What Ever Happened To Baby Jane Featured Real Contempt

If you have never seen this movie, PLEASE do so! The basic story is about a former childhood star from the Vaudeville era, Jane Hudson, played by Bette Davis, and known to the audiences of those days as "Baby Jane." As a child she received all of the accolades and attention because of her onstage act. Her sister, Blanche, played by Joan Crawford, was relegated to the shadows in those times. When the two became adults, Blanche got the roles in movies, and Jane struggled to remain in show business, as her talents as a child did not work for her as an adult. After a party one night, there was an accident, and Blanche ended up confined to a wheelchair. The story fast forwards to many years later, and the two sisters still live together, with Jane having to take care of her invalid sister. Still, people see Blanche's movies, by then shown on television, and they send her flowers and cards expressing their admiration for her performances, a thing which eats away at Jane, whose act was a live act, never to be seen on television. Jane is further embittered by the fact that she's no longer in the limelight and many people have difficulty recalling who she is, or those who recall the name "Baby Jane," are prone to ask what became of her (thus, the title). Her bitterness and mental instability grows with each day, and she decides to essentially revive the act from her childhood days (there is security in the past). In the meantime, she goes about terrorizing her invalid sister, who has to rely upon Jane for her care.

I won't go further here, so as not to spoil the movie for those who may not have seen it, or perhaps even for those who saw it, but who may not recall everything. It's a very suspenseful movie, well played by the two antagonistic actresses, and by the supporting cast, including Victor Buono, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Edwin Flagg, a forlorn musician hired by Jane to play piano in the revival of her act.

The movie, filmed in black and white, was released in the early 1960s and directed by Robert Aldrich, who captured the real life contempt held by the two stars for each other. The feud between Crawford and Davis had gone on for years, seemingly dating back to Crawford's early Hollywood success, while Davis, who was just a few years younger, struggled in those times to make it in the movies. What started out as something of a rivalry, however, developed into an intense dislike, and even hatred, fostered by slights and shenanigans, and outright nastiness toward each other (Davis supposedly called Crawford the "c" word .... ah, "c--t"). They also had some shared love interests, especially over actor Franchot Tone, who ended up marrying Crawford, which really set the match to the gunpowder. The filming of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" brought difficulties, as the two reportedly complained to producer/director Robert Aldrich about each other on pretty much a daily basis. The whole thing remained at a simmer until the Academy Awards, where Davis, who had received the nomination for best actress for her performance as Jane, lost to Anne Bancroft for her role in, "The Miracle Worker." The thing was, Bancroft did not attend the award ceremony, but she had arranged for a friend to accept the award on her behalf if she won; that friend was JOAN CRAWFORD! 

Photo is from the 2006 Warner Brothers Entertainment 2 disc DVD set

WORD HISTORY:
Rival-This word goes back to Indo European "reywos," which had the notion of "a flow, moving in a stream." This gave Latin "rivus," which meant "stream." This then produced "rivalis," the literal meaning of which was, "one using the same stream as someone else," and the idea of "competitiveness" seems to come from sort of "water rights;" thus, "competing for the use of a stream;" thus then, "neighbors competing," an idea that then broadened into the more general, "competitors." English borrowed the word in the second half of the 1500s.