Review of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) by Compi24 — 11 Jul 2023

If this movie were terrible, I could at least walk away from it knowing that I'm now a person with the terms "psycho-biddy" and "hagsploitation" in their vocabulary. Thankfully, though, I'm that person as well as one who genuinely enjoyed this romp.

"What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" is pure, rollicking camp, dusted with some terrific psychological intrigue and the best performance I've seen from Bette Davis up until now. For real, it looks like she's having the absolute time of her life here and the audience is all the better for it.

Of course, all of this isn't to say that I'm now team Davis instead of team Crawford or anything (in fact, she's great in this too), but, man, does watching this really compel you to look into the real-life rivalry between these two folks.

In any event, this is great fun and, while I wish it had leaned even harder into the horror angle, I don't regret the watch at all.