Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

[james_davis_nicoll]

Man, that's some crummy design for a house with a handicapped person in it. Is that more for narrative convenience (it keeps Blanche a prisoner on the second floor) or a reflection of just how awful people were at accommodating the needs of the disabled back then?

They did a remake about 30 years after the first one. If they keep to that schedule, another remake should be along around 2020. I would not do what the 1990s remake did and change when it is set because the movie (as was mentioned to me) has a very cell-phone unfriendly plot.

Hmmm. Assuming the actors are about the same age as Bette Davis was in WHTBJ, actors who will be the right age in 202* would include Charlize Theron, Drew Barrymore and Angelina Jolie.

(It's Blanche's house and she's not poor, so money isn't the issue)

Comments

[bwross.livejournal.com]

There was some talk of a remake last year for the 50th anniversary, so it might not even be that long.

And the plot isn't that cellphone unfriendly. All you need is for Jane to serve up Blanche's cellphone on a platter early in the film, and you've lampshaded why cellphones are never seen in the movie again... Baby Jane's from an era that has no guff for those new fangled devices. Much like how the design of the house serves to imprison Blanche, cutting the telecom tether can further build on that.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

Not quite so simple; Victor Buono's character has to run out and find a telephone booth, for example.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

That's not so hard. Have Jane lash out at him as he fumbles for his phone, and in the ensuing scuffle, she smashes it.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

He might have a bit of a run to find a pay phone these days.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

Yep. Also, have her smash Blanche's computer. In fact, you could use the destruction of those devices to ratchet up the suspense as Jane progressively cuts Blanche off from the outside world.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Alternately, Blanche could have severe arthritis which makes it difficult to type or dial a phone without special keypads that Jane won't buy.

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

Another thing that would work well is having Jane's delusions of a comeback and an adoring public be fed by a fan-forum of nostalgic Baby Jane fans. Even if Blanche is online, it's unlikely she'd reveal the extent of her sister's insanity and abuse to others--she's codependent with someone who has Borderline Personality Disorder (in my considered opinion, anyway). In fact, Jane's final rage could be triggered by finding that Blanche has been beginning to visit a forum for people with BPD relatives or in abusive relationships of something (maybe not even posting, just visiting), and then flipping out, smashing the computer, tying Blanche to her bed, etc.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Both. People really were confined to the upstairs of their homes even in my childhood; I had a friend whose grandmother had to be carried downstairs for special occasions.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

It also made perfect sense that Jane would make those arrangements in order to be shitty to Blanche, and that nobody (doctors, etc.) would question it in those days.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I've recently seen a well-produced British golden age whodunnit, set in a mansion or a near-mansion, in which a posh resident using a wheelchair had to be carried in someone's arms up and down the stairs every day or several times a day. No wheelchair accomodation. -- Christie, iirc

Same thing iirc in a Downton Abbey episode set well after Armistice Day.

[rgovrebo.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things you can notice on the London Underground. You've got tube stations (Queensway on the Central Line is one example) where you go in on a flat floor to a huge lift, take it down then walk a wide corridor ...and then there's a small staircase before you get to the platform.

It's ridiculously close to having proper disabled access, but they obviously didn't care back then.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Seems to me the really hard part in any remake would be casting an actress who deserves to be tormented to her death.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Actually, a surprising amount of stuff in movies is just made up. For example, when they blew up the White House in Independence Day, the real White House was not blown up.

Similarly actors .... act.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

"Yonder is da casstull of my fadda."

Getting the right actor can make or break a film.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

My memory of the 1970s was that homes were unfriendly for the disabled, so in 1962, I could believe it. Remember that when the movie starts out, there's a maid and a doctor who look in on Blanche, and in real life her situation wouldn't seem so odd. Not until people realized no one was looking after her but Jane and by then in the movie, well, you're on the beach.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Dear brain:

Remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane > What technology will the handicapped have in the 2020s, anyway > Whatever Happened to Baby Jane remade by Shirow Masamune and featuring dueling Landmates is not helpful.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

The houses weren't designed for disability and are nearly impossible to retrofit. But pride and habit can have a lot to do with it as well, and that would be a good character point for Blanche. I'm right now helping my aging parents deal with the three-story house they've been living in for nearly forty years, and it's hard for them to admit what exactly they're no longer capable of. And they're quite reasonable, unBlanchelike people.