Released on Halloween 60 years ago, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? defied all of Warner's low expectations. If you believe 2017's Feud – Ryan Murphy's television drama that explored Davis and Crawford's love-hate relationship – Warner (played by Stanley Tucci in this limited series) was just excited by the prospect of being able to watch the dailies over a morning coffee, howling with laughter as the friction from his two leads burned on to the projector. And in the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock's enormously successful Psycho (1960), Warner knew that low-budget horrors centered around reclusive eccentrics, who carried baneful secrets, could still shake up audiences.
However, 1950's Sunset Boulevard, and Gloria Swanson's starring performance as Norma Desmond, had proved the story of a scorned, delusional older woman could be powerful.
