User Reviews

Its there is a Hollywood classic that hasn't been remade as a TV movie, bide your time, it will eventually be done. This got more attention because of the casting of the Redgrave sisters, Lynn and Vanessa, in the roles originally created by Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Watching this when it was originally on, I wasn't completely disappointed but it just had that feeling of another unnecessary TV movie remake of something that had already been done and well enough to where they should have left it alone. Lynn Redgrave is cast as Jane, not as garish looking as Bette Davis, but still silly looking in a Pippi Longstocking wig, and chewing the scenery even more than the Oscar nominated Davis. Vanessa Redgrave doesn't look anywhere as helpless as Joan did as Blanche, and the fact that she couldn't figure out a way to get out of her situation is one of this version's notable flaws.

The fact that this is lacking the unintentionally funny moments of the original film makes it a disappointment too, and while it is admirable that they would want to have a version that took the storylines more seriously reflects on the fact that it is a story that in all seriousness isn't all that funny. The role of Edwin, the character played by Victor Buono, and has been renamed with a black actor, Bruce A. Young, cast in the part, and the humorous elements of that character have been removed as well.

So while I cannot call this a bad TV remote, I would highly recommend watching "Feud" over again with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange recreating what Davis and Crawford did onscreen originally. This tries to take the sentimentality of the horror of the situation to keep the viewer interested, but it's difficult to watch without thinking of the original lines and the clips way in which Davis said her lines and Crawford's horrified reactions. A one-time viewing of this is enough, as its efforts to be a more serious version of the dark tale turns it into a dull retelling of a story that did indeed make you chuckle but also had you horrified as well.

Totally unnecessary, but interesting. Really, no one asked for that, but it brought some freshness to the classic: seeing the plot unroll in the '90s was sure thought-provoking. But in the end, this movie falls flat for being a Made-For-TV production. Producers, please, leave some classics alone.

This is the TV movie remake of the classic psycho-thriller starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. This low budget production obviously can't hold a candle to the original, but it does have the novelty value of casting real-life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave as the leads. Sadly, the concoction doesn't really work successfully and the end result is more frustrating than anything else. Lynn overacts horribly throughout and has none of the depth or sympathy of the original's character. Vanessa is the opposite and seems almost comatose at times. Most of the time this is a scene-for-scene copy, but there are a few changed bits, like the inclusion of a drag singer, which don't really work. The end question is...why bother with this when the original exists?

When I found this Nineties remake of the timeless 1962 classic "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" I was expecting something really bad. To my surprise, it wasn't bad at all! Sure, it'll definitely never beat the original, but for a more modern version of the story it did an okay job. It's certainly watered down from the chilling performances of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the original, but at least this remake made an evident effort. The Redgrave sisters and Glover added new faces to the main roles and a modernized soundtrack added a new element to the plot as well. Personally I'll always love the original the best, but as far as remakes go, I've seen worse.

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.