What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  Reviews & Ratings - IMDb
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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
GREAT FUN! NOT TO BE MISSED!!
from Fords, NJ
12 October 2001
A movie, I can watch again and again is my criteria for a great film!! Baby Jane('62), fits that category... I enjoyed when first opened in theatre, and am enjoying repeatedly on video.  Bette Davis mastered this role... She should have won her 3rd Oscar for it..Crawford was excellent also in the more sympathetic role of Blanche...The entire cast worked very well !!Don't take it seriously just sit back and enjoy. The behind the screen stories of this film are now Hollywood legend.  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall of the Baby Jane set...Can't wait to watch again, I need a good laugh ! Its 10/12/01, and Antrhrax is all over the news...This is the diversion I'll need tonight, and I recommend for others as well
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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
An extremely well done chiller!
from Gaithersburg, Maryland
27 November 2000
Having never seen Joan Crawford act, and in fact, my only exposure to her was Faye Dunaway's portrayal of her in MOMMIE DEAREST, I caught this flick on American Movie Classics and after 5 minutes was absolutely enthralled by her performance! I had read her daughter's book as well, and thought that Joan was just an off-the-wall screwball, but no more!  I still feel that she was a little off center, but her acting in BABY JANE was absolutely flawless! I thoroughly enjoyed the entire movie, and will look forward to seeing it again. I am now looking forward to the next Joan Crawford movie I come across. BABY JANE is a definite, absolute Classic!
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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Flawed but riveting!
from Los Angeles
21 July 2000
One of my favorite movies, a camp classic. On the surface it's a thriller, but deep down it's a homage to failure, a poignant ode to all the forgotten and washed up people that litter our big cities. Baby Jane is a rotten cookie, a faded star. She has no friends, no future, and is full of bitterness and envy.  This film is much more effective than "Sunset Boulevard". I like its everyday atmosphere, its trivial aspects:  a trip to the bank, the maid getting a day off, the fat piano teacher, icecream at the beach.  The nightmare and the beautiful dream mingle. The writing is very fine, unpretentious and unobtrusive.  There is no standard theatricality. Money figures prominently. In today's world, it is the life-blood without which nothing can be accomplished.  Everything and everybody must be purchased.  Smiles and compliments require hard cash. There are no loyalties, no affections. Pure alienation.  Yet we don't get sociology, we get art.  What makes the film beautiful is its freedom from agenda or comment.  It just invites you to stare at life's gargoyles, and challenges you to find the beauty in it.  Yes, there is beauty even here.  This is one of the most beautiful films ever made, visually ravishing. The black and white is very effective. The film's surprise ending reverses the moral situation. Thus moral parity is achieved, and a beautiful transcendence.  I have no idea how far writer and director intended this deeper meaning, but intentions don't matter.
The film is far from flawless. It has plenty of scenes one is tempted to cut, particularly the first half hour showing baby Jane as a child and young woman.  I would also cut the scene in which the pathetic pianist talks with his mother. It is irrelevant to the plot, though highly comical. And the violence could also be removed as gratuitous.  But if one starts tampering with this crooked film, it falls apart. Enjoy it's weirdness.
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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
One Of The Great Camp Classics
from Greenville, NY
26 August 2003
Knowing that this had the "Camp Classic" status, I knew I had to see it, and I was not dissapointed.  Davis is at her campiest as Jane, who tortures her sister(Crawford), when she has to take care of her, Jane was a former child star, who had the spotlight stolen by her sister.  Great direction by Robert Aldrich(The Dirty Dozen), and a haunting score add to the thrills.  Its a little overlong, but still great.  Fans of movie classics will love this entertaining and thrilling film.  8.5/10.
