What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, about an actress who holds her crippled sister captive in an old Hollywood mansion. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. Upon the film's release it was met with widespread critical and box office acclaim and was later nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one for Best Costume Design, Black and White.

The notoriously bitter Hollywood rivalry between the film's two stars, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, was heavily important to the film's immense popularity at the time. This in part led to the revitalization of the then-waning careers of the former Hollywood acting legends. In the years after the film's release, critics continued to acclaim the film for its psychologically driven black comedy, camp, and creation of the hag horror subgenre. Because of the film's then unheard of and controversial plot (it originally received an X rating in the UK), and the appeal of the film's stars, it has become a cult film, and continues to play as a midnight movie. In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema.

Synopsis

In 1917, Baby Jane Hudson is a vaudevillian child star while her sister Blanche Hudson is not famous and overlooked by their father. By 1935, both sisters are movie actors, but Blanche has achieved stardom, while Jane’s films have flopped, leading Jane to drink heavily. One night, returning from a party, one of the sisters (implied to be Blanche) gets out of the car to open the garage door, while the driver (implied to be Jane) attempts to run her over, misses, and crashes into the garage. The accident leaves Blanche paralyzed.

Actors