What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a classic 1962 psychological thriller starring Betty Daves and Joan Crawford.
It is not the subject of this blog post.
I'm covering the 1991 made-for-TV movie remake instead.
I watched the original What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and tried to do a post about it, but I couldn't. It was too good, and the jokes weren't coming. While watching it, I was thinking that Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? might be one of the best movies I've ever seen. Then I remembered that I had just watched Crimson Bat, Nico the Unicorn, and One-Armed Executioner. Relativity is a thing.
My one-sentence summary of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: It's Sunset Boulevard + Misery + Riding the Bus With My Sister and the movie with Rosie O'Donell depicts the most exploitative relationship.
I still wanted to do a post about Baby Jane, and luckily enough, someone decided to remake it. So, unlike the other films I've seen, I know the entire story going in from the original. I'm going to be reacting to it as if the audience (that means you) have seen the original.
If you haven't seen the original 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and don't want to be spoiled, watch it before reading this,
If you haven't seen the original 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and don't care about spoilers, still watch it. It's a good movie.
This is the 1991 remake of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? I call it What Ever Happened to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane??
(This is the first time I've ever had to embed a title with a question mark inside a title with a question mark. APA only goes so far.)
The original movie starts with a jack-in-the-box popping out and scaring a young girl. The remake starts with a snowy night making a young girl sad. Not really getting the mood right.
This is young Jane. She is on a movie set. The audience isn't supposed to know this yet, but anyone who is watching the movie does. She sings a song to a doll in a cradle.
The original opened in vaudeville with Jane singing the simultaneously grating and creepy "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" This song is a lullaby without a clear repeated title. There last line is "Tomorrow Is not Far away"
I just cant see that being as eerie as "I've Written A Letter to Daddy" when she sings it to Flagg later
The director says "Cut" and surprise, surprise, it is a movie set.
In this version, Jane is a movie star and Blanche is a stunt-double/bit player. That's a...deviation from the original.
 |
| Blanche |
Blanche asks Jane when she will get a bigger part, and Jane says never. Blanche's mother comforts her and says that the parts will get bigger. Blanche looks into the cradle and smothers the Baby Jane doll.
There are a lot of adjectives that fit the 1963 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? "Subtle" is not one of those adjectives. But at least we didn't see Blanche smothering a Baby Jane doll with a blanket.
Cut to the sisters running along a beach.
I went back to check the original because I thought the prologue consisted of the vaudeville show when they were kids and the movie studio when they were adults and then it went to car crash. And I was right. They clumsily inserted this beach scene so that the girls can spout some forced lines:
Blanche: I want to live at the beach always
Jane: Maybe we could
Blanche: Daddy?
Dad: No, Blanche. It's too far from the studios
Mom: But it might be nice for the girls
Does it count as dramatic irony if the audience knows the ending of the original?
Jane gets some ice cream from a vendor with her father and Blanche looks woefully after her.
Now it just...fades to Blanche as an old woman watching her old movie. Yeah, remember that whole scene in the original where Blanche becomes a big movie star and we see see the car crash? That was apparently not important. Also, there are no titles to indicate the years.
I don't want to be one of those people who say "Man, movies were so much better back before color/special effects/CGI/whatever." All I'm saying is to compare the houses of the original and the remake.
One of them looks like it belongs in a psychological thriller and the other wouldn't look out of place on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens.
The one on the left might be on Bette Homes and Gardens though.
Jane walks in on Blanche. The TV is in the kitchen. So she isn't upstairs? Doesn't that ruin the movie?
Jane looks less like a grotesque, blond Ethel Merman and more like a soccer-mom.
Jane and Blanche talk about their movies. Jane says that they only cast her in bit parts of Blanche's movies and cut her out later. Blanche tries to deny it. It is lifeless.
A man walks in on his wife doing up their new home next to the Hudsons. This is the only thing that is an improvement over the original. In the 1962 version, a mother comes home to her daughter watching a Blanche Hudson movie and they casually tell us everything about their neighbors despite having lived next to them for years. In this version, it makes more sense for them to talk about their neighbors since they just moved in,
What doesn't make sense is that the wife just happened to be glancing at the tabloids in the grocery store and knows everything about the accident that the audience didn't see. Trading one contrivance for another doesn't do anything.
