Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

[Chip12414]

The success of "Baby Jane" spawned other similar films by great, but past-their-prime, actresses:

1. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte - Bette Davis and Merle Oberon (after Crawford refused to do another film with Davis)

2. Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice - Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon (an even campier and funnier dark humor flick than "Baby Jane" in my humble opinion...)

3. What's the Matter with Helen - Debbie Reynolds and Shelly Winters (a screaming a re-tell of the experiences of the mothers of Chicago murderers Leopold and Loeb in the 1930's, with Reynolds looking better than ever before in her Harlow-style wig)

4. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo (featuring a very demented Shelly Winters)

I can watch these films over and over again, with their suspense and camp.

 

[braex27]

The success of "Baby Jane" spawned other similar films by great, but past-their-prime, actresses:

1. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte - Bette Davis and Merle Oberon (after Crawford refused to do another film with Davis)

Charlotte actually starred Davis and Olivia de Havilland, and not Merle Oberon. Crawford apparently claimed illness and withdrew from the film, though some believe that she realised this would be another vehicle where Davis would upstage her and feigned illness to pull out.

 

[Mellored]

Joe Gillis: I didn't know you were planning a comeback.

Norma Desmond: I hate that word. It's a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen.

Immortal.

There you go, Me and Norma Desmond have so much in common. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"

 

[braex27]

There you go, Me and Norma Desmond have so much in common. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"

That film is just chock full of great lines.

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."

 

[pat grimshaw]

I reckon Wilder was a brilliant genius. But I get the feeling he needed Lemmon to play all those little ineffectual American schmucks. And none of his films had a woman's role that was genuinely likable. IMHO.

 

[braex27]

I reckon Wilder was a brilliant genius. But I get the feeling he needed Lemmon to play all those little ineffectual American schmucks. And none of his films had a woman's role that was genuinely likable. IMHO.

Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina and Elsa Lanchester in Witness for the Prosecution were both wonderful, and very likable. IMHO.

 

[pat grimshaw]

The success of "Baby Jane" spawned other similar films by great, but past-their-prime, actresses:…

It seems an Atlanta publisher has produced a book on this subject last year called 'Hag Horror' or 'Grand Guignol Dames' or something like that.

It's probably satisfactorily written but I can't recommend it because I know the author personally to be a 'hag horror' themselves.

 

[josher]

My association of "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" is that Agnes Moorehead had a role.

She played the slovenly housekeeper.

I believe she was nominated for an Academy Award for that role.