Friday, July 24, 2009
OVER THE TOP
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
I am probably one of the few homos in the universe who has not seen this camp classic. But I don't get my card punched because I didn't like it much at all.
It would have made a nice one hour television show.
An improbable plot linked to two down-market performances by two faded stars isn't enough to make this more than a camp extravaganza.
Do I need to mention that it has Joan Crawford losing out to Bette Davis in chewing the scenery? We saw the aging Ms. Davis the other day in another Best (Whales of August) and she was much very good. No clown makeup. No travesty.
There are so many improbables in the script, from beginning to end, that it barely carries the weight of the over the top performances.
I couldn't stand a lot of the anguish and took a break while the disc played on in the next room.
For some reason, I thought that someone was going to get pushed down the stairway which is sort of another cast member, dark and ominous and covered with ugly tile. No such luck.
The flip at the end is unacceptable. It doesn't make sense at all.
Other than that, I had a fine time.
I will give it a 1 out of Netflix5 because I didn't like it and I didn't watch all of it.
Labels: best films
