What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [VHS]

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [VHS]
by Robert Aldrich

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Julie Allred, Victor Buono, Wesley Addy
Director: Robert Aldrich
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 135 minutes
Release Date: 2000-09-26
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [VHS]

Movie Review: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane
Summary: 1 Stars

Didn't get to watch much of it as the VHS tape arrived defective. The tape was shipped back to the vendor. I am waiting for my refund.

Movie Review: Sibling rivalry at its most vicious...
Summary: 5 Stars

Being the huge Bette Davis fan that I am, I am totally in love with this movie. This is far from her finest performance, or her finest film, but you can tell that Davis is right at home inside the crazy eyes of Baby Jane Hudson; and the mere fact that Davis outshone her rival (in more ways than one) Joan Crawford, and even managed to conjure up a Best Actress Oscar nomination above Crawford is another delicious little tidbit that keeps this film resting at the top of my `Davis Favorites'.

The film tells of two sisters who are eternally jealous of one another. As a young girl Jane Hudson (better known as Baby Jane) was a star. She sang and danced and had a doll made in her image. She treated her sister, mother and father terribly, but they put up with it because she was a star. Her star fell though as she grew and her sister Blanche became the big Hollywood magnate that everyone adored. When a tragic accident leaves Blanche bound to her wheelchair, Jane becomes her caretaker. Resentment sets in though, and Jane begins to treat Blanche as if she were a disease. She is constantly reminded of her own failure when she sees the success and loyal fans that Blanche has now, and as her mind deteriorates she begins to believe that she could regain her old life with the help of Edwin Flagg, a pianist.

Both Davis and Crawford pull out all the stops, playing polar opposites and quite possibly using their own dislike for one another to create a very believable rivalry. Crawford is very quite and subdued, her inner turmoil surfacing at just the right moments; while Davis is abrasive and outlandish, allowing the quiet moments to come sporadically as she builds her character. She knows how to let her characters own sanity simmer, showing us rare glimpses of a strange rationality that makes us question her.

Superbly done.

It's funny, since the roles were most likely reversed in the real world, with Crawford being openly jealous of Davis's career. It just goes to prove that you have to challenge yourself (play against type that is) to really wow an audience.

The film does have a camp appeal to it, so don't be fooled into thinking that this is going to be a genuinely terrifying drama. Yes, it is not a comedy and it is tense, but you have to be able to embrace the camp in order to truly appreciate it. The film is very well done and the acting is all very good, especially Davis who understood very well how to craft her character and not merely craft a caricature (she is fearless). The script is nicely adapted, leaving a mystery for the audience, with a conclusion that is as shocking as it is appropriate.

Movie Review: Baby Jane falls into the genre of naturalistic/gothic/realistic horor
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is profoundly disturbing because of the realism of the situation it portrays-it focuses on the abuse of a disabled adult by a family member, something that rarely gets addressed in our society. In my view, Jane is not insane, but is selfish and self-absorbed, completely focused on her lack of success in adulthood, which makes her completely responsible for her actions, despite the movie's intention to give the impression that Jane is suffering from a mental illness.

Movie Review: Scary
Summary: 5 Stars

This movie is a classic. Betty Davis plays such a sicko and does a great job doing it. Even today, my grown children were impressed at how well the movie was done and how it had the ability to put 'fear' in you.

Movie Review: Parakeets for lunch, rats for dinner
Summary: 4 Stars

This was a stunning movie in its day! Of course, it's a bit dated now, but I think it has well stood the test of time. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were off-screen rivals who were not too fond of each other anyway. But, they had never worked together before! And here for the first time, these two 'silver screen giants' meet, work well together and both deliver stirring, powerful performances of two sisters whose rivalry matched the actresses' real-life squabble. Closely following Hitchcock's movie 'Psycho', this movie follows along the lines of a similar psychlogical thriller. Character anaysis of such deeply disturbed people were just not done in those days. There were good guy and there were bad guys, and that's all there was to it. Where Psycho tried to explain why Norman Bates was a nut, this movie explores the deterioration of 'Baby Jane' Hudson, played extaordinarily and chillingly well by the talented Ms. Davis. Fueled by jealousy over her sister's success, resentment over her own failed success as well as her financial dependence on her sister, and guilt over her sister's afliction...coupled with a sense of power she has because of her crippled sister's helplessness...Jane slides deeper into madness, torturing and victimizing her sister Blanche (played with expert precision by Ms. Crawford). I think Bette held out for the Baby Jane role on purpose, both so she could 'torture' Joan, but also because it was a meatier, heftier role as far as acting ability, the need to slowly descend into madness takes a keen eye and talent by an actress. And Bette did it very well indeed! As I said, this movie is a bit dated now, but it has overall stood the test of time. Davis and Crawford are both supurb in their roles. The script and pacing were both very good (but very 1962) but still excellent. I'll spare you the whole plot description, as I'm sure you've seen it in 100 other reviews. Suffice to say this was an important, shocking movie in its day. It is still a great movie to watch today...even if Bette isn't serving rats for lunch!

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Summary of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [VHS]

A cultish horror favorite, 1962's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? will make you think twice before hungrily unveiling a covered plate of food. Bette Davis stars as Jane Hudson, a onetime child actress and singer. As an elderly woman, she wishes to revive her vaudevillian career, but she has become a grotesque caricature of her former self. Over the years as her star faded, the star of her older sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) rose, outshining the career of the has-been Baby Jane. Jane was relegated to minor roles, which she only won when Blanche demanded that she be awarded them. The film opens years after a calamitous car accident leaves Blanche in a wheelchair, with no one to care for her except the increasingly insane and sadistic Jane and their servant, Norman. Trying to punish Blanche for her years of success, Jane tortures the housebound woman, slowly trying to starve her to death, all the while attempting to recapture the fame of her youth. This dark drama also stars Victor Buono as the hefty pianist who answers Jane's ad for an accompanist, hoping to milk some money off the demented old woman. Both Buono and Davis were nominated for Oscars for their roles in this suspenseful and somewhat sick thriller that exploited well the real-life antagonism between Davis and Crawford, while at the same time rejuvenated both their careers. --Jenny Brown

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