Jane begins with an artistic little Jane, egocentric and spoiled by her father who treats those around her, including her family badly; on the other hand, is her older sister, Blanche, who observes her with her mother, speaks little and feels discriminated against. We see that this preferential treatment to Jane will make Blanche a strong woman capable of eclipsing her sister, so much so that she will eventually become a big movie star.
Jane, on the other hand, will be forgotten by almost all mortals. The truth is, she lacks talent and will start to hate her sister for stealing the show. Blanche and Jane are eternal rivals, although Blanche apparently shows compassion for her sister , even as we slowly discover that it hasn’t always been so. The film offers us very disturbing scenes such as the meals Jane prepares for her sister or the song I’ve written a letter to daddy .
This rivalry, this hatred crosses the screen and this, perhaps, because the story of Blanche and Jane is not that different from that of Bette and Joan. Hatred, turned into art, turns into something worthy of admiration when we watch the film; a hatred that was otherwise totally real. There was much discussion about what happened on the set of Baby Jane , the Coca Cola machine set up for Davis to compete with Crawford’s Pepsi machine; the real blow that Davis dealt Crawford in one scene, or the moment Crawford decided to add weight to her outfit for a scene Davis had to drag her into.
The rivalry was such that Crawford managed to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Anne Bancroft. Award for which Davis was named for Baby Jane , thus stealing the show from Davis.
FEUD: Bette and Joan, the rescue
FEUD: Bette and Joan , played by veterans Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange respectively . The series, directed by Ryan Murphy, takes us on the set of the film and shows us the other side of the coin, that of the media and the Hollywood industry of the time. An industry in which women took a back seat and had little opportunity, let alone when their youth and beauty were gone.
We see in the series that, perhaps, the actresses exchanged only through their performance . Maybe if things had been different they wouldn’t have fallen into such hostility. The truth is, Hollywood was interested in this hostility, it was the perfect propaganda to sell a movie that didn’t have a too high budget and whose director was not well liked by the studios, Bob Aldrich.
The FEUD series managed to save some of the more interesting moments of these two stars, allowing Baby Jane to return to the limelight. In addition, in addition to saving the stars Davis and Crawford, the series has an exceptional ca sting, featuring Sarandon and Lange who, like the actresses whose role they play, are in full maturity, which does not However, this does not constitute an obstacle in order to show that they keep their talent intact.
Baby Jane had to save two women who no longer aroused interest among the younger ones: they were already a certain age and their careers were stagnating. This is why Baby Jane was a risky proposition and to be successful she had to be sold along with something else; in this case, feed and highlight the hostility of its two stars.
Hatred, like love, can turn us into irrational beings. Both can alter our perceptions, so that they end up adjusting more to what we want to see than to what actually exists. In this sense, in Hollywood, it does not matter happiness or morality, the important thing being, as in almost all large companies, to sell the product.
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