0:00:15 > 0:00:17Bette Davis...
0:00:17 > 0:00:19Fasten your seat belts,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21it's going to be a bumpy night.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25..Joan Crawford...
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Get out before I kill you.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33..two movie icons.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Powerful, uncompromising women
0:00:37 > 0:00:39who demanded levels of respect
0:00:39 > 0:00:43not usually granted to actresses of their era.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Both Oscar winners,
0:00:46 > 0:00:48both box office favourites,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52whose successes helped bankroll their movie studios.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57And both married four times.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59They had so much in common.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03And yet, as we'll see in this programme,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07they famously hated each other.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17..Bette once said of Joan.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21..said Joan.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30But the loathing, although intense,
0:01:30 > 0:01:36wasn't quite as strong as the love each of them had for a juicy role.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41And so it was that the world got to see their mutual animosity
0:01:41 > 0:01:44blown up on the big screen,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46bringing an extra dimension
0:01:46 > 0:01:49to Robert Aldrich's 1962 classic...
0:01:52 > 0:01:58..playing roles that only cemented the idea of them being arch-rivals.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01BUZZER SOUNDS
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Oh, shut up!
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Dammit!
0:02:14 > 0:02:16What do you want this time?
0:02:16 > 0:02:18Who was on the telephone?
0:02:18 > 0:02:20None of your business. What were you ringing for?
0:02:20 > 0:02:23- I'm hungry, Jane. - Well, of course you're hungry,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25you didn't eat your dinner. That's why you're hungry.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27But you forgot my breakfast.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29I didn't forget your breakfast.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32I didn't bring you breakfast
0:02:32 > 0:02:34because you didn't eat your din-din.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39I'm sure you must get very bored by the constant fiction
0:02:39 > 0:02:42that you and Bette Davis are positively daggers drawn.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44She'd kill you if she heard you say "Bet".
0:02:44 > 0:02:47She's a fascinating actress, Bette Davis.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51I've never had time to be friends with her
0:02:51 > 0:02:52because we only did the one picture.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Ha! What do you think?
0:02:55 > 0:02:57You are disgusting.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00After all I've done for you, you spy on me,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02when all I'm trying to do is help.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Who are you trying to help, Blanche?
0:03:04 > 0:03:07What are you planning to do with me when you sell the house?
0:03:07 > 0:03:09What did you have in mind, some nice little place
0:03:09 > 0:03:11where they could look after me?
0:03:12 > 0:03:15One other sequence I must ask you about,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19which is the dead rat sequence in Baby Jane, which I think...
0:03:19 > 0:03:21perhaps as much, if not more than Psycho,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23really frightened me half to death.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27How scared were you on that moment when you lifted up the tureen cover?
0:03:28 > 0:03:31More frightened than you, really, because I refused to work with
0:03:31 > 0:03:36anything but an empty plate and when I knew the cameras were ready,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40then I said you may bring it on and something went wrong
0:03:40 > 0:03:43technically with the camera, and I said, "Don't take the lid off.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46"Leave it. Just take it away."
0:03:46 > 0:03:48And I still kept the emotion...
0:03:49 > 0:03:52..ready for it, and when the technical things were fixed
0:03:52 > 0:03:56on the camera and the lights, then we went in, and I was still ready,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58and away we went - take one.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00You know we got rats in the cellar?
0:04:41 > 0:04:44I think if you rehearse too much with the actual...
0:04:46 > 0:04:47..rodent.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51I almost said animal, it looked so big.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53But it is a rodent, I believe, the rat.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56And of course the dead bird too.
0:04:56 > 0:04:57- Yes.- It's just awful.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Oh!
0:05:07 > 0:05:09It's wonderful to do those scenes.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13You want to bring the audience in with you, so close to you.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16You want to put them in your lap, in the palm of your hand.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And it's very exciting when you go to the theatre and find that
0:05:20 > 0:05:22you've done it in a couple of scenes.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25I worked in the wheelchair on the sets and all weekends,
0:05:25 > 0:05:30because I had an inch on either side and with your hands there,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34on the wheelchair, if they were too far out,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37I had very sore knuckles the two or three days I rehearsed.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40As a matter of fact, I took the wheelchair home with me at nights,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43to learn how to get through doors.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Although film-making might have been conveyor-belted,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49although there's some truth in the charge that
0:05:49 > 0:05:52artists were manufactured and you obviously...
