Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)

5 / 5

Tagline: Sister, sister, oh so fair, why is there blood all over your hair?
Directed by: Robert Aldrich
Written by: Henry Farrell, Lukas Heller
Actors include: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 135 minutes
Banned: Nope
Country: USA

Review:
This is one of my all time favorites, and I enjoy every last second of it each and every time I watch it. Firstly watching Bette Davis looking that grotesque is a movie on it's own makes for a great horror film, but wait! This one has a fantastic plot AND Joan Crawford in it (c'mon you are sold already admit it). Even if you don't usually do the black and white horror thing this is one to make the exception for, it definitely still stands up. Well if you don't know the story is about sisters Baby Jane (Davis), and Blanche (Crawford). Baby Jane was a Shirley Temple style actress as a kid and as spoiled and bratty as they come, so bad that in fact she may have caused an accident which led to her sister's paralyzation. So years later and Baby Jane is still acting like a superstar child (although she looks rather corpsey) and it's definitely one of the creepiest things you'll ever see. She's also now responsible for her wheelchair bound sister who is kept upstairs and treated at Baby Jane's whim. All of the sudden Baby Jane decides it's the right time to revive her career, and things really heat up. What's great is how over the top this is and it's purely entertaining. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bloodbath or anything, but it is still one of the best horror films ever made and I'd tell anyone to give this a try (even as I'm writing this I'm thinking about watching it yet again).

Availability:  On DVD

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