Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane

Go To

1[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crawforddavisbabyjane.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:310:''"Butcha '''are''', Blanche! Ya '''are''' in that chair!"'']]
3
4->''"[[TitleDrop What ever happened to Baby Jane?]]\
5To her smile, her golden hair?\
6Why must everything be so unfair?\
7Is there no one left to care\
8What really happened to Baby Jane?"''
9
10A 1962 PsychologicalThriller film directed by Creator/RobertAldrich, starring Creator/BetteDavis and Creator/JoanCrawford.
11
12Aging sisters Blanche (Crawford) and "Baby" Jane Hudson (Davis) live together in a decaying Hollywood mansion. Jane is a former {{vaudeville}} child star from the 1910s, but her fame disappeared a long time ago. Blanche, meanwhile, was a successful film actress in the '30s, but was crippled in a mysterious car accident involving Jane and is now confined to a wheelchair.
13
14Jane is mentally disturbed, an alcoholic, and greatly resents Blanche. When she learns that Blanche plans to sell the mansion and put her in a sanitarium, things really start to go downhill. Jane's mental state gradually worsens, and she becomes emotionally and physically abusive to her sister, eventually holding her hostage.
15
16Nominated for five UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, winning for Norma Koch's costume design. Followed two years later by a SpiritualSuccessor, ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte'', also directed by Aldrich and starring Davis, but with Creator/OliviaDeHavilland in the Crawford part. Aldrich dipped into the genre a third time in 1969 by producing (though not directing) ''What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?'', starring Geraldine Page and Creator/RuthGordon. ''Baby Jane'' itself was [[TheRemake remade]] in 1991 as a MadeForTVMovie, starring real-life sisters Lynn and Creator/VanessaRedgrave as Jane and Blanche. It doesn't seem to have been poorly received by critics, but it didn't make much of an impression either.
17
18The making of the original film was dramatized in the 2017 FX anthology series ''Series/{{Feud}}'', with Creator/JessicaLange as Joan Crawford and Creator/SusanSarandon as Bette Davis.
19
20----
21!!Contains examples of:
22
23* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The main portion of the film claims to be set "yesterday".
24* AdaptationDyeJob:
25** Jane is blonde and Blanche is brunette in the original. In the remake, Jane becomes a redhead and Blanche now has grey hair.
26** In the original novel, Jane is the brunette and Blanche the blonde; [[EveryoneLovesBlondes adult Blanche's beautiful blonde hair]] is what launches her into stardom.
27* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler:As in the book, Blanche is revealed as the culprit behind the accident that crippled her. But the book also reveals that Blanche prevented Jane from seeking psychiatric help afterwards, worrying that she would remember what happened if she did. This is mostly left out of the movie (Blanche was still very reluctant to call the psychiatrist for Jane, but no particular explanation was given)]].
28* AdaptationalJerkass: Ironically with the above. Blanche in the book called their lawyer to sell the house only after noticing Jane's deteriorating sanity, and Jane overhears and calls her on it instantly. In the film, Blanche made the call weeks ago, has been hiding it from Jane and initially tries to tell a lie about their finances to make herself seem better.
29* AdaptedOut: The novel states that the two girls went to live with their aunt after their parents [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu died of influenza]], and that was how Blanche got into films. The movie just cuts from 1917 to 1935 when Blanche is already a film star, with no mention of an aunt.
30* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The young Baby Jane Hudson is billed as "the diminutive dancing Duse [[note]]from legendary actress [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleonora_Duse Eleanora Duse]] -- "Duse" became a kind of slang appellation describing actresses who were good at portraying intense emotion[[/note]] from Duluth".
31* TheAlcoholic: Jane, who's reduced to imitating Blanche's voice to order liquor when the store is told not to serve her anymore.
32* AloneWithThePsycho: Due to being paralyzed from the waist down, Blanche spends the majority of the film trapped in her house with her increasingly mentally unstable sister.
33* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Blanche, as it turns out: she was the ''driver'' in the infamous car crash, having tried to run Jane over, only to miss and break her back due to crashing the car. She's spent all the years since then letting Jane, who doesn't remember things correctly due to having been drunk at the time, believe she was indeed the one who crippled Blanche and forcing her to wait on her hand and foot.]]
34* AxCrazy: Jane devolves into this.
35* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Jane has aged horribly and is the antagonist, whereas Blanche has aged gracefully. [[spoiler: Subverted with the reveal that Blanche tried to kill Jane and let her believe that she was the attacker all these years]]. [[note]]This is mostly due to the different approach of the two leading actresses: Bette Davis had great fun looking terrible, and even devised her own makeup, while Joan Crawford wanted to look as good as possible, and prevented any attempts to turn her ugly.[[/note]]
36* BeautyInversion: Creator/BetteDavis, who had aged very gracefully, happily did this to play Jane, as noted above. Creator/JoanCrawford on the other hand struggled to look unattractive for the role - wanting to have impeccable hair and make-up, despite being an invalid who hadn't left her room in twenty years. Although, in the book, it is mentioned multiple times that Blanche had aged gracefully and kept her good looks.
37* BigFancyHouse: Jane and Blanche's mansion. It's pointed out that the house is too hard to maintain, so Blanche is planning to relocate to a smaller bungalow.
38* BitchAlert: The moment Jane steps off the stage in her first scene you know she's going to be trouble.
39* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Blanche, who turns out to have actually crippled herself trying to run her sister over.]]
40* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Subverted; the film is set up so you go in believing Jane is the "evil sister" and Blanche is the "good sister". In reality, as is revealed over the film, it's actually a case of BlackAndGrayMorality: [[spoiler: Blanche tried to murder her sister back when they were movie stars, but missed and crippled herself. This ultimately leads to Jane going insane, partly due to guilt, and eventually she turns murderous as a result of her damaged mind.]]
41* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: Elvira is the first and, if Blanche survived, only character to die in the film.]]
42* CainAndAbel: Jane and Blanche Hudson, respectively. [[spoiler: Until it turns out that this whole sad mess began because ''Blanche'' tried to be the Cain figure, only to get some LaserGuidedKarma.]]
43* {{Camp}}: On the surface it's a basic PsychologicalThriller, but with two grand old Hollywood divas engaged in HamToHamCombat, plus some of the wackier elements of the story (like [[spoiler:Jane serving Blanche a rat for dinner]]), it quickly gained an over-the-top reputation that's made it an enduring CultClassic.
44* ChekhovsBoomerang: Jane mimics Blanche's voice mockingly early in the film. She then exploits this skill to pretend to be Blanche and get some alcohol ordered for herself. [[spoiler: When Blanche is trying to phone the doctor for help, Jane is also able to imitate her voice to say everything is fine]].
45* ChildishBangs: Both girls have these as children: Jane's bangs combined with her curls emphasize her innocent appearance, while Blanche's are cut unflatteringly high to [[CreepyChild make her seem creepier]].
46* ColdHam: In stark contrast to [[Series/Batman1966 some of his other roles]], Creator/VictorBuono plays almost all of his scenes as Edwin with quiet, immeasurable loathing for the people around him. It's not until he gets drunk and loosens up that he becomes a true LargeHam.
47-->'''Edwin:''' Here I come, the SUPER CHIEF! ''(He giggles.)''
48* CoolCar: Jane's 1931 Duesenberg Model J roadster (in the 1935 scenes) and 1947 Lincoln Continental convertible (in the "present day" part of the film).
49* CreepyChild: Little Blanche, who seems to spend all of Jane's shows fixing her with a DeathGlare.
50* CreepyDoll: The Baby Jane Hudson doll -- creepy and menacing before anything even happens.
51* CurseCutShort: Jane calling Blanche a bitch is drowned out by the sound of the buzzer.
52* CuteButCacophonic: Baby Jane's singing voice comes off as somewhat shrill, even for a little girl.