0:05:52 > 0:05:55You manufacture toys, you don't manufacture stars.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57You can't turn them out.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59They were... Nowadays, you see them,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01they're all out of the same cookie-cutter, you know.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06I still think we should go back to romantic pictures.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Mmm.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10The world is so angry.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13I'm no Cinderella, but by golly, the world is so angry,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17that if we could get romantic pictures back again,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and no angry young men,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and have the young men have their hair cut
0:06:23 > 0:06:27and the young ladies let it grow,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31I think we'd get back to a nice human relationship again.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35A nice human relationship is exactly the opposite
0:06:35 > 0:06:38of what Joan and Bette had.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40I was watching.
0:06:41 > 0:06:42Then you're an idiot.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45I won't have you speak to me like that.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52There are different versions of how the rivalry started.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55One has this man at the heart of it -
0:06:55 > 0:06:58the actor Franchot Tone.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02Bette Davis co-starred in the 1935 film Dangerous.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06It's said that Bette fell for him head over heels,
0:07:06 > 0:07:08but he was already seeing...
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Yes, you guessed it.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12..Joan Crawford,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17and would go on to become the second of Joan's four husbands.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21Another version says that Bette Davis was furious when
0:07:21 > 0:07:24a role she'd turned down became
0:07:24 > 0:07:27one of Crawford's greatest successes -
0:07:27 > 0:07:31the 1945 film Mildred Pierce.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Bette had been the studio's first choice for the title role,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41but when she turned it down, Joan lobbied hard for the part,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46and her efforts paid off when it won her a Best Actress Oscar.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Whichever version is correct,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54the animosity continued throughout the filming of Baby Jane...
0:07:56 > 0:07:58..and the stories around it are legend -
0:07:58 > 0:08:00or maybe myths.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05How Joan Crawford's marriage to the chairman of Pepsi led to
0:08:05 > 0:08:10Bette Davis getting a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14How Joan demanded a body double for the scenes
0:08:14 > 0:08:18where Jane attacked Blanche, and claimed she needed stitches
0:08:18 > 0:08:21after Bette kicked her in the head.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26And how, after that fight, Joan put weights in her pockets...
0:08:27 > 0:08:30..to make it harder for Bette to drag her around.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Bette Davis will always be considered
0:08:35 > 0:08:38one of Hollywood's great actresses.
0:08:39 > 0:08:45In her eyes, Joan Crawford was merely a movie star who'd got lucky,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48and slept her way to the top.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Bette felt she had credibility,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55partly because producers never considered her as a sex symbol.
0:08:55 > 0:09:01And that's a subject she discusses here with Joan Bakewell in 1972.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03How dare those Hollywood moguls,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07at the time when you first went from New York to Hollywood,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10suggest that you couldn't be as sexy and glamorous as any other star.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12LAUGHTER
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Well, according to their standards, you see, I wasn't.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Now, this was really in the very beginning of talking pictures.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21And all of us, us who came out from the theatre,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24were not actressy kind of people.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27You know, we sort of had our own colour hair and maybe
0:09:27 > 0:09:30a couple of teeth crooked. We looked, you know, totally different,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33and they were very, very puzzled, you know?
0:09:33 > 0:09:36And off-screen, we didn't go around all dressed up,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39say like a Harlow or somebody would, you know?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41So they just did not understand this at all.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43So we just were...
0:09:43 > 0:09:46You know, they called me The Little Brown Wren.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50But then, finally, you see, nobody helps you when you go,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52about make-up or about the camera.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55It's a wholly new profession, really. And finally,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59they find out, you know, the best way to wear your hair.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02They put a make-up on you that does the best for you.
0:10:02 > 0:10:03It's just a slow process of...
0:10:05 > 0:10:07..getting to look on the screen
0:10:07 > 0:10:10what you really thought you looked like in life.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14Because I thought I was fairly attractive until I got to Hollywood,
0:10:14 > 0:10:15but I didn't for very long!
0:10:15 > 0:10:19But you did have to fight off all their attempts
0:10:19 > 0:10:22- to glamorise you in THEIR terms. - Oh, yes, yes.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27Hepburn, Margaret Sullivan and I were the three who really fought it.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29You know, fought the...
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Although, when I went to Warners, they made me,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34you know, really bleach my hair.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36And I knew it was going to limit me with parts,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39so I snuck down one day and had it, you know,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41put back the ash blonde hair I'd always had.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44And one year later, Mr Warner sent for me and said,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46"You've had your hair re-dyed." One year later!
