Hello friend! How are you doing? I am great and currently on vacation, reporting from the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South hotel while the family is out and about. (Decided to have a quiet and restful afternoon by myself, in case you were wondering.) Is it worth mentioning that today’s writing companions are stale coffee, cold leftovers, and a view so pretty that makes said lackluster beverage and food combo a-okay? No? Well then, let’s get down to business.

Last week we watched Maxxxine (2024) at the theater and thought it was just okay, granted, that very film, the third and final installment in the X trilogy, was our first introduction to the franchise and, you could argue, our lack of attachment to it was the reason why the story did not resonate with us. Sure, we deliberately [and selfishly] went to see the movie because it took place in Hollywood during the 80’s and wanted to indulge in the nostalgia of the good old days, and that we did. So, to follow the same sentiment of not doing things chronologically, let’s begin by the end with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962).

After watching the movie, reading the book, and listening to the audiobook—all for the first time in the last few days—I can safely say I am now a What Ever Happened to Baby Jane afficionado, as well as a fan of Henry Farrell’s original 1960 novel. I know I am biased, but the story was arguably so great that just two years after the book was published it was adapted into a Hollywood movie – if that is not proof of creative and artistic prowess, I do not know what is.

Right, here is my quick summary of the movie with SPOILERS: A family of four—mom, dad, and two little girls—rely financially on the income made by the younger one as a Child Star who, if not for her all-American, daddy’s-little-girl cute looks, would be regarded as a sham by the public due to her lack of natural talent as a performer. The child, Jane, perhaps in frustration and sensing she does not deserve all the attention and fame she is getting, behaves like an insufferable brat and is unnecessarily mean and hurtful to her family, including to her sister, Blanche. Blanche is more demure and mindful, undeniably the good sister, the one whose potential is so real and palpable that you can predict for her a solid and successful career in showbiz in a decade or so. And it does happen. Blanche, now a young woman, is an established Movie Star with studio contracts so generous that she makes sure to help her now-forgotten, has-been sister by requiring she too has a role in all her films, even if it calls for Jane to play background roles as Cigarette Girl Number 3. Humiliated, Jane acts out again but now by drinking heavily and by embarrassing Blanche at public events, thus, when the [un]lucky opportunity presents itself while no one is looking, she tries to run her over with a moving vehicle… one sister ends up traumatized and the other paralyzed. And here, my dear horror friend, is where the movie really begins.

A few decades later, Jane was a scary old hag, mainly because of her untreated mental illness, but also because of her stubbornness about wearing age-inappropriate clothes and unflattering makeup. On the inside she was ugly too, alas, she had a job to do ever since Blanche ended up in a wheelchair. Jane was a bitter, resentful, and mean caretaker, expressing her volatile emotions in unhealthy ways, only making things worse for everyone.

Blanche was an elegant mature lady, even during paraplegia. There was something so undeniable about her, about her good character, good values, she was all in all a good person. Attractive too, sure, she radiated not only beauty and health, but strength and resilience. She was simply Blanche.

Was Jane triggered more than usual by recent tv reruns of Blanche’s work? Yes. Was Jane jealous of Blanche’s joyful reaction to watching herself on tv? Yes. Was Jane determined to having a much-deserved comeback as Baby Jane—her childhood stage name—so people would idolize her again, love her again? Yes. Would she be able to balance both her hatred toward Blanche and her own self-obsession and self-pity? No, not at all.

If you were Jane, you would perceive what happens next as a series of pranks and misunderstandings, all meanspirited, yes, but certainly not meant to hurt Blanche; she would never hurt Blanche, she took care of Blanche. If you were Blanche, you would perceive reality as it is, because this is reality and you are being kept captive in your own home, slowly being killed by your sister who desperately needs psychiatric medical intervention. One sister was the tormentor and one was the victim, but only one knew it.

I have to pause here to say there was one thing I did not like about Blanche: her constant enabling of Jane’s horrid behavior. Over and over, and without consequences, she let herself be mistreated. It was infuriating to watch. I could not understand how this very sensible and smart woman was so stupid when it came to her sister, I mean, was there something we did not know? Was there more to the story? Was Blanche keeping a secret? If so, how bad could it be? Would it be worth her own life? Anyway.

So long story short, Jane’s drinking and unbalanced mind made her murder the housekeeper, injure the pianist (in the book he barely made it alive), and torture and starve her sister. And in the final scene, when a psychotic Jane takes a moribund Blanche to the beach to reminisce about their childhood, Blanche confesses to Jane that she had done it all to herself, that Blanche had cause her own paraplegia when she had tried to run her, Jane, over with her car. Jane would not remember this as she was drunk, scared, and traumatized, repressing it all. Blanche also confesses that she hated her, Jane, and that she had wanted payback for all the times Jane had made her life impossible as a child, so much so that when Blanche gained status and power through her movie career, she made sure to always have a contract clause that would ‘imprison’ Jane in small parts so she would never leave, never start a new life, never get married and have a family of her own. This was Blanche’s revenge.

“Then, you mean, all this time we could’ve been friends.” –Jane [timidly offers that assertion as she is being told her life was hijacked and wasted due to unresolved childhood resentment. Her reaction was not to ask in a loud and angry voice, How dare you, How could you, I could have done and been so much more, but instead, We could have always been friends? Heartbreaking.]

Perfect time to show why Baby Jane reminded me of Pearl, or vice versa:

A young Pearl was obsessed with Hollywood movie starlets and believed she had the same abilities as them. Even though she lived in rural America during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and was waiting for her husband to return from WWI, she knew she was destined for stardom and was resolute to do everything in her power to escape the boredom of her life. She, like Jane, was delusional about her artistic talent as she had exactly none of it. Also, just like Jane, Pearl threw an extremely embarrassing tantrum—a really uncomfortable spectacle to watch—when confronted by ‘adults’ or, better put, by figures of authority in the industry, with the fact that she was not good.

Likewise, Pearl and Jane seemed to have had roadblocks on their mental and emotional development as adults, and also appeared to suffer from delusions of grandeur because they saw each other as the ultimate and perfect performer, when in reality they were dummies without talent. Murderous, sociopathic dummies for sure, yes, but dummies nonetheless.

Okay, I need your full attention here, we’re almost done: The X trilogy consists of Pearl (2022) who follows a young and deranged Pearl in 1918; continued by X (2022) who follows pornographic actress Maxxxine in 1979 as she crosses paths with an older and still deranged Pearl; ending with Maxxxine (2024) set in 1985 where we focus again on the x-rated actress as she makes it into the mainstream media. Young Pearl, old Pearl, and Maxxxine were played by the same actress and, to me, that was the entire gimmick of the franchise; Pearl was the one movie worth my time and attention out of the three, if I am being honest with you.

So, what was learned today? That when you are curious enough, one thing might lead to another. That if I go to the cinema to watch a random 80’s-inspired movie, I might end up liking better a different movie related to said random movie; that if I enjoy the related movie so much, it might make me want to watch [for the first time] the black & white classic movie where the main character is as histrionic as this one; and that if I watch said classic movie, I might fall in love with it so hard, and with such a passion, that I might end up telling you all about it.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath