I read about this in the Sunday paper and just watched the first episode, On Demand, this evening. Just wanted to let everyone know it is really good. I’ve never been a fan of the oldies movies, so haven’t ever watched Joan Crawford or Bette Davis…just read about them. The all star cast had me intrigued and they aren’t disappointing! Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Stanley Tucci, Alfred Morino. A must see TV series. I think it will be just a few episodes.
Thanks! I want to watch. If you are interested in a more realistic take -there is a podcast called " you must remember this" that did a series on Joan Crawford that discusses the feud.
I was totally not buying Susan Sarandon as Bette until she came out in that kooky getup and said “Hello Daddy”! Lol!
I enjoyed the episode, and will keep watching, but I also have a hard time with Sarandon and Lang as Davis/Crawford. Those two were such iconic – and weirdly original – figures, it’s hard to portray them convincingly.
It has me intrigued enough that I’m googling all about them.
I recorded and will watch when I have some time.
I enjoyed it, but agree with above comments. I will keep watching for sure.
I loved it. I’m the perfect audience for this show - classic Hollywood films are my hobby and I’ve read every bio of both actresses I could get my hand on. It was jarring at first to see Lange and Sarandon almost but not quite resembling Crawford and Davis, but by the end of the episode I totally bought in.
I think their performances humanize these icons - you get some of Crawford’s OCD/grandeur and some of Davis’s harshness and bitterness, but in believable human beings. Alfred Molina is crushing it as Robert Aldrich. What a transformation!
I didn’t quite buy Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia deHavilland, though I think she’s a very good actress. Kathy Bates is good casting as Joan Blondell. Can’t wait to see where this goes.
I thought it was interesting but both actresses are quite a bit older in real life (68, 70) than what they’re portraying and I thought it showed. Especially with Jessica Lange .
I looked that age thing up also. But actually with ‘work’ these actresses look as good as the real Bette and Joan did in 1962 when they made “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”.
Back then women were seen as ‘old’ much younger than they are today. Gloria Swanson was only 50 when she was supposed to be a washed up old actress in “Sunset Boulevard”. Younger than Sandra Bullock is today. Imagine her playing ‘old’.
If you look up the pictures of the movie, I think they look very much like the age of Sarandon and Lange do now. I have a picture of my grandmother at my age…58… and she looks so old compared to my peers and me. I think Sarandon might be the only actress who could have possibly played Bette, as they both have those distinctive eyes.
I didn’t enjoy last night’s episode as much. I think the writing was clunky and heavy-handed. The scene where Davis’s daughter tells her she’s old and envious sounded like the writers needed to make a point, not like a parent-teen argument (though both actresses played it beautifully). I didn’t buy the subplot of Jack Warner putting Robert Aldrich up to aggravating the feud and Aldrich going along reluctantly. Aldrich was a smart, tough guy (he also directed The Dirty Dozen and The Longest Yard) who knew well how Hollywood works. The documentary dialogue with Joan Blondell and Olivia deHavilland was just too convenient - sheer exposition.
Still, I love the performances and the production values. The credit sequence is wonderful. Lange, Molina, and for sure Sarandon are just terrific.
I’m watching because when we were kids, my brother and I stumbled upon “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” on TV and watched it-- totally inappropriate for kids (can you say ‘undersupervised’ lol) and it kind of scarred us for life, initially for real and now in a rather funny way (we reference it a lot). So we’re watching it ‘together’ (from different cities) and laughing our heads off. I’ve met few people who have seen the original Baby Jane movie, but when I do, and they’re my age, they’re all scarred. Heh heh.
I think what the show is and will be saying about how the studios/agents/media manipulated these (and other Hollywood) women is really interesting, important, and rather heartbreaking. As BD says later in the film, “You mean we could have been friends?”
I haven’t seen this yet, but when you talk about old Hollywood the whole image of glamour and whatnot, how that was the good old days, was a load of crap put out by Hollywood PR flacks, back when people used to read the movie magazines and such. The studio heads were pretty much absolute dictators, the Jack Warners and Louie Meyers and the likes weren’t all that far removed from the mob guys (who often were their silent partners)…the actors had it good when it was good, but for the most part it was a feudal system where even the top stars didn’t have the much power, it was kind of like sports before free agency. The agents supposedly worked for the actors, but they often had a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with the studio heads that was a quid pro quo, that made sure the agents and studio heads came out with the better end of things.
And yep, they promoted and often created the feuds between actors and actresses, after all, if actor/actress A turns you down for some picture, there are other actors/actresses they could use as leverage, whether in their own studio or ‘borrowed’ from another studio, divide and conquer worked wonderfully for them. Besides their egos, David and Crawford also were manipulated as well, and that feud was often fed by items put in gossip rags and such by Hollywood PR flacks.
I watched last night’s episode, and enjoyed it, but still have great difficulty accepting either of them as their characters, given how many Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movies I’ve seen in my lifetime. I do think it was wise of Susan Sarandon not to attempt to imitate Bette Davis’s voice, because that would have risked turning her performance into an impersonation.
I found the second episode a bore.
Me too. I fell asleep.
I have a really early day tomorrow, so I hope tonight’s episode is worth staying up for. Here’s something I didn’t know: there was a TV-movie remake of “Baby Jane” in the early 90s, starring Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave! I’d love to have seen it but don’t remember hearing anything about it. Lynn had the Bette Davis part, and Vanessa the Joan Crawford role. I would have expected them to cast it the other way around. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103242/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5
“I looked that age thing up also. But actually with ‘work’ these actresses look as good as the real Bette and Joan did in 1962 when they made “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”.”
And the old-school Hollywood sirens all smoked. Wrinkles galore by their mid-40s.
I enjoyed the episode, although not as much as the first one. I think the whole series might only be 8, so I’ll continue to watch. I also don’t buy Cathetine Zeta Jones, but love Kathy Bates!