53* DaddysGirl: Jane seems to favor her father, who indulges her whenever she throws tantrums. The book implies that his sudden death from influenza is what helped contribute to her alcoholism.
54* DarkReprise:
55** When Baby Jane first sings the song "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" in the beginning of the story, it just comes off as a sappy kid's song. However, it becomes incredibly creepy when she sings it later as an old woman.
56** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRvXdqe-tQ LP version also recorded by Davis]] just makes it worse because she's so in character. At least, until the [[MoodWhiplash change of mood]] by the third repeat of the verse.
57* DeadAnimalWarning: Jane begins denying Blanche food, until she serves Blanche's dead pet parakeet—and, at a later meal, a dead rat—to her on a dinner platter.
58* DeathbedConfession: On the beach, [[spoiler:when Blanche thinks that she's dying, she tells Jane the truth about the car accident.]]
59* DefrostingIceQueen: A really dark example. Jane starts off the film as a grumpy and bitter old woman but as she gets herself further into trouble she unravels and behaves more like a frightened child.
60* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: Jane snaps and starts abusing Blanche due to finding out Blanche has, after years of exploiting her like a servant, decided to simply send her to a mental institute. This is made all the more karmic when it's revealed Blanche wasn't crippled by Jane like she told everyone; she crippled ''herself'' by accident when trying to cripple/kill Jane.]]
61* TheEndingChangesEverything: Let's just say there's a very good reason the film's poster warns you to watch the film from the beginning and not give away the climax, because it almost ''completely'' changes how you'll see the film afterward.
62* EvenEvilHasStandards: Edwin may be a slimy greaseball who's just going after Jane for her money, but when he sees Blanche all tied up, he immediately runs out the door and contacts the police.
63* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Blanche was endlessly bitter about the preferential treatment her sister got as a child. The situation only declined further when they were adults, as their careers were tied together. Every film Blanche made, one had to be made with Jane, and Jane couldn't act; meaning every flop Jane made damaged Blanche's career. Finally Blanche had enough, and tried to kill her sister, but ended up crippling herself. Blanche made it look like Jane was responsible; even Jane believed this, since she was drunk, and couldn't remember the night. Thus, she was forced to live with guilt for the rest of her life. Still bitter, Blanche forced her sister to wait on her hand and foot for thirty years before Jane loses her mind, and TheDogBitesBack.]]
64* EvilCripple: [[spoiler:Blanche is revealed as this, having crippled ''herself'' whilst attempting to run her sister over with a car, then taking advantage of her sister's drunken amnesia to convince her and the public that ''Jane'' was the one who ran ''Blanche'' over.]]
65* FakeBoobs: According to Bette Davis in a 1987 interview with Creator/BarbaraWalters, Joan Crawford wore a pair during the beach scene, and refused to give them up because she did not want to be seen on film having her natural breasts fall off to the side as they would while she was lying down. Having had to compromise much of her glamour for the sake of the role of Blanche, the fake breasts, Davis said, were the one thing Crawford refused to budge on, and they nearly knocked Davis unconscious when she had to run and fall on Crawford.
66* TheFilmOfTheBook: Adapted from the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell.
67* {{Foreshadowing}}: Blanche tries to convince Jane that the house was bought by Blanche's money, only for Jane to quickly retort that the house was bought with "Baby Jane" money. Blanche insists that Jane is misremembering, only for her sister to brush her off. [[spoiler: It's a hint that Blanche has made a habit of preying on Jane's faulty memory.]]
68* FormerChildStar: Jane, who had a vaudeville act back in 1917 but couldn't make it as an actress in Hollywood. In the present, she's a bitter mentally disturbed alcoholic who still dresses like a little girl and is unable to accept that nobody even remembers "Baby Jane" anymore.
69* {{Gaslighting}}: Jane's whole purpose in life seems to be torturing Blanche by making her feel defenseless and isolated. It gets so bad that Blanche won't even eat the dinners Jane fixes for her, assuming that she's serving her something disgusting. But [[spoiler:the twist reveals it was actually the other way around: Blanche spent decades allowing Jane to falsely believe she'd caused Blanche's accident, turning Jane into an utter psychological mess]].