You know, the second part of the prologue to the 1962 movie was long and expository. But it was necessary for the film to flow. This is just really confusing.
Jane plays keep-away with the remote because she has work to do. She tells Blanche to watch TV upstairs, and Blanche rolls away.
Okay, if they have a ramp going upstairs, I am quitting this movie. That would be like remaking Misery and having a functional phone right by Paul's bed.
Luckily, there is no ramp. It's a lift. I'm glad this psycological thriller remake is ADA compliant. There is some suspenseful music as Blanche transfers herself onto the lift. So we know it will be relevant later.
Actually, we know it will be relevant later because we have seen the original film.
The neighbor, Connie Trotter, comes over and shares some cookies because she was watching a retrospective of Blanche's films and is becoming a fan. Jane says that she doesn't go out much, her sister doesn't go out at all, but thanks for the cookies.
Blanche watches the neighbors go back and calls for Jane. She buzzes a phone and asks for Jane to come up.
Hey, remember how in the original movie, there was just a simple buzzer? This was effective because Jane didn't know what Blanche wanted until she came up. So, for example, in this scene in the original movie, Jane put together breakfast for Blanche and brought it up because she pushed the buzzer. But Blanche didn't want breakfast, she just wanted to know who was at the door.
The buzzer in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? symbolizes the depersonalization of Blanche and Jane's relationship. Since the buzzer does not allow the sisters to communicate their needs to each other, Jane is reduced to a mere servant of the buzzer, controlled by Blanche. Throughout her adult life, Jane associates the buzzer with both her sister and with a vague demand for her resources. This likely leads to her psychotic breakdown as depicted through the film. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? masterfully uses imagery such as this to represent the depersonalization of the two sisters' relationship.
I took a ridiculous Writing about Film class during my freshman year at college and I'm pretty sure my papers were about the quality of the above paragraph. I wrote that in a few minutes and I'm not even sure if I used "depersonalization" in a valid context. The passive voice is a very effective way to fill up a paper quickly and not say anything.
My point is- it's stupid that they have walkie-talkies when a huge part of the buzzer was that Jane didn't know what Blanche wanted until she walked up the stairs.
Blanche asks Jane what the neighbors wanted. Jane says that they are just moving in. Blanche asks Jane to wash her hair, like when they were kids at the beach.
At this point, I opened up the original movie in another window because I thought I was misremembering something. Was the beach a theme throughout the original too? No, it wasn't. So why keep bringing it up? Why not remake Psycho and have Marion Crane talk about showers for the first half of the movie?
At fifteen minutes, this movies changes from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? to Sex and the City.
Blanche yells at Jane because she cut her hair too short. Man, psychological thrillers were so intense in the early 90s.
Jane walks downstairs to a man. Who is....? He walks up to get Blanche and I figured that he was the Elvira character. But instead of a maid, he is a massage therapist? His name is Dominick.
Dominick tells Blanche that Jane is drinking and that he found a note downstairs. It's a piece of...something. We just hear them describe it as "hate mail"
Jane comes and gives Blanche a health drink. Instead of the parakeet getting out, we hear a dog barking and Jane facetiously says "Bruno, I'll give you 20 if you strangle the mutt"
Racism. That's definitely what was missing from Bette Davis' performance
Jane is trying to call a liquor store. That scene in the original, where Jane had to impersonate Blanche's voice and they actually used Joan Crawford's voice? And that becomes a plot point later? Doesn't happen. Instead she just threatens the store that she will order somewhere else.
Dominick walks downstairs as Jane is opening a can. Jane asks when he will be back, and Dominick says he does call-backs. Jane takes offense because....it means that she will be inconvenienced?
Jane plops the can on the plate and brings Blanche up her lunch. Is this THAT scene? I mean, this is where it would be chronologically. But, is there any sort of set-up? Do they talk at all before about the house? What?
I just want to point out this one shot from the original:
And it takes one conversation in which we learn that Blanche has been lying to Jane about having to sell the house, Jane tearing off the phone, and this line:
 |
| Eat your lunch, it'll get cold |
The reveal comes after thirteen seconds.
