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Bitch fight!
Kathy Hofmeyr
Posted Wed, 25 Oct 2006
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Last Sunday night the Johannesburg Classic Film Society was treated to one of the darkest films of the 1960s: Robert Aldrich’s ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ Aldrich had already gained renown for his work on ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ and ‘The Angry Hills’ when he helmed the picture, and would go on to make ‘The Dirty Dozen’.
Having worked his way up the ranks, Aldrich was familiar with many of the aspects of filmmaking. He said: “A director is a ringmaster, a psychiatrist and a referee.” In the case of ‘Baby Jane’, these words were closer to truth than to metaphor.
The premise is simple: Jane, a nasty and petulant young child star arouses the jealousy of her older, plainer sister Blanche. When they grow up, Blanche becomes the biggest star in Hollywood while her sibling fades to a bit-part ham floozy with a drinking problem. On their way home after an industry party one night, the girls are involved in a motor accident which cripples Blanche and for which Jane is held responsible. The rest of the film is the story of the two sisters, now in their fifties and living under the same roof in what may very well be the fifth ring of hell.
Jane, played by Bette Davis, has never got over the loss of her childhood stardom — in fact, has never outgrown her childhood at all — and as a result has grown into a flabby, crass and thoroughly unhinged middle-aged woman still clothed in sundresses and pinafores with her hair in ringlets. Blanche (Joan Crawford) remains elegant and beautiful, but confined to her wheelchair she depends entirely on her spiteful sister for meals and errands.
Rivals in every way
The back story is legend. Joan Crawford and Bette Davis were rivals in every way — professionally, romantically, socially… and they loathed each other. The banter exchanged between the two women over the years was no less acerbic for all its bitchy, Parker-esque wit.
Both were major stars of the '30s and '40s — Bette at Warner Brothers, Joan at MGM; they had similar taste in men — often identical, in fact; both became gay icons; and both had scathing exposés written about them by their daughters (‘Mommy Dearest’ by Christina Crawford and ‘My Mother’s Keeper’ by Barbara Davis).
would like to be remembered as a best-selling author, a little-known blues singer and perhaps someone’s favourite aunt. She lives in Jo’burg with her dogs, two pure-bred mongrels named Harpo and Buffy.
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Davis famously said of Crawford that “she’s slept with every male star at MGM, except Lassie”. Crawford responded by saying of Davis that “I don't see how she built a career out of a set of mannerisms, instead of real acting ability. Take away the pop eyes, the cigarette, and those funny clipped words and what have you got? She's phoney, but I guess the public really likes that.”
They had different qualities. While Davis was attractive, she was never a beauty, but what she lacked in aesthetics she made up for in sheer talent. Joan Crawford, on the other hand, was glamour personified — the very definition of “movie star”, although later in life she achieved acclaim as an actress in ‘Mildred Pierce’.
When she was offered the role of Blanche Hudson, Crawford accepted on the condition that her lifelong arch-rival be cast as the venomous younger sister Jane. No doubt hoping to outshine the frumpy and crazed Bette, Crawford padded her bra and set to work creating her character as a put-upon and long-suffering victim, tortured and starved and beaten by the cruel Gorgon Jane.
Contrast instead of competition
Instead of trying to compete, however, Bette Davis opted instead for contrast. She insisted on doing her own makeup for the character of Jane — to enormous effect. Jane’s face is a ghoulish parody of the baby-doll makeup her child self wears during her Vaudeville glory days: white face; bright, overdone lips; round, rouged apple-cheeks and far too much eye makeup. The result is, as one critic put it, a gash of a mouth that looks as though it has been applied in the morning with a sharp razor and eyes that appear so sunken as to be almost hollow.
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