70* GiftedlyBad: Jane. She is a terrible actress, can't sing and could only dance as a child. Jane herself thinks her talent defines her, and believes it is the one thing she can never lose. Ironically she's very good at imitating Blanche's voice, suggesting she could have cultivated other skills if she'd tried.
71* GildedCage: Blanche's room is quite nice, but unfortunately her sister wouldn't let her leave.
72* GirlishPigtails: Jane in the remake instead wears her hair in pigtails.
73* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: One of the most extreme examples.
74* {{Glurge}}: Invoked and parodied with "I've Written a Letter to Daddy", an awful, maudlin vaudeville number about a little girl who sends a love note stamped with kisses to her father in Heaven. It's first heard performed by Debbie Burton in the most quavering, histrionic, off-key way imaginable, just to make it all sillier; it gets even creepier when Jane, now over 55 and with her actual father long dead, performs it again.
75* GoldDigger: Edwin is repulsed by Jane, but he still wines and dines her hoping to milk the situation for all it's worth.
76* GoodColorsEvilColors: The fact that Jane is blonde and wears white, while Blanche has black hair and wears dark clothes, should be the first clue that all is not as it seems. It's especially noticeable because Blanche's name ''means'' "white".
77* GreyingMorality: The movie seems to be about a psychotic biddy tormenting her disabled disaster. [[spoiler: Than you learn that the disabled sister crippled herself while trying to kill her sister and spent years tormenting her, and the movie's tone changes quite a bit.]]
78* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Jane's image as a child star was this - with angelic golden curls and a sweetheart persona. Out of character, she was most certainly ''not''.
79* HateSink: Invoked [[spoiler:and then brilliantly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in the twist ending]]. Jane's actions towards Blanche, regardless of whether she's mentally ill or not, are unreasonably cruel and despicable, and the film loves milking every opportunity it can to make you hate her even more while making you root for Blanche, so you want to see Jane eventually brought to justice. [[spoiler:This is crucial for the final twist, where before Jane is actually arrested, we [[EvilAllAlong discover Blanche's true nature]], which paints Jane's actions and personality, horrible as they may be, in a much more tragic light.]]
80* InsaneTrollLogic: While explaining how they can run away from the police and never be found, Jane delightedly remarks that they'll go to the beach and "live at the seashore all the time", where she'll invite everyone to come and visit them.
81* IntimateHairBrushing: In the remake, there's a PetTheDog moment between the sisters when Blanche gets Jane to wash her hair and comb it. Unfortunately, Jane then starts [[TraumaticHaircut cutting it]].
82* IWasQuiteALooker: Jane was an angelic little girl and a reasonably attractive young woman but has now grown old and is a complete mess, mainly due to her excessive make-up and insistence on still dressing as she did as a child. In contrast, Blanche has aged well enough. [[spoiler: Weirdly enough, once she learns the truth from Blanche, her face brightens up a bit.]]
83* KickTheDog: Jane kills Blanche's pet bird, and serves it to her on a dinner plate.
84* KubrickStare: Edwin gives Jane a long, dark stare as they negotiate exactly how much Jane intends to pay him, and when.
85* LadyDrunk: The central conflict of the movie was actually caused by Jane being ridiculously drunk at a party. In her Hollywood days she was known for being a drunken mess on set.
86* LargeHam: Bette Davis' portrayal of Jane is really something and you can tell she's having the time of her life playing such a revolting character. Joan Crawford has a few moments too, resulting in HamToHamCombat.
87* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Blanche was crippled as a result of a car crash she caused while trying to kill her sister, Jane.]]
88* {{Leitmotif}}: Jane has a soft instrumental version of "I've Written a Letter to Daddy", and Blanche has a gentle, rising and falling melody.
