Review of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) by Tiberio S — 26 Apr 2017

While most of the second act seems to be reaching for time-filling, the first and third acts are the stronger anchors holding everything together.

Director Robert Aldrich delivers painstaking situational suspense without trying too hard, in many ways more cleverly than Alfred Hitchcock. Instead of forcing the camera to do a lot of fancy tricks, he outright relies on suspense inherently existing within the situation the screenplay creates. One of the best examples is when Blanche throws the note out the window pleading for help. It's all filmed very conventionally, maddening the viewer. First her voice can't be heard, so she writes a note, but instead of making a paper airplane, crumbles it like trash and tries tossing it. It only reaches the edge of her own driveway, and by this point Jane has arrived home. She thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye when she pulled in. The note is intended for the neighbor Mrs. Bates, who remains unaware of the note. There's no chance of her picking it up, and the only reason Jane takes the time to acknowledge her at the edge of the driveway is so she can get that note. It's a movie, naturally we are hoping for a miracle, but it plays as it would in real life, and Jane gets the note. Blanche is fucked. Even more infuriating is the final scene at the beach. Jane is a criminal on the run and she doesn't even know it, both her and her victim are sitting out in broad daylight, and she's so lost in her la la land that she's oblivious to her crimes or that the law might be after her. And for a good while, it feels like she's going to prance around the slow stupid policeman, who are busy either eating at a snack bar or writing up information about an abandoned car, and get away with it.