Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is defined above all else by its two towering central performances — Bette Davis and Joan Crawford deliver ferociously committed work that transcends the lurid premise and elevates the entire film. Davis in particular gives one of the most fearlessly grotesque and oddly poignant performances in Hollywood history. Novelty is very high: the film essentially invented the 'hagsploitation' or psycho-biddy subgenre, deploying two faded Hollywood legends against each other in a tale of grotesque decline, and its conception remains singular. The plot is serviceable but somewhat thin — a sustained chamber piece of cruelty that relies heavily on atmosphere over narrative complexity. Aldrich's black-and-white cinematography creates a convincingly decayed gothic atmosphere without being technically remarkable. The ending is memorable and bittersweet in its dark irony, though it arrives somewhat abruptly and leaves certain threads unresolved, making it effective but not fully satisfying.