Alcoholic Jane is annoyed that Blanche has cancelled her account with the local off-license and she successfully fools them into believing they are talking to Blanche on the telephone. The first time this occurs it is relatively innocent. Jane does so mockingly to begin with as she throws a phrase Blanche has just uttered back in her face, but later her imitation is used for the purpose of impersonation. The theme of Jane performing also plays out as she imitates her sister Blanche. The film highlights these moments by the staging: a ceiling light acts as a spotlight and Jane/Davis faces front. The older ‘Baby’ Jane (played by Davis) performs several times in the film by enacting her old song and dance routine. We noted that this also occurred with Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) and was mentioned in some of this week’s readings (see Brooks, Morey etc) In both films it drives home their central theme of performance. The film’s skilful use of old screen clips of Davis and Crawford’s films to demonstrate this was striking, especially when juxtaposed to their current, older images. Of course, in part this is due to the fact both screen stars play characters who were once actresses. The centrality of performance to melodrama generally (which we have been focusing on particularly in the last few weeks), and to this film specifically, was noted. Due to the length of the film, discussion was fairly short but it included: the theme of performance and imitation in melodrama and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Bette Davis and Joan Crawford’s performances in the film comparison to other Davis and Crawford films and performances the intended Davis/Crawford follow-up film Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte some specific memorable scenes the off-screen melodrama of Bette and Joan’s ‘feud’ and the daughters’ autobiographies.
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