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Rating: What happens to child prodigies??? And two divas now in decline?? The answer lies in this film from 1962, based on a novel by Henry Farrell.
The film is a mix between drama, gothic horror, and thriller that tells with bitterness the deeply hateful relationship between 2 sister-divas and the world of showbiz. The director manages to perfectly blend a morbid atmosphere with the sick familial relationship between 2 sisters by bringing together two great rival actresses like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who hated each other mutually, staging macabre actions and continuous harassment by one sister.
The film narrates the story of Jane Hudson, a child prodigy of the 1910s who accompanied her father in his vaudeville performances across the United States, achieving enormous success, so much so that she became spoiled and malicious, especially with her sister Blanche.
Years pass and the scene flips as Jane, now forgotten by all, continues to try acting without success, solely thanks to her sister Blanche who in the meantime has become part of the Hollywood starsystem of the 1930s. One day, a strange car accident, which seems to be caused by her sister Jane, leaves Blanche paralyzed in a wheelchair and dependent on her sister Jane in a morbid symbiotic relationship of hatred and guilt: indeed, years go by and Jane becomes an alcoholic in the grip of delusions of grandeur, practicing all sorts of harassment and bullying on her paralyzed sister to avenge the success that was taken and stolen from her, and sometimes feels a sense of guilt for the responsibility of the accident.
While Blanche tries to make contact to institutionalize her sister, Jane, in a state of delirium, attempts to reprise, now as a defeated sixty-year-old, the act she performed when she was the famous baby, Baby Jane. Discovering her sister Jane's intentions, she beats her mercilessly and in a state of psychic alteration takes her sister, now emaciated and dying, to the beach where they played as children. In this state of infantile regression, she approaches her sister, and in that moment the terrible truth is revealed... making Jane say: "then we could have been friends all these years..."
The performance of the 2 actresses is superb and especially that of Bette Davis, who manages to express all the malice and madness with incredible naturalness, magnificently interpreting the role of a talentless, unsuccessful actress (while in reality she is one of America's best actresses) and also a great performance by the suffering and dramatic Crawford. The film should be watched just for the portrayal of these two great actresses, who detested but respected each other, and I think this is felt in the film.
Anecdote: on the set, the two actresses were at odds in every way, like when Davis, knowing Crawford had married the owner of Pepsi, had a Coca-Cola machine installed...
An absolute must-watch film, much better than Misery, which borrowed from this film...
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