Episode 757: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)

The Projection Booth Podcast

The Projection Booth

Film Reviews, Film Interviews, Film History, Tv & Film

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re kicking off a month devoted to the inimitable presence of Victor Buono — though in our opening pick, “starring” might be generous. Let’s say “featuring,” and featuring with impact. Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) stands as the grand dame of “Hagsploitation” — or “Psycho Biddy,” if you prefer — with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis locked in a barbed-wire sister act as Blanche and Baby Jane Hudson. Mike White is joined by authors Otto Bruno and Tim Madigan to unpack the film’s camp, cruelty, and craft.

Plus, actor Dominic Burgess — who portrayed Buono in Ryan Murphy’s Feud — drops in to talk about stepping into the oversized shoes of this unforgettable supporting player.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime.
0:08.5	People pay good money to see this movie.
0:10.9	When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth.
0:17.3	Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
0:20.1	Shut it off.
0:25.2	Turn it off.
0:27.6	Sister Sister, sister,
0:41.4	Oh, so fair.
0:43.4	Why is there blood all over your hair?
0:46.5	Whatever happened to baby Jane?
0:49.8	To seek the answer to that question,
0:52.0	we will follow a man plotting a murder.
0:55.0	Highly specialized work.
0:57.0	But Robert Aldridge has considerable experience in such matters.
1:01.0	He has a dozen successful pictures to his credit.
1:04.0	His stars are Betty Davis and Joan Crawford.
1:08.0	The Scene.
1:10.0	An Italianate villa in a once fashionable section of Los Angeles.
1:15.0	Its halls once crowded with the bright, the beautiful, and the celebrated, now echo only to
1:20.3	hectic whispers. The insistent call of a buzzer that are left unanswered. A telephone that has become an object of fear. A supper
1:30.7	tray that will not be touched. A window barred against the world. A hammer. A mute scrawl,
1:40.4	crying for help. From these elements, director Aldrich has fashioned motion picture
	...

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