89* LightIsNotGood:
90** Jane as a child looked angelic -- with golden ringlets and dressing in frilly white dresses. But she was an immature brat. She still wears the same clothes as an adult, where she's the antagonist.
91** [[spoiler: 'Blanche' means white, and it turns out that Blanche is the one who tried to kill Jane]].
92* TheLoad: Each Hudson sister was this at one point. As children, in contrast to Jane, Blanche was plain-looking, untalented, and not marketable as a vaudeville act, so her StageMom father disliked her. When she grew up and became a successful film actress, her career was contractually tied to that of Jane, who, in addition to being a terrible actress, was also a drunk who engaged in scandalous sexual behavior. By the movie's present day, they are both this and drag each other down so much that neither is able to live anything resembling a healthy or functional lifestyle.
93* MadnessMakeover: Jane went from being a very pretty but troubled young woman, to a crazy old biddy who never washes her face, styles her hair in ringlets and looks more dishevelled as her grip on sanity loosens. [[spoiler: When Jane no longer feels guilt over crippling her sister, the reverse happens -- her wrinkles disappear and she looks like a happy girl.]]
94* MaleGaze: On the studio lot in 1935, the producer turns and eyes a cocktail dancer's rump as she struts past.
95* MayDecemberRomance: 50-something Jane and 20-something Edwin seem to be making tentative moves toward one, but it's more out of convenience and desperation than anything else.
96* AMinorKidroduction: The movie's prologue takes place in 1917 when the eponymous Baby Jane and Blanche are very young, at the pinnacle of Baby Jane's career.
97* MommasBoy: Edwin, who's well into adulthood and still lives with his mother. She even pretends to be his secretary to help him get jobs.
98* MyBelovedSmother: Edwin's mother is very clingy and possessive, and gets jealous when he starts spending his time with Jane.
99* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Jane was a cutesy Creator/ShirleyTemple-esque child star and a horrible spoilt brat offstage.
100* NosyNeighbor: Mrs. Bates and her daughter often speculate on their once-famous neighbors and keep a close eye on their comings-and-goings. Might be called a subversion, in that for a while it seems as if the film might be setting them up as Blanche's rescuers, but in spite of their curiosity, they never find out what's really happening next door.
101* NotAllowedToGrowUp: A self-inflicted example. Jane still dresses as she did when she was a child, styling her hair in ringlets, refusing to believe that her GloryDays are long gone.
102* NothingIsScarier: A small moment when after Jane escapes with Blanche to the beach, it shows Jane happily building a sandcastle with Blanche nowhere in sight, giving the implication that Jane might have ''buried'' her. Eventually, the camera does pan to show that Blanche is still present and alive (barely).
103* OhCrap: Blanche hearing the door swing closed, realizing Jane is home and listening while Blanche is calling the doctor for help.
104* OneHitWonder: In-universe example: Jane with "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" [[invoked]] She did appear to have other songs, but that appeared to be her most requested one.
105* TheOphelia: Jane slips into this by the third act of the film as her sanity slips. The last shot of the film has her dancing around on the beach, convinced the crowd are there to see her perform.
106* PsychopathicWomanchild:
107** Despite being in her mid-fifties, Jane has the mental age of her 10-year-old self. She dresses and acts like a little girl and is immature and impulsive even before her SanitySlippage sends her completely off the deep end.
108** [[spoiler: Though she hides it better, Blanche is also quite petty: murdering her own sister out of pure sisterly rivalry, lying about it, and using that lie to abusively manipulate her own sister for ''decades'']].
109* QuestioningTitle
110* RaceLift: The cleaning lady in the book was a white woman called Edna. In the film, she's a Black woman called Elvira.
111* RageAgainstTheReflection: Jane when she gets a good look at herself in the dance mirror.
112* ReallyGetsAround: Jane in the 30s was constantly going to bed with different men, part of the reason she was TheLoad to Blanche.
113* ReclusiveArtist: [[invoked]] Blanche disappeared from the public eye after her accident, and she's currently experiencing a revival in popularity, with her films getting featured on TV, with her appeal based in-part on curiosity about what happened to her.
