1962, USA
Although the hagsploitation genre likely owes its genesis to Sunset Boulevard, Robert Aldrich’s film – pairing up over-the-hill screen greats Joan Crawford and Bette Davis – set the template that would cement the genre and give a plethora of talented over-50 A-listers a reinvigorated shelf life.
And none of the horrible movie dames can come close to the grotesquerie of Baby Jane Hudson.
1917: Popular but petulant child star Baby Jane Hudson performs one of her sold-out song-and-dance shows while her neglected sister Blanche looks on from the shadows.
Blanche is rightly jealous of the indiscriminate attention her sister gets, her schmaltzy numbers lapped up by the adoring crowd.
But Blanche’s jealousy is passive; unlike her sister, she doesn’t act out, and as a result even her humility results in a scolding from their father, who doesn’t want anybody showing up his little favourite.
1935: Baby Jane (Bette Davis) is washed up and struggling to make it as a B-actress, while former wallflower Blanche (Joan Crawford) has become an A-list movie star, sparking the jealous ire of the alcoholic Blanche, who runs her over with a car, crippling her – and effectively terminating her acting career.
The Present (1962): The wheelchair-bound Blanche is stuck in a state of depency upon her lush sister, who keeps her tucked away in a room on the second floor while forging Blanche’s signature to order cases of Scotch and imitating Blanche’s voice in her efforts to deter any inquisitive visitors.
When a retrospective of Blanche’s films plays on television, Jane’s behaviour becomes increasingly hostile and overtly violent – she sends away the housekeeper, Blanche’s only lifeline, and ensures that Blanche will starve by serving her a dead rat and her own pet bird for dinner.
Decades of simmering jealousy and corrosive guilt come out in amazing verbal tirades from Davis, who turns in one of the best performances of her career as the psychotic, powder-faced hag Baby Jane.
Verbal abuse turns into physical abuse, with Jane kicking and beating her dying sister between bouts of deluded nostalgia; Jane imagines herself on the verge of a comeback, donning her ringlets and baby-doll lace in a monstrous spectacle that speaks to the horrors of ageing and the sadness of knowing that your best days are long past.
hexafu 