But this version does it much more efficiently. Jane brings up a sandwich, there is no argument, no tension between the two,and Blanche immediately picks up the sandwich.
Blanche opens the sandwich to find:
Worms? Was that some connection to the dog talk from before? What? Or does worms=gross=horror?
Jane is at the piano playing the song from the beginning:
Some one is
falling asleep tonight
Sandman
I'm talking to
this little girl
who has just turned
out the light.
Make sure her dreams
are a colorful
sight.
Jane walks to Blanche and says "I'm not so dumb you know. After I've had a few, I may not drive straight, may have accidents, but I can still think straight."
This is the the part where Jane reveals that she knows that Blanche sold the house, and Blanche tries to worm (heh,heh) her way out. But...
This type of movie only works if the two main characters really despise each other. Or the two main actresses. This doesn't work at all.
I looked up these actresses. It starts real-life sisters Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave as Jane and Blanche respectively. They don't know how to chew scenery.
Jane walks to her car and chastises the neighbor for his rowdy dog.
Calling it: That will be the equivalent of "Blanche? You know we've got rats in the cellar?"
Jane drives into a relic of 1962.
She walks around, disparages a customer for looking at a Blanche Hudson Movie, and then goes to the counter and asks for a video machine. She casually asks if they have any Baby Jane Hudson films, another employee says no, but remembers them. Jane sings the final line "Tomorrow is not far away," and the employee recognizes her. Jane wants to find her old films on tape, but they don't have any. However, the employee, Billy Korn is an old producer. He is going to help Jane restart her career. He offers to buy some coffee.
This TV movie is about an hour and a half instead of the over two hour original film. So, they are going to have to simplify some things. Cutting out all the dramatic tension apparently isn't enough. Billy Korn appears to be a combination of the newspaper reporter and Edwin Flagg from the original. Hey, if this change means that the film is shorter, I'm all in favor of it.
Over two cups of coffee, Korn says he can sell himself better than anyone else. I agree. I've even thought of a name for his company: Korny Productions.
Jane says she wants to do a one-woman show featuring songs from her early years. Somehow, Billy knows all of Baby Jane Hudson's songs. He asks for Jane's number and Jane writes it on his arm with lipstick.
Back at the house, Jane types out a note that ends with "Under no circumstances, let the director use the contents of this scene."
Remember this scene from the original?
All that scene did was create a thrilling and suspenseful atmosphere that lingered until Jane repeated the final line a few scenes later: "And under no circumstances, let my sister see the contents of this note."
The remake decided that atmosphere is superfluous to the thriller/supense genre and cut out that scene to make room for...video stores?
Instead, the remake jumps ahead to the equally great scene of Blanche agonizingly dragging herself down the stairs to reach the phone.
Sorry, I was looking at the wrong movie. This is the new and improved suspenseful scene. Blanche transfers herself out of the chair on the lift:
Blanche: You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to the script if I weren't still in this chair.
Lift: But you ARE, Blanche, you ARE in that chair.
The movie tries to make up for the...missed opportunity by having Blanche moan slightly as she drags herself to the phone.
Blanche talks to Dr Shelby, but we don't hear Dr. Shelby's side. Jane walks up from behind as Blanche tells him about Blanche's drinking problems and emotional outbursts and asks for Dr. Shelby to come over.
In the original, Jane kicks Blanche repeatedly, then calls Dr. Shelby,impersonates Blanche's voice and says that it was just a mistake- there was nothing wrong. In this version, Jane grabs the phone and hangs up, accuses her of trying to get pills to drug her, and kind of, puts her foot on Blanche lightly.
Jane calls back Dr. Shelby and impersonates Blanche. When Blanche looks shocked, Jane covers the mouthpieces and says "and you thought I couldn't act."
...I really, really don't want to give this movie credit for anything, but that was pretty good.
Jane drags Blanche to the chair lift in the extent of this movie's violence.
I used to be one of those people who thought that violence didn't make a movie scary- only lazy movies used that technique. I now hate myself for having thought that.
Billy Korn walks into his room with a stack of Hudson photos, magazines, etc. He calls Jane and says they should get together as soon as possible. Jane is sleeping with a Baby Jane Hudson doll. It's supposed to be creepy. Jane invites Billy over in an hour.
