FREE!
What a surprise...the weather
report's not looking very good---we'll see you at the Opera
House tonight
at 8:30!
(Click
here for details)
$1 Concessions available!
In case of rain:
The Bangor Opera House, Main Street (Click here for details)
What
Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
With Bette
Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Marjorie Bennett, Maide
Norman,
Anna Lee, B.D. Merrill; Directed by
Robert Aldrich
1962 • 132 min • Not rated (may frighten
children and birds)
As a child, "Baby Jane" Hudson
was the toast of vaudeville. As an adult, however, Baby
Jane was overshadowed by her more
talented sister, Blanche, who became a top movie star.
Then, one night in the early '30s, came the accident, which
crippled
Blanche for life and which was blamed on a drunken, jealous
Jane. Flash-forward to 1962: Jane (Bette Davis), decked
out in garish chalk-white makeup, still lives with the invalid
Blanche (Joan Crawford) in their decaying L.A. mansion.
When
Jane isn't tormenting the helpless Blanche by serving her
dead rats for breakfast, she is plotting and planning her
showbiz
comeback. Convinced that her days are numbered if she remains
in the house with her addlepated sister, Blanche desperately
tries to get away, but all avenues of escape are cut off
by the deranged Jane. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? sparked
a trend toward casting venerable Hollywood female stars
in such grotesque Grand Guignol melodramas as Lady in
a Cage (1964)
and Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965). In addition
to revitalizing the careers of Davis and Crawford, whose
real-life mutual animosity
came through loud and clear, the film made a star of sorts
of 24-year-old character actor Victor Buono, cast as a
porcine mama's-boy musical composer. Lukas Heller's screenplay
was
based on the novel by Henry Farrell.—Hal
Erickson, All Movie Guide
|
