What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1991) (TV)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

David Greene

Writers (WGA):

Henry Farrell (novel)
Brian Taggert (teleplay)

Release Date:

17 February 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

An elderly, bedridden former movie star is "cared for" by her sister, who hates her and keeps her a virtual prisoner in the family mansion. |

Plot Keywords:

Mansion | Remake | Question In Title | Dog | Spoiled Child

Cast

Vanessa Redgrave	...	Blanche Hudson
Lynn Redgrave	...	Jane Hudson
Bruce A. Young	...	Dominick
Amy Steel	...	Connie
John Scott Clough	...	Frank
John Glover	...	Billy
Samantha Jordan	...	Baby Jane
Erinn Canavan
J. Michael Flynn	...	Mr. Hudson (as Michael Flynn)
Alexandra Johnson
Bradley Mott
Vinny Argiro
Pat Skipper
Barry Dennen
Beans Morocco

Also Known As:

What Ever Happened to...? (USA)

Runtime:

USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Spectacor Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Nanny: The Yummy Mummy (#6.13)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

There Should Be Love

The Original Vs. The Remake

Remakes are doomed from the beginning. Even worse than sequels--remakes only have a limited way to go. "Baby Jane" was such a startling movie in all sorts of ways. First, you got to see two huge stars, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, decay right before your very eyes. That freaked some people out. Second, you saw Crawford and Davis in the same film. (Really, a documentary of the making of the original would have been much better than a remake). Bette Davis hated every cell in Joan Crawford's body, and it translates well onto film. Jane, Davis' character, despises Blanche, played by Crawford. We don't have all that hype with the Redgraves. Lynn plays Jane for laughs and maybe a few scares, and Vanessa doesn't do a darn thing.

One of the major differences in the two is the way Jane treats Blanche. In Baby Jane 1, she is mean, abusive, and for the most part unforgiving. Baby Jane 2 shows a much nicer, more pathetic Jane. She obviously cares for Blanche (maybe being sisters helped the Redgraves out with this one), but she is still angry with her. If Blanche gets hurt, Jane is upset. Even if she caused the pain, she's sorry later. I have the feeling that the makers of this version got their hands on a copy of the book (by Henry Farrell--izzat his name?). In the book, Jane and Blanche got along better than Crawford and Davis. (Who doesn't?!?)

One good thing about the film--Lynn Redgrave looks hilarious. She's got fried red hair that she wears in pigtails like antennae, Lynn's using her too-funny flat American accent, she's going for camp. On the other hand, Vanessa, who can act, doesn't. She doesn't seem to know what she's supposed to do. Do we hate Blanche Hudson, are we sorry for her, what? The beach scene is ruined by her stuttering, but it is quite obvious that she's very sick and COLD. COLD makes one stutter--they should have driven that point home. (They could have really ruined the scene by using the book--in it, Jane brings Blanche ice cream, Blanche eats in and promptly vomits. That would be pretty awful.) I do, however, love any movie that shows how enormously tall Vanessa Redgrave is. When Dominic (?) picks her up, she just dwarfs him completely.

Last and least, this movie is very unkind. To the viewers, to the actors, and to anyone else who may have gotten involved. It's unkind to give Jane a chance to live out her dream only to have it go horribly wrong. It's unkind to be paralyzed from the waist down, as Blanche is. It's unkind to have a watch a movie that should have been much better.