Friday, June 10, 2011

Lynn & Vanessa Redgrave in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1991)

Obscurity factor: 8

This early 90's remake of Baby Jane was done for ABC. The familiar plot is updated to 1991 with video stores and drag queens, but presents the same themes. The interpretations of Jane and Blanche are softer, more gentle, but animosity still shines through. Look for John Glover as a hopeless sycophant.

This version of the film is hard to find. There was a DVD release back in 2007, but it's out of print, and copies are quite expensive now. You can find some scenes on to YouTube. The video store scene is above, uploaded to YouTube by Grinnygog1975.

Obscurity factor: 8 (on DVD but hard to find, partially available on YouTube)

5 comments:

  1. I saw this when it first aired, but have not seen it since. I remember it as being good, but not having the emotional wallop of the original. I always thought that Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler would be good casting for a version of this story.

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  2. Wow... that would be a casting coup. It would never happen though - Babs doesn't have enough of a sense of humor about herself, and has too much of a career to "need" to do it.

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  3. Never say never Ben... it could happen. Being a staunch believer in achieving the impossible, I've still got my money on seeing you wrapped in silken, celluloid strips, perched atop a piano... bathed in luminous, milky shadows...

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  4. I remember despising it on its original airing - really horrendous. But it is interesting to see the clips, again.

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  5. Yes, there's something about a remake that brings up such animosity... It's a wonder its done so often.

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