This movie is like someone who just starts a hobby or sport and copies techniques of the best people in that hobby or sport without learning the fundamentals. That's how corporations get people who are just starting to buy this super-expensive elite equipment that doesn't make a difference at that level.
Jane brings Blanche a covered dish. I'm glad that this movie skipped over the scenes in the original of Blanche starving because she refused to open up any of the meals Jane brought up. Those scenes just built atmosphere or something unimportant like that. Blanche asks whether the scarf Jane is wearing around her neck is new. Jane says no, but the belt is new. It's a dog leash.
I was right. This was supposed to be "Oh Blanche, you know we got rats in the cellar?"
Jane opens the dish and....
Blanche's reaction is similar to mine. We are both looking at a dog.
Just to beat a dead...dog, let's compare it to the original. It takes thirty-nine second from
 |
| Oh Blanche? You know we got rats in the cellar? |
to the reveal:
This also leads to Jane's first big breakdown.
Blanche recovers from the trauma of being served her neighbor's ground-up dog really easily and calls out to her neighbors. The dog is not tethered to the post.
Billy Korn enters the Hudson Mansion. Jane is wearing a dress that she claims is a replica of one she wore in her old movies. Korn nods politely.
Korn compliments the house. Jane receives the compliment by
The buzzer buzzes. Jane walks upstairs...
Hold one, wasn't it like an intercom, system before? Didn't I rant about that?
Anyway, Jane walks upstairs and grabs the buzzer away. She asks why Blanche didn't eat her dinner and eats some herself.
So...it isn't ground dog. Turns out that the neighbors took the dog to obedience school that week. I'm confused, Blanche says that if she dies, Jane won't get any money because they will take Blanche away somewhere.
Blanche asks for dinner and Jane says she is going to get her career again.
Billy Korn is playing the piano. Jane comes in on the last line and sings "Tomorrow is not far away."
My favorite scene in the original movie is the reprise of "I've Written a Letter to Daddy." Based on the eeriness level.
Overall, a more pleasant theatrical experience than Gypsy.
So skipping the entire sequence and inserting one lyric is fine by me.
Korn says that he wants to do a trial at a cabaret, which will cost $1000. Jane decides to go for it, and Korn asks to use the phone.
I shouldn't have been so quick to judge this movie at the beginning, because they are doing the note scene now. Blanche uses a tape recorder to ask the neighbor to call Dr. Shelby. She ends the recording with "Please don't tell my sister about this message."
Korn gets off the phone and says that that the agent wants both Jane and her sister on the act. Jane says "No, my sister is in a wheelchair." That's ableist. More ableist that psychologically torturing your sister because she is in a wheelchair.
Korn tells Jane that they will do in Wednesday and suggests the song "There Should be Love". Jane says that the music is on on the piano.
Instead of the eerie "I've written a letter to Daddy", Jane just stumbles over the words and it becomes an attempt at cringe comedy.
Now, I love cringe comedy, but it doesn't really belong in a thriller movie. And it isn't very good cringe comedy,
Korn decides to have the act lip-synced. He says that they can play the record in the background, have a spotlight on Jane in one side of the stage, and have the other side dark for Blanche's parts
Taking short-cuts to make up for a lack of talent is definitely something this movie knows about.
Jane promises to give Korn half the money. She goes up to Blanche's room and says she has to go out and will bring breakfast later. Blanche is starving. The car pulls out.
Blanche wheels over to the window with the cassette recording. She flings into a bush. Then she goes into the dresser and finds some candy.
It's strange that some of the minor details like the candy by the dresser are intact from the original but the bigger things are different.
Anyway, Blanche finds the notepad of Jane practicing forging her signitures. The movie tries to make it creepy with Baby Jane dolls staring:
But it is trying too hard.
The bank clerk says that usually Blanche calls ahead when she is about to cash a check. Jane manages to convince her otherwise.
At the house, Blanche tries to transfer herself to the lift but falls down the stairs. Still doesn't make up for the failure to have the hobbling scene.