0:10:46 > 0:10:49He'd never seen it. But if I had gone for permission,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51he wouldn't have allowed it, you see.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54And I didn't want to go through life with a very bleached head of hair.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56But it was the factory getting to work,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59because they even suggested changing your name, didn't they?
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Oh, yes, they wanted to call me Bettina Dawes.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03LAUGHTER
0:11:09 > 0:11:13And, to be a little vulgar in this illustrious group,
0:11:13 > 0:11:18I said I refuse to be called Between The Drawers all my life.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20APPLAUSE
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Which I would have. No question.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25It's very well you joking about it now,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27- but of course at the time, for a young...- Heartbreak.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30- It must have been awful. - It was absolutely a heartbreak.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Yes, I remember sitting in the outer office and Mr Laemmle was talking to
0:11:33 > 0:11:36somebody, and he was talking about me, not knowing I was there.
0:11:36 > 0:11:37And he said,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40"Yeah, she's got as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville."
0:11:40 > 0:11:42LAUGHTER
0:11:42 > 0:11:44And you see, you're so right...
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Oh, I was defeated.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49And, for instance, they would say,
0:11:49 > 0:11:52"Who wants to get her at the end of the picture?"
0:11:52 > 0:11:53LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:11:53 > 0:11:55And this does...
0:11:55 > 0:11:57True.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01And this really does catastrophic things to your ego.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04And I didn't have a lot of ego, and never have had lots anyway,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08which is a big misnomer about actors - we have very little ego.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Not much ego?
0:12:11 > 0:12:15I'm not sure Bette was being totally straight with the audience there.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20But it's certainly true that in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
0:12:20 > 0:12:24both stars had to embrace looking well past their prime,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27which, according to Bette,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30was something that Joan didn't find easy.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Oh, yes, it was very difficult for her.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35After all, it's understandable, isn't it?
0:12:35 > 0:12:37That's what she was known for.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41And she couldn't look that way in this.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46She'd, after all, been in this room for 20 years, uncared for, etc,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49so that was her main prop, kind of thing.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53The biggest trouble we had, really, I don't even know if I mentioned it,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56she had her nails all lacquered,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00and Mr Aldrich had a shot of her hands on the staircase, coming down,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03and so we spent about half a day getting her...
0:13:03 > 0:13:07to take off the nail polish, which she finally did.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10I believe she said to Mr Aldrich,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13"You've taken everything else away from me,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16"You're not going to take away my nail polish."
0:13:21 > 0:13:25It certainly sounds like the sort of over-the-top declaration
0:13:25 > 0:13:27that Joan liked to make.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32More than most stars, her life seems to have been a performance,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35which comes across in the interviews she gave,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38like this one from 1956,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40promoting the film Esther Costello.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46The interviewer, Peter Haig, is dripping with deference,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and Joan herself is oddly unnatural.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51It's a proud moment for Picture Parade
0:13:51 > 0:13:54because Joan Crawford has joined us tonight, to tell us
0:13:54 > 0:13:57a little about herself, to talk, too, about her new picture.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59And I think I should tell you
0:13:59 > 0:14:02it's her first appearance on television ever. Welcome, Joan.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03Hi, Peter, how are you?
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- You look quite nervous. - Yes, I'm scared.- Really?
0:14:06 > 0:14:08- Yes.- Joan, there are thousands of things I want to ask you.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10I don't quite know where to start,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12but first of all, I think let's take glamour.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Now, will you tell me what A - is your recipe for it?
0:14:16 > 0:14:18- Just live.- Just live?
0:14:18 > 0:14:20- Yes.- As simple as that?
0:14:20 > 0:14:25Live with a lovely family, raising children.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30I don't mean live gloriously and make every day the fourth of July,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32I mean just live.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35A perfectly ordinary life? Could we talk very quickly, Joan, about
0:14:35 > 0:14:39- Esther Costello?- Yes. - What is the story of this picture?
0:14:40 > 0:14:45This is the story of a woman who goes back to Ireland,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48she left it six years of age.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50She goes back because she's a lonely woman.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And this is a story of many, many women in the world -
0:14:55 > 0:15:00it doesn't have to be England, America, Ireland, Scotland,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02it doesn't matter.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05And I find...
0:15:06 > 0:15:09You see, I'm not playing Esther Costello.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11I was going to ask you that, you're not playing it.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13- No.- Who is playing the part?
0:15:13 > 0:15:18Today we chose the most lovely, beautiful child in the whole world.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21- Now, who is that? - Except my own four children.- Yes?
0:15:21 > 0:15:24- