What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

‘What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?’ is one of the first psychological horror-thrillers ever made and it is definitely one of the best. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are portrayed in a far more sinister light in this film, directed by Robert Aldrich, and their acting skills are phenomenal.

The movie opens in 1917 with “Baby Jane” Hudson, played by Bette Davis, as a bratty and spoilt child star. She performs for huge crowds and is loved so much that she begins to sell doll replicas of herself to the public. Her and her father, played by Dave Willock, are haughty and bully Jane’s sister Blanche, played by Joan Crawford. They feel that they are better than her as they are the ones making the money. Blanche and Jane’s mother, played by Anne Barton, makes Blanche promise that when she becomes famous she will treat her father and Jane far more kindly than they treat her and Blanche promises to do so.

Fast forward to 1935 and we find that Jane is no longer famous and is instead consumed by alcoholism while Blanche has become a famous star. We see that Blanche has indeed kept her promise putting in her contract that Jane has to star in movies too although she is scrutinised by film directors. Blanche’s career is however cut short when we see her supposedly being run over by Jane on the way back to their house one night.

Now, in 1962, Blanche and Jane live together in a mansion. We see that Blanche has become paralysed and so has been confined to a wheelchair and that she is reliant on Jane for care. Jane is psychotic and is still an alcoholic and she regularly abuses Blanche. We see her bully her, steal from her, give her dead animals for dinner, beat her unconscious, starve her and tie her to her bed.

Meanwhile Jane, desperate to revive her childhood career, hires a piano player named Edwin Flagg, played by Victor Buono, and agrees to pay him a vast sum of money in exchange for his accompaniment at her future shows. It is impossible not to feel pity for Jane at parts like this in the film. Although there is no excuse for her abuse of Blanche, she is evidently struggling with mental health issues such as mania and psychosis as well as being an alcoholic, and she is evidently very jealous of Blanche and just wants her old fame back. Bette Davis does an excellent job of portraying Jane’s erratic, unstable character throughout the movie and shows the danger mental illness can pose if left untreated. This is an incredibly important thing to portray in media as it makes people realise they are not alone, and although Jane’s illnesses are very obviously over-dramatised it is still a good portrayal.

Edwin one day walks in on Blanche tied up and tells Jane that he is going to go to the police. Jane panics and begs Blanche to help her before making the decision to drive her down to the beach and sit with her there. Blanche reveals that she actually paralysed herself when trying to run over Jane many years ago, and apologises for making it seem like it was Jane’s fault. Unable to cope with this news, we see Jane reverted to a childlike state asking for ice cream and dancing around the beach instead of speaking to officers that question her about the disappearance of her sister.

This film is truly amazing. The psychological aspects really add to the movie and make it much more than just a basic horror movie. The whole story of Jane is incredibly interesting as we see her, much like many former child stars today, descending into alcoholism and she is an incredibly misunderstood character. Most of the characters know that she struggles with alcoholism and yet they just label her as a bad person rather than stopping to consider why she drinks or how she might be helped. Also after beating Blanche, she breaks down and cries, showing that she is not an inherently bad person but rather that she has never been given the help she deserves and so she makes erratic decisions without really thinking. Blanche is also a good example of how a person can manipulate people with mental illnesses. Although Blanche caused her own accident, she convinces Jane that it was her fault leaving her and the viewers of this film to view her as a bad person when in fact she was actually innocent.

For such an old film, “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane’ is a true masterpiece, with the intense plot and plot twists and incredibly interesting characters it really is a great film and one I would absolutely recommend.