Sunday, 31 October 2010

what ever happened to baby jane

By 1962 the careers of two of filmdom's leading female stars, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, were in decline. what ever happened to baby jane ? They had been the biggest leads in Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s, but as with most actresses, after a certain age the good roles came less frequently. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" changed all that. It was the first and only time the two ladies, screen competitors for years, appeared together in a film (unless you count 1944's "Hollywood Canteen," in which they played themselves), and it proved an instant box-office success.
what ever happened to baby jane

Of course, it might not have happened at all if it were not for Hitchcock's "Psycho" a couple of years earlier. "Psycho" opened the door to a flock of gothic horror movies in the following years, and the similarities between it and "Baby Jane" are evident not only in their characters and events, but in their low-budget productions, their black-and-white camera work, and their musical scores. Playfully, a neighbor in "Baby Jane" is named Bates.
what ever happened to baby jane

So, what could have been better than to cast two aging rival movie stars as two aging rival sisters, the Hudsons, Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford). While Crawford is rather subdued throughout the film, Davis chews up the scenery as one of the most bizarre, depraved villainesses you'll ever encounter. The movie is a splendid romp from beginning to end, thanks to the energy of the two stars and to its director, Robert Aldrich ("Kiss Me Deadly," "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," "The Flight of the Phoenix," "The Dirty Dozen," "The Longest Yard").
what ever happened to baby jane
Created By Berita Terhangat

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