Ok, so I
know that it’s literally Halloween tomorrow. You’ll be thinking I have missed a
trick or two. I mean, why in the world am I not reviewing horror films, right?
Well, I know my schedule is a little skew-wiff this week but I would argue that
this film is not exactly out of context. I mean, there are many real-life scary
things in this world of ours. One is the human mind and it’s capabilities for
creating suffering – for ourselves and the people around us. The second, is
using this capability within the context of your own family – and as a lot of
us probably know this happens more often than we like to admit in public. But
anyway, whatever happened to baby jane is specifically this kind of thriller.
And I don’t care how used you are to big special effects and CGI, if you have
even half a heart, I can guarantee that this little black and white number from
the ‘60s will get the hairs on the back of your neck standing right on end…
We start off
in 1917, and child star Baby Jane Hudson is taking America by storm. An
all-singing, all-dancing American sweetheart
that toured the music halls, Baby Jane has shot to celebrity very young,
and it shows. Adored by all, she is spoiled and treats her sister Blanche and
her family little better than staff. Fast forward some years however and the
tables have taken a very drastic turn. Blanche has shot to fame as a star of
the big screen while Jane (Bette Davis) has been forgotten – partly due to her
drinking problem. But if the bitterness of being forgotten while her sister is
celebrated is not enough, Jane has another slight problem. A car accident has
left Blanche (Joan Crawford) paralysed from the waist down, so it falls to Jane
to wait on her hand and foot and take care of her every need. But Jane is
bitter about this situation. She is very bitter indeed. And she doesn’t miss a
single opportunity to remind her sister of it. Question is, when will the
torture Jane inflicts on her sister end, if ever? How much more can Blanche
take, and has she any way of stopping her, despite being completely dependent
on her?
Ok. I don’t
even know where to begin with this. But the cast alone should tell you
something. Come on, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. I mean, the acting is just…
Just superb… I can’t think of many actresses that could successfully pull off
the “bad guy” so well and give such a sense of the pathetic at the same time.
But even though you feel at times desperately sorry for Jane, you cannot help
but watch in horror at what she puts poor Blanche through. It’s funny , really…
Family ties are complicated at the best of times without the added
complications of lost fame, resentment and crippling accidents, besides let’s
face it, who knows our weak spots better than them? The dynamic between the two
sisters is simply timeless, and I defy anyone to watch this without their skin
crawling on some level or another, despite it being made 50 odd years ago… Just
goes to show, some fears never change or grow old…
Speaking of
50 years ago though, technophobe that I am, I couldn’t help smiling at the fact
that this film could not be made in the 21st century. A lot of the
plot revolves around the fact that Blanche cannot contact the outside world or
call help because she is trapped on the second floor of the mansion –
completely dependent on her sister to get to the first floor – and unable to
reach the telephone and call help. Blanche would probably have a mobile and a
laptop or tablet if she were alive today; and even assuming her sister removed
all these things, she would sooner or later be able to get hold of something, e-mail,
call , text, skype, whatsapp or viber the authorities and that would be the end
of that… I’m not even getting started on how “possible” the skeleton in the
family closet would be in this day and age (mainly because the skeleton
constitutes a very fine sting in the story’s tail that I want you to discover
for yourselves) but suffice it to say that in a lot of ways the film is a
museum piece. But the way it takes such a universal theme as sibling rivalry
and turns into a thriller we can relate to today despite the antiquated
settings makes the film a real masterpiece and a true classic.
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