What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Review

Former child star Baby Jane Hudson has never got over the end to her fame and has now taken to tormenting her sister Blanche Hudson, who had a more successful acting career but is now paraplegic and stuck in the decaying Hollywood mansion with her demented sister.

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What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a truly incredible film which showcases incredible acting performances, an engaging story, thrilling and terrifying moments all combined with an outstanding twist which takes sibling rivalry to a unprecedented level.

The opening scene shows a young Baby Jane on stage and her father really pushing her constantly, but also doing everything she says. This results in Blanche having horrible treatment from them both, with her mother saying that she hoped that when she could she would actually be kind to them both. Although normally quiet and not saying much she actually claims that they will pay for it all.

Moving forward through the years and despite attempting to keep the whole baby image Jane falls from grace rather quickly when it comes to acting and seems to turn to drink. This allows Blanche to become a much more established actress and enjoys a few years of good films and success that comes along with that. Much to the displeasure of Jane.

The current situation of the sisters is then that they still live together in a mansion with acting careers well and truly in the past. Blanche is confined to a wheelchair and needs constantly help and care within the house. Housekeeper Elvira Stitt was certainly looking out for Blanche and very suspicious on the behaviour of Jane!

Blanche becomes terrified of her sister who seems to have lost her mind over the years and is hitting a further breaking point as she grows older and still attempting to hold onto her youth. In some ways she seems to still have the child mentality and talks to her father. All of this stems from the accident which puts Blanche in the wheelchair which turned out to be a car crash one night on the way back home.

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are both remarkable and show just how incredible acting can be, even more so when the actresses were said to truly had and despise one another! I really was blown away by them both and found myself fully engaged in the film from start to finish.

Everything about the film moves at a great pace and has some borderline horror moments which are so thrilling that it is actually terrifying. All ending on that unreal reveal at the end, which I certainly did not see coming at all. Truly outstanding film making.