114* RegalRinglets: Jane styles her hair this way. It looked youthful in 1917, but in 1962, not only has it long gone out of fashion, it looks age inappropriate and creepy.
115* TheResenter: Both sisters. At different points in their lives, they resented the other's success.
116* ReverseRelationshipReveal: Blanche has been abused and horrifically treated by her sister Jane, who crippled her for life while attempting to kill her. [[spoiler:It was actually Blanche who crippled herself trying to kill a drunken Jane, who remembers nothing of that night, and on whom Blanche has manipulatively pinned her crippling.]]
117* RichSiblingPoorSibling: The movie has several reversals through a DeconReconSwitch that is at the heart of the story. First, Jane is the spoiled sister, as the beloved child star and vaudeville act while her sister Blanche is shy and reserved. Then, after Jane's act falls out of favor, she becomes TheAlcoholic and Blanche becomes an acclaimed prestige actress who leaves Jane totally in her shadow. Then it gets deconstructed after Blanche's car accident, when she is dependent on Jane, which Jane uses to torture Blanche and get her revenge. [[spoiler: And finally with the revelation that Blanche manipulated Jane into taking care of her as a cripple.]]
118* SanitySlippage: Jane is mentally disturbed from the start, and goes downhill over the course the film. [[spoiler:At the end, she loses all contact with reality]].
119* ScaryJackInTheBox: The film opens with a little girl being freaked out by one of these in 1917.
120* SelfDeprecation: When the filmmakers were looking for bad films of Bette Davis to use for Jane's bad films, she said any of her early 1930s ones would do.
121* SheKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler:Jane murders [[BlackDudeDiesFirst Elvira]], after she finds out that Jane is keeping Blanche as a captive]].
122* ShirleyTemplate: "Baby" Jane Hudson.
123* ShrineToSelf: Jane has one of these in her room.
124* SilverFox: Blanche in the remake has grey hair (she's played by Vanessa Redgrave) but is still presented as having aged gracefully.
125* SiblingRivalry: Jane was the famous sister in their childhood, while Blanche became the famous one as they grew older. It's heavily implied that Jane resented this immensely, and then resents having to serve as Blanche's caretaker. Likewise, Blanche resented Jane's childhood stardom and then the fact that, when their roles were reversed, Jane was a detriment to her own Hollywood success.
126* SlipknotPonytail: Blanche's hair comes unraveled out of its updo as Jane's treatment of her worsens.
127* SmallNameBigEgo: Jane has no idea that "Baby Jane Hudson" has been totally forgotten, and thinks lots of people would love to see her make a comeback and believes herself to have been and still be a great talent than a mediocre singer and actress who only had one notable song.
128* SoundEffectBleep: When Blanche is buzzing for Jane, Jane mutters, "You... miserable ''BZZZZ''."
129* SpoiledBrat: Young Jane was like this.
130* [[StageMom Stage Dad]]: It's implied that the Hudson father was like this, as he doesn't discipline Jane and indulges her at every opportunity. By contrast, their mother seems to have been more reasonable.
131* StepfordSmiler: Blanche has always been a big one, but is forced to fake it even more to placate Jane as she gets crazier and more violent.
132* StockFootage: Clips from real Bette Davis movies ''Film/ParachuteJumper'' and ''Film/ExLady'' are used to show how Jane Hudson's attempt to make it as a grown-up actress went bad.
133* StylisticSuck:
134** Early in the film, studio executives watch scenes from Jane's films, and note that she's an awful actress. However, those were real scenes from the early movies of Bette Davis.
135** "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" is extremely sappy to begin with, and becomes downright creepy when performed by the middle-aged, mentally disturbed Jane.
136* TakeOurWordForIt: We never find out what Jane wrote about Blanche on the envelope containing her fan letters, with Elvira only saying, "I can't remember the last time I saw words like that written down". (In 1962, it probably would've been impossible to say such words in a movie. The Hays Code had been relaxed somewhat, but wouldn't be abolished until '68.)
