Few Hollywood feuds compare to that between renowned Oscar-winners Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. But as legendary as their rivalry has become, incredibly the pair only made one movie together: 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Here are some stories from on and off set of one of cinema’s cattiest movies.
BROAD CASTING
When it came to financing Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, producer-director Robert Aldrich soon found that the big studios weren’t all that keen to put money behind a movie starring two female stars who were, by that time, in their mid-fifties. As a result, the film had to be made on a relatively modest budget of $900,000. In her inimitable style, Davis later explained that when the film and its two stars were first shopped around to various studios, most of them replied with the words, “Those two old broads? I wouldn’t give you a dime!”
NO PUBLICITY IS BAD PUBLICITY
When filming was over, Davis and Crawford were due to embark on a lengthy promotional tour to publicize its release, but at the last-minute Crawford unexpectedly pulled out. The reason for her refusal remains unclear, but it has been suggested that a telephone conversation between the two stars might have proved the breaking point. When the final cut of the movie was shown, Crawford rang Davis to see what she thought. “You were so right, Joan,” Davis reportedly said. “The picture is good. And I was terrific.” Davis’ apparent lack of any recognition of her co-star’s performance soured an already uncomfortable relationship and led to Crawford leaving Davis to promote the movie alone.
FALSE FRIENDS
The film famously ends with a climactic scene on the Malibu beachfront, with Crawford’s character, Blanche, now apparently dying of exhaustion and malnutrition, delivering a final speech outlining the true events leading up to the movie. When it came to shooting this final devastating scene, however, Crawford—ever concerned with her appearance—arrived on set wearing a pair of “falsies,” to ensure that even when she was portrayed to be dying of neglect and malnutrition, her cleavage still looked suitably impressive on screen. Needless to say, Davis was unimpressed, and in typical acerbic fashion later recalled, “The scene called for me to fall on top of her. I had the breath almost knocked out of me. It was like falling on two footballs.”
AND THE WINNER ISN’T…
One of the most shocking outcomes of Davis and Crawford’s fraught relationship involved the 1963 Academy Awards. Not wanting to give up any ground to her co-star, both women put themselves forward in the Lead Actress category—but only Davis received a nomination. Furious at the Academy’s slight of her performance, Crawford began purposely campaigning among its members to vote against Davis and approached her New York-based rival nominees—including Geraldine Page and Anne Bancroft—to say that if they could not attend the ceremony in Los Angeles, that she would accept their award on their behalf. As it happens, Crawford’s campaigning proved successful, and when Bancroft later won the Oscar for her performance in The Miracle Worker, it was Crawford who took to the stage to accept it. Davis was incensed and never forgave Crawford for her shady machinations that ended up ruining her chance at winning a record third Oscar. “She was a fool,” Davis later commented. “It would have meant a million more dollars for our film if I had won. Joan was thrilled I hadn’t.”
HUSHED UP
A follow up to Baby Jane, the psychological horror Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, was meant to reunited Davis and Crawford on screen, with Aldrich once again directing. When Davis demanded she be given a producer credit on the movie, however, relations between the two stars again soured, and several weeks into the shoot, Crawford abandoned the set and had herself admitted to hospital. Crawford’s sudden sickness is believed to have been a ploy to prove her importance to the movie, increase her influence on set, and engineer some changes she wanted made to the script. Unfortunately for her, however, her ploy backfired spectacularly. With production halted indefinitely to let Crawford recover, the film’s insurers demanded she be dismissed from her contract so that the movie remained on schedule. Reluctantly, Aldrich eventually agreed, and Crawford was fired, with Olivia de Havilland cast in her place. Ultimately, Crawford lost out on another lucrative vehicle for her and Davis’ careers—while cinema goers lost out on another chance to see these two legends square off against one another.