Sworn real-life rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford share the screen – their only film together – as a now aged erstwhile child star and her wheelchair-bound sibling, waging psychological warfare upon each other in the confines of their crumbling Beverly Hills residence. It’s Joan who gets the more restrained, slightly sympathetic role, but to her chagrin the movie is stolen by Davis’s full-tilt rendering of the grotesque, spiteful former ‘Baby Jane’. Their mutual loathing burns off the screen in this unforgettable encounter, perfectly pitched between camp comedy and grand guignol horror show. 

Screening as part of Fasten Your Seatbelts: The Films of Bette Davis.

Notes by David O’Mahony