137* ThenLetMeBeEvil: [[spoiler: Since Jane thought ''she'' had crippled Blanche, she apparently snapped and became cruel because she thought that she was a bad person and played the part of an evil sister. When she finds out she was totally innocent, she reverts to a sweet, innocent girl -- note the use of soft lighting from then on.]]
138* TimeshiftedActor: Jane and Blanche as children are played by June Allred and Gina Gillespie. But averted with them as young women. They're not shown from the waist up, and actual archive footage of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford was used for Jane and Blanche's films.
139* TooDumbToLive:
140** Elvira, [[spoiler:despite knowing for a fact that Jane is mentally unstable, leaves a hammer within her reach and turns her back on her. She doesn't make it more than a few steps into Blanche's room before she's killed.]]
141** Goes double for Dominick in the remake, [[spoiler:who inexplicably stops helping Blanche to put down the scissors he's using to cut her free (positioning them on the bed in such a way that it's almost like he's trying to make it convenient for Jane to grab them), and who, unlike Elvira in the original film, had already seen Jane get physical with him while he was heading up the stairs, making his decision to turn his back to her and leave a sharp object within her reach even more baffling.]]
142* TwistEnding: [[spoiler: At the end, the secret of the accident is revealed by Blanche. It was thought by everybody (even Jane, who was drunk and couldn't remember) that she tried to kill Blanche, but it was actually the other way around. Blanche tried to run over Jane, who was able to get out of the way in time, and instead Blanche snapped her own spine as the car crashed.]]
143-->[[spoiler:'''Jane''']]: You mean all this time, we could have been ''friends''?
144* UncannyValleyMakeup: Jane, so, so much. Bette Davis suggested the idea she never washes her face, she just cakes new makeup on every day.
145* UncertainDoom: If Blanche ''is'' still alive by the end of the film, she's certainly got a rough road ahead of her, being an older disabled woman who has spent a long period of time being malnourished and physically abused. [[spoiler: And that's not including the possibility of Jane becoming lucid enough to tell the world how Blanche really snapped her spine...]]
146* TheUnfavorite: Blanche in the 1910s. Her father seems to openly dislike her and though her mother is kinder to her, she is largely overlooked. It's quite possible the roles are reversed when the sisters go to live with their aunt, who openly favors Blanche the same way their father favored Jane.
147* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:Does Blanche die there on the beach, or not? We'll never know.]]
148* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Mrs Bates asks Jane about hiring Elvira, [[spoiler: unknowingly revealing that she's just gone into the house to untie Blanche and rescue her. Jane then kills Elvira, disposes of the body and this leads to Blanche's eventual death too]].
149* VictoriasSecretCompartment: When Jane confronts Blanche about the letter she tossed to Mrs. Bates, she yanks it out of her cleavage.
150* VillainousBreakdown: Jane goes completely insane at the end, and when she's discovered by the police, and as a crowd gathers around her, she starts her old song-and-dance routine.
151* VillainProtagonist: The story is focused on the unrepentantly horrible Jane. [[spoiler: And the psychologically abusive Blanche.]]
152* VoiceChangeling: Jane can perfectly imitate Blanche's voice.
153* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Blanche's confession to Jane of the night Blanche was paralyzed in a car wreck. An accident that Jane was led to believe for almost thirty years was her doing.]]
154--->[[spoiler:'''Blanche:''' You weren't driving that night.]]
155* WhatHaveIBecome: Jane [[TomatoInTheMirror freaks out]] when she happens to glance in the mirror when she's reliving her child star career and sees her [[BeautyToBeast ravaged, sagging, horribly made up face]] staring back at her.
156* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Baby Jane, of course. Also a FormerChildStar. Just to complete the trifecta, from what little we get to see of when she was a star, she was ThePrimaDonna. And she seems to have ''stayed'' that way...
157* YoungerThanTheyLook: Jane looks like someone who's in her 80s or 90s despite being in her 50s.
158----

Top