What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Bette Davis, Joan Crawford

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? | Bette Davis, Joan Crawford | 2 ALL TIME GREAT STARS + 1 GREAT DIRECTOR = HIGHEST RATING!

DVDs:

What Ever Happened...

	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Bette Davis, Joan Crawford Warner Home Video, 1997 average customer review:based on 174 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Celebrity Death Match

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 "What ever 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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2 ALL TIME GREAT STARS + 1 GREAT DIRECTOR = HIGHEST RATING!

What a movie, What great performances...Joan is wonderful and how in the heck Bette Davis didn't win the OSCAR for this role is hard to understand. Ms Davis isn't hamming it up...she is appropriately conflicted in her acting and changes of mood...just wonderful. The black and white cinematography is awesome (Ernst Haller of GWTW fame!)....and the tough guy director Robert Aldrich shows he can do it all with his work on this film....just terrific!

NOW..for the DVD....first its a terrific transfer! Now..the bonus disc...a new featurette with a bunch of the usual suspects is ...okay. the VINTAGE featurette showing Robert Aldrich working on the movie and the stars working on a scene is most wonderful! The vintage feature length documentary on Bette Davis, hosted by Jodie Foster is terrific! and the vintage featurette on Joan Crawford featuring a sensational black and white television appearance from English TV is a gold mine!

KUDOS to WB! This is the way to present classic films and certainly justifies the price!!!

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What Can I Say

When you see two of the best hollywood stars together in
a motion picture, you just know it has to be something
outstanding, well this movie is now a classic and will be
viewed for many years to come. This movie kept me on the edge
of my seat most of the movie, and very suspenseful, and
It is still a scarey movie to me after seeing the movie
many times. I would recommend everyone to get a copy of this
motion picture, it is A keeper

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Two of the best female actresses together, proved to Hollywood why they are among the greatest, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. This movie is a most for any collection.

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DVD only marred by horrid Commentary

What ever Happened to Baby Jane? is an excellent film. The transfer to DVD is top notch.

The bonus feature documentaries are all better than usual.

But it is unforgivable that Warners has used two commentators whose ONLY qualification to comment on this film appears to be that their flaming queens.

They don't know who Dave Willock is (he plays the sisters' father) except to know he was on TV a lot. (Gee, couldn't they look it up?) They do not seem to know ANY inside stories or Hollywood history connected with the stars or the film production.

This is a great disservice. Warners should have hired either people who knew the stars or who took part in the production, or real reviewers, like most classic DVDs have, or a combination of the two. At least a serious student of the movie who actually did some research would be infinitely better that these 2 birds. One of their main forms of comment is mentioning that the other one likes more girly films.

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