A Look Back at What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

melodrama, thriller

The poster also included five points or "things you should know about this motion picture before buying a ticket":
If you're long-standing fans of Miss Davis and Miss Crawford, we warn you this is quite unlike anything they've ever done.
You are urged to see it from the beginning.
Be prepared for the macabre and the terrifying.
We ask your pledge to keep the shocking climax a secret.
When the tension begins to build, remember it's just a movie.

I remember seeing this movie as a junior in high school when it first premiered in 1962. It was my first Bette Davis experience, and her freakish makeup, wig and costume scared the bejesus out of me. A ten foot Godzilla monster couldn't have frightened me more. Davis created her very own look for Baby Jane Hudson, so it is to her credit that Jane has become the cult classic that it is. Robert Aldrich drew brilliant work from both Davis and Crawford, and as much as Crawford complained about the director and his harsh tactics, she is awfully good in the part of Blanche, and should also have been nominated Best Actress along with Davis.

Despite the apparent feuds between the two - I understand the set had a Coke machine on one side and a Pepsi on the other - they were true professionals and in a poster of them sitting discussing the script in matching directors chairs, they appear like two schoolgirls, giggling and having a blast. Whatever, their chemistry on screen was sensational, and I just love to curl up with a big box of buttered popcorn, Junior Mints and a large diet Pepsi and devour that film with my galpal Diva Dona. "Jane, you wouldn't treat me this way if I weren't in this chair." "Butcha' are, Blanche, ya' are in that chair!" The two of us know every line and can go at it for hours, no days!