Bette Davis and Joan Crawford work collaboratively to create a brilliant film in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a harrowing look at sibling rivalry between two aging actresses.

Bette plays “Baby Jane” Hudson, a former precocious child star, now living with her sister Blanche, a former movie actress who was forced to retire after becoming crippled in a car accident. Both characters, having acheived success 40 and 30 years ago respectively, now are largely forgetten by the public, and live in a dilapidated mansion, where Jane takes care of her wheelchair bound sister.

Jane is resentful of her sister’s success, and clings to dreams of glory, hoping to revive her antiquated vaudeville career. She dresses as a little girl, sings the same old show tunes, and drowns her sorrows in liquor, while unleashing mental and physical cruelty on her sister Blanche. As Jane slips deeper and deeper into psychosis, her character becomes truly frightening. Many similarities in this film with the masterpiece Misery.

The fact that both Davis and Crawford were real-life rivals, with many stories of personal attacks on each other, makes this film all the more intriguing. When we see Jane mocking her sister, we almost feel the animosity between the real-life stars.

A well-done film that is definitely worth seeing.