Jane drops Korn off and Korn tells her that the studio still wants Blanche as part of the act. Jane throws a fit and drives away. Korn declares that Jane is crazy. Show, don't tell.
The most interesting thing about this movie is this girls walking on her hands.
The scene with the note/cassette was towards the beginning of the original movie, when Jane first left the house. There is an extended shot of Blanche looking out the window wondering whether Jane or the neighbor will pick it up.
In this version, Jane just scoops it up. Dramatic tension is so 1963
Jane walks in and finds Blanche prone on the flood. Dominick drives up. Jane carries Blanche up and drags her away.
Dominick walks up the stairs. This is like the scene with Elvira. Except, in the original, Jane had just kicked Blanche repeatedly, so she was in a worse state when Elvira saw her
Hey, it's almost like the scenes in the original flowed in a logical order to convey a narrative.
If Jane was just dragging Blanche into her room as Dominick was entering the house, how does she get her into the constraints in time?
Dominick finds the door locked. He asks Jane for the key.
Blanche looks just as bored as I feel
Compare that to the original
Dominick cuts Blanche's restraints and leaves the scissors on the bed. Jane picks them up and stabs him.
I can't complain about that, considering Elivera leaving the hammer next to Jane in the original.
There is an extended, comedic death scene. Jane drags Dominick to the lift and sends him tumbling down the stairs.
Korn enters the house. The scene of Jane refusing to let Flagg in the house and sobbing on the stairs is cut. Korn tells Jane that he has a showcase spot for her on Wednesday,
Meanwhile, Blanche struggles with the restraint.
The rehearsal is going well.
Korn and a coworker exchange exposition. The coworker says that Blanche ran down Jane in a car after a Hollywood party. Then says that they found Blanche in bed with an actor she was making a movie with.
Just a friendly reminder that, in the good movie, Flagg's mothers tells him this information. When she says "They found her in some hotel with some man she had never even met before", Flagg replies "Well why should that upset you? Isn't that how I was conceived?"
That one line is better than this entire remake.
Jane comes home to find Blanche right where she left her. She tears off the duct tape over her mouth. Blanche asks for water, Jane gives her a sip, and runs out the door to the show.
Jane stumbles backstage looking for Korn. He is in the bathroom and yells that Jane is next up. The stagehand gives her a mic. Jane comes out dancing and lip-syncing. Then Korn in Blanche-drag comes out singing.
This is a rejected comedy sketch, not a psychological thriller.
Jane gets upset that Korn is overshadowing her and starts moving into the Sandman song. This girl reminds her of the Jane doll
The movie tries to turn this into a psychological thriller moment with some music and echoing "Jane"s. It fails
Jane and her doll are busy MST3King the movie.
They are taking my job.
Jane is talking to a figure in the back about her award. Korn enters the house
I really hate to give this movie credit for anything, but I was confused about who was sitting in the back of the theater When Jane walks by, the camera reveals it is Dominick and it was creepy and effective.
I can see the director thinking of this scene being really creepy. but it looks ridiculous.
Korn walks downstairs in drag asking for money. Jane thinks that he is Blanche, and stabs him with the trophy. So the body count for this movie is already higher.
Jane comes up the Blanche's room and says that everyone is gone. There are ten minute left, are they ever going to the damn beach?
Trying so hard to be as creepy as the original and failing.
Ready for the big twist? Ready?
No, because there absolutely no set-up for it. We never saw the scene with the car crash. It was only vaguely referenced. We didn't know about Blanche's feelings through the second prologue scene. So learning that Blanche was driving the car doesn't mean anything,
It's kind of insulting when Jane says the line from the original verbatim "You mean, all these years, we could have been friends?" As if it means anything.
Jane buys two cheap strawberry Popsicles. Two police officers find them and identify Jane by name due to her white Cadillac.
Jan says "My name is Baby Jane Hudson and this is my sister Blanche hudson. She's a movie star too,"
The police officers radio for an ambulance. Blanche walks out into the ocean and the officer swims after and catches her. We hear a voice-over "Poppa" to tell us that Blanche thinks she is a child again. The end.
In conclusion, can I classify What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as a horror film?
Definitely. It is a terrifying horror film about how to completely ruin a great movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment