Bette Davis herself once said that the most fun she ever had was pushing Joan Crawford down the stairs during the filming of ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” In that kicking scene, Davis kicked her in the head and the resulting wound actually required stitches. Crawford got even as she put weights in her pockets so that when Davis had to drag her body in another scene, she strained her back. Released in 1962, this classic Grand Guignol movie was the first and only film in which the two stars, who detested each other, ever appeared together. During production, just to irk Crawford, Davis had a coke machine installed on the set because Crawford’s late husband, Alfred Steele, was an executive at Pepsi.
The film, with its campy underside, was a box office success, aided by the wonderful performance of Victor Buono as Edwin Flagg, who along with Bette Davis won an Oscar for his efforts. Set in a decaying mansion, the plot revolves around a former child star, Baby Jane Hudson (Davis) who lives with her invalid sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), also a former star, whose career was cut short because of a crippling accident. They are virtually isolated from the outside world and their relationship is demented, psychotic and dysfunctional, to say the very least. (Who could ever forget the scene where Davis serves Crawford a rat for breakfast?)
It is Davis’s deft portrayal of a woman’s descent into madness that earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The wig she wore throughout the film had, unbeknownst to her and Crawford, been worn by Crawford in an earlier MGM movie. Because it had been re-styled, Crawford didn’t recognize it. Their real life hatred of each other couldn’t help but spill over into the film, proving once again that art really does imitate life.
What are some of YOUR favorite moments from this classic film?