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5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Bette, Joan, and Rats In The Basement!
from United States
23 March 2006
I guess we can tell it now, but the story goes that what caused Joan Crawford to turn on her kids was that she wanted Bette Davis as her love and when Davis ignored her presents that she sent to her, she went on a rampage, not only everyone around her, but her kids as well! Even B.D. admits to Crawfords feelings for Bette in her autobiography "My Mothers Keeper"! So, the way this movie started out to be made has many versions, but one of them was that Crawford always wanted to work with Davis so when she found this book "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane", she immediately visited Davis when Davis was playing on Broadway in Night of the Iguana. So, in marches Crawford into Davis's dressing room, and Davis, impolitely says, "I'm in a hurry to leave the theater. What do you want?" And Crawford says, "Darling! I've always wanted to work with you, and I've found this story and it's wonderful! It's perfect for the two of us. Please read it and let me know what you think?" So, as Crawford glides through Davis' dressing room door; Davis says to herself, "This woman is full of it" which is the closest thing that I can write here as to what she really said, but she picks up the book and on a train she reads it, and when finished Davis says to herself, "Well, it might work! It's all there! Crazy Bette; phony Joan!" So, Davis contacts Robert Aldrich; Peter Lawford gives up his role to Victor Bono because Lawford was involved romantically with someone in the Kennedy family, and the rest is history! So, Bette Davis is on the Johnny Carson show one night stating that Warners wouldn't take a chance on those to has-been old broads and Crawford writes a note on brown stationary with brown ink to please not refer to her as an old broad and later Davis relates this on another one of Carsons show, laughing, and saying that Crawford has lost her sense of humor! There was another incident where Davis called Crawford a movie star and that she, Davis, was the real actress, and Crawford commented back, "I'm not an actress and she is? Take away her clipped speech, the bugged eyes, and the puffing on the cigarettes, and what do you have?" Unfortunately, the games between them kept on going until Crawfords death, and when Bette Davis heard of Crawfords passing, she said, "Well, they say you should say something good about someone when they die - - - So, Joan's dead? Good!" We will never see the likes of these two again, and they are the perfect example as to why I've said, over and over, there are no more of these wild, creative, off the wall genius' like these two in the movies; and there never will be! They are the ones who made and created Hollwood for the actors and actresses in the future. We owe them a great deal of thanks, respect, and admiration! Hail! To Bette and Joan!
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5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Excellent classic horror
from Beverley Hills, England
20 June 2005
The sixties were responsible for many of the classic horror films that are still highly revered today; and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is certainly one of them. Playing out with all the tenacity of the American classics of the golden era of Hollywood cinema; the film is a resounding classic all the way. And what else could a film that features the awesome talents of two of the greatest actresses to ever live be? Joan Crawford and Bette Davis take the lead roles as a pair of sisters. Bette Davis plays Jane Hudson; a former child star (once known as Baby Jane Hudson) who was eclipsed by her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) as she got older. After a terrible car accident (that may or may not have been 'an accident') that left Blanche crippled, the two sisters have been forced to live together in Blanches house. Blanche lives as a prisoner in all but title, in the upstairs bedroom, and all this time alone with only someone she hates for company has ensured that Jane isn't feeling very well mentally.
The film is very melodramatic throughout, but this doesn't hinder the film as although it could have done so in the realism stakes - it doesn't, and it actually adds to the madness and horror of the tale. The film echoes the likes of The Apartment and Sunset Blvd on numerous occasions, and it's nice to see the atmosphere that those films breathed being moulded onto the frame of a horror movie. It's the stars that are real highlight of this movie, however; and both the leads are incredible. Bette Davis is repulsive as the nightmarish Baby Jane. She really lets you buy into her performance and it's easy to believe that the woman on screen really is the aging actress that she is portraying. Joan Crawford has less to do, but she is still excellent in her role as the crippled sister of the pair. My only slight gripe with the film is the ending, which seems to take a little bit too much from Sunset Blvd and offsets the originality and suspense of the film thus far. It just seems out of place. Still, this is a first rate horror movie and one that fans of classic film will no doubt enjoy. Highly recommended!
