Feud: Bette and Joan (FX series)

Loved the show. Thought Sarandon hit the Davis part right on, but was a bit more mimicking her IMHO. Lange really got deep down into the Joan Crawford character. The dark sides. Not trying to copy or sound exactly like her but wow, did she act her ass off....

 

It was a great part for Lange and she certainly had a lot to work with. Murphy clearly envisioned this as Crawford's story and to humanize her towards the end to help redeem her legacy.

 

I didn't watch it but my wife loved it.

 

I've always felt Crawford was libeled in that book by one of her adopted daughters (Mommy Dearest). Her other kids said as much, beyond exaggerated. The same thing happened to Bing Crosby from one of his sons whom I'm sure he hit at some point like countless other fathers back in those days... it's too bad a lot of people think so badly of either of them yet there have been some terrible people that are given a pass... I mean Charles Manson for example has a fan base. Crazy! I'd almost put Phil Spector in the category of the untouchables but maybe the obvious mental illness makes him slightly sympathetic as well as the madness/genius mythology that fascinates some. I'm just glad Idi Amin or Pol Pot never went into Wally Heider's and laid done some tunes that showed promise.

 

Yeah, it's interesting that the real Bette Davis was 54 when she made Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, while Susan Sarandon is 70 (today) and looked very, very good -- probably better than Davis looked back in the day. But I completely bought into both performances. Note that Davis was considered "old" at 54. Hey, today, 70 is the new 54.

I don't think that's true. The story goes that Murphy was briefly a journalist in the 1980s and managed to get a 4-hour interview (recorded for posterity) about a year before Bette Davis died. A lot of the stories in the show came out of that, and some of them had not been revealed before. I think this is the main reason why the story was a little kinder to Davis than Crawford. For that reason, I'd say it's 60/40 more about Bette Davis.

I think the worst thing you can say about Davis was that she was driven, ambitious, and very self-absorbed in terms of her career. But Crawford was crazy/nutso/whacked, and pitiable towards the end. I was really struck by the scene where she admitted to the dentist that she had had 6 perfectly good back molars removed in order to make her face look thinner and more attractive, decades ago.

I thought the weird fantasy/finale was odd, but kind of satisfying in a way. I thought it was nice to see the two actresses look glamorous again for a moment; that's a great edit when it goes from dying Joan in her bathrobe to glamorous Joan in the dress, sitting with her friends at the table. And the fictitious fantasy moment was sad: the realization that maybe the reason why they hated each other was because they were so much like each other.

Another interesting tidbit: in later interviews, Bette Davis repeated that story about, "Joan Crawford's dead? Good." But in Ryan Murphy's version, you could see her face was pained as she said it for the first time to the reporter.

I'd split that Emmy in half and give it to both actors if I could. Totally great job from everybody in the show, even the minor characters. Hell, the teenage girl from Mad Men playing Davis' daughter blew me away in the final episode -- I totally believed her speech. Really great work.

 

A co-worker of mine came away from the movie FRANCES wondering why Bette Davis wasn't treated the same way Frances Farmer was, i.e. thrown into the looney bin as punishment for trying to be an independent Woman(according to the movie)! Errrrr....................

 

Found a DVD documentary about Bette Davis at the library; Stardust. Dated 2005 and narrated by Susan Sarandon! It seems it ran on TCM originally but I don't remember ever seeing it. I did see when they re-ran the Dick Cavett show with her though.

Our local cable company has Whatever Happened To Baby Jane 'on demand' free right now too!

 

More money and fame? I also think Bette Davis knew when to stop, so she wouldn't go totally over the top. Also, she had no family supervising her, so she was essentially alone and navigating her own fate. Note that she was married four times and unmarried at the time of her death, so I don't doubt she was very tough to live with.

DOH! The cell tower would be a huge mistake.

 

Quite enjoyed this excellently acted and produced series, the art direction was very good.
Interestingly I listened to Walter Hill being interviewed by Marc Maron on the WTF podcast and Hill made a point of mentioning how angry he was and how upset the family of Robert Aldrich were with the way his character was depicted in the series. Aldrich was a mentor to Walter Hill early in his career.

 

In addition to which Bette wasn't crazy, like Frances Farmer was. The movie FRANCES skewed the facts for a post-Women's lib era.

 

Yeah, I worked on Frances a little bit and I was told the same thing. Bette Davis was "eccentric," no worse than a hundred actors of her time.

 

I loved Alfred Molina in this and thought Aldrich came off great.

 

Interesting you feel that way. To me it seemed like Bette had been more of a supporting character towards the end of the show. Which kind of disappointed me aa I find Bette so much more interesting as an actor. Watched All About Eve the other night for the first time in ages. Spectacular movie and she's brilliant.
Here's an interesting take on Fued -
Why Feud Was Right to Ignore Bette for Joan

 

I think the truth is that Joan Crawford had the more tragic story. Bette Davis had another 10-15 years of fame and work after Baby Jane, while Crawford totally collapsed after the unwatchable Trog. It's interesting that the show noted that both actresses had daughters who wrote nasty tell-all books about their mothers and basically never spoke to them again (especially in Joan's case, since she was dead), but Joan comes off as seriously crazy and damaged. The worst part of that story was that she cut off daughter Christina in the will, reportedly "for reasons she's well-aware of." And Christina later said she had absolutely no idea what Crawford was talking about. I suspect Christina made far more money with the book than she ever could've inherited from her nutty mother.