I really liked the book, and this movie is pretty darn close to it! Bette Davis is awesome as Jane! I really loved the way she shuffles around in her slippers! Just a creepy, tore-up performance! And Joan Crawford is really good too! The movie doesn't have quite the terror or build up of the book, but watching Davis is well worth it! And her singing that song "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" is still ringing about in my head! Yeesh! Between that song, and the creepy Baby Jane doll, I'm not sure if I'll get much sleep tonight!

Hitchcockian psycho-thriller. Tour de force from Bette. Great settings, score, costumes, etc. Sibling rivalries rawly displayed. Ending's twist could have been handled better.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a melodrama of the grotesque shot in stark black and white.Two ageing actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play two has beens living in a cycle of hate and vengeance.Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford) was a glamorous actress in the 1930s crippled in a car accident where her sister was thought to be the driver.'Baby' Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) was a major child star in the beginning of the 20th century. She was spoilt and taunted her sister Blanche who will find fame when she is older. By the 1930s Jane's career declines as she is not as talented as Blanche.In the present days (1960s) both are forgotten and living in gothic mansion. Jane is a drunk, getting madder everyday, being cruel to Blanche and dreaming of a come back on the stage. Blanche is wasting away upstairs in her bedroom, starved and living is despair, gagged and bound.Only their black maid shows concern but Jane gets rid of her, however Jane's madness leads to murder.Bette Davis went to the edge for her unhinged portrayal as Jane, even applying her own makeup. Crawford is more sedate but still manages to get under the skin of her sister when she in in her wheelchair. Both taunt each other unmercilessly because of past slights.It really is a claustrophobic chiller, another cynical film of shattered dreams of Hollywood and fame. Even the subplot about cash strapped pianist Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) is another player who did not make it in Hollywood.

In 1917 "Baby Jane" Hudson is an adored vaudevillian child star, while her sister Blanche Hudson lives in Jane's shadow. By 1935, both sisters are movie actors, but their fortunes have reversed: Blanche is a successful film actress, while Jane is forgotten and languishes in little-seen B-movies. One night, an inebriated Jane mocks Blanche at a party, provoking Blanche into running away in tears. That night, Blanche is paralyzed from the waist down in a mysterious car accident that is unofficially blamed on Jane, who is found three days later in a drunken stupor. In 1962 Jane has descended into alcoholism and mental illness, and treats Blanche with cruelty.What happens is a waking nightmare but the ending is more shocking than Bette Davis appearance. Now this film is fun to watch. You need to see this. This was an instant classic upon its release. In 2017 the film returned to public conscienceless because of the Ryan Murphy Mini Series "Feud". That mini series is all about "Betty & Joan". It details the making of this film and all the events that surrounded it.