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Bette Davis and Joan Crawford make this odd horror drama real
11 December 2016
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This really odd horror drama, black comedy pairing two former real- life (or would that be reel-life) rival queens of the cinema, Bette Davis (in the title role) and Joan Crawford, was produced and directed by Robert Aldrich. Based on a novel by Henry Farrell, with a screenplay by Lukas Heller, it tells the story of two sisters who were formally movie stars in the 1930's, Baby Jane (Davis) being a child actress whose career was largely forgotten in the wake of her sister Blanche Hudson's (Crawford) success.
The setting (present day, 1962) finds a much older Blanche, forced into premature retirement because of a mysterious automobile accident, being cared for by her jealous sister some thirty years later. Baby Jane resents the fact that she's having to live in Blanche's home because her sister has the means she never achieved, or no longer has. However, with control of the situation, if not entirely her sanity, Jane torments her wheelchair-bound sister, who's mobility is limited to her room, as she begins to believe that a comeback career is possible.
Victor Buono (in his credited film debut) is perfect as Jane's pawn Edwin Flagg as she plots unspeakable acts against Blanche; he's an out-of-work musician that lives with his domineering mother (Marjorie Bennett). Therefore he's "forced" to take the job as Jane's piano player; she (actually, Debby Burton) sings "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" while he tries to keep a straight face. Not quite the same situation William Holden's Joe Gillis finds himself in with Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. (1950), but close.
This thriller's climax is "to die for".
Norma Koch won an Academy Award on her first nomination for B&W Costume Design. Davis, relishing in an over-the-top performance, earned her last (Best Actress), and Buono received his only (Best Supporting Actor), Oscar nomination. Ernest Haller's B&W Cinematography and the film's Sound (Joseph Kelly's only) was also nominated. A cult classic, it's #63 on AFI's 100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies list.
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Don't make them like this anymore
from British Columbia, Canada
9 December 2016
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford shine in this old school black and white suspense picture. It would not fall under the horror category nowadays if released and it shouldn't be pigeon held in one such genre given it's capacity for being both a character piece as well as a gripping saga of two sisters suffering in a very very bitter relationship with one another. Of course both are unstable, mentally, completely and that makes the story all the stronger.
Great performances by both leads and while it was initially hard to get into the black and white film (Love them now!!) it was well worth it and I would highly recommend this film to any true Suspense/horror lover, if you also like a slow burn plot with deep, rich characters.
A+ for sure.
18 October 2016
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is a great film! One of the few B&W films i actually like. The film takes place over 3 time lines; 1917,1935 and 1962, which was the year the film was made. The film stars Bette Davis, as "Baby" Jane Hudson. A bitter has-been of the silver screen, who is jealous of her sister's success. Her sister is played by Joan Crawford, in an excellent performance as Blanche. Blanche is paralysed and Jane is forced to be her carer.
Jane resents being Blanche's carer and her behaviour and treatment of Blanche, becomes more deranged and twisted as the film goes on. She is also trying to relive her glory days, by booking a pianist and singing her famous song, I've Written A Letter To Daddy
There is some comic relief in these scenes, as the pianist's expressions are priceless, as Jane screeches her way through the song. That always makes me laugh.
I won't spoil the ending for you. I'd advise everyone to watch this masterpiece!
10/10
27 September 2016
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
In a lot of ways this movie is successful on all levels. Bette Davis is outstanding a Baby Jane, the child star who grows up and out of her youth with a guilty conscience.
Joan Crawford is her sister, paralyzed in a car accident, and completely under the thumb of an unbalanced sister.
Victor Bono as a gold digger who gets horrified by Jane after trying to hit her up for money.
While Anne Bancroft would win best actress for The Miracle Worker this year, it was not for Davis lack of trying in this one. Davis is the person who always blames others for her actions though her guilt about her sister is a deep dark shadow on her life.
The results are an uneasy feeling for anyone viewing this one.
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