What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

David Greene – 1991 – USA

There was no reason for this TV movie remake of the definitive “hagsploitation” classic to be any good at all, let alone as surprising and unique as it is. Screenwriter Brian Taggert and director David Greene wisely opted against the standard procedure for remakes, which is essentially to restage the most famous moments from the original while also trying to up the ante on the action and violence. This film gives no indication that the 1962 original exists and doesn’t care if anyone’s heard of it. It also comfortably takes place in present-day Los Angeles, further removing any appeals to nostalgia from the equation. In addition to all this, since the notion of outdoing the crowd-pleasing fireworks between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford is absurd, this film offers one important thing that the original did not have – two actual sisters in the lead roles, Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave as Jane and Blanche Hudson. This Jane is a little less bonkers and more tragic than Davis’s and this Blanche is a little more nuanced than Crawford’s, more sympathetic in some ways and more sinister in others. While less “gothic,” the remake is seedier due to its contemporary milieu peeking into the underside of Hollywood, including shady talent agents and the world of semi-underground burlesque, with the great eccentric character actor John Glover our tour guide into that world, (replacing the Victor Buono character from the original). Overall, it doesn’t necessarily pack a punch like the Robert Aldrich film, but it works fully well as a satisfying psychological thriller playing by its own rules. Rather than feeling like a “remake,” it’s almost as if each film was made independently using only the base premise as a starting point. After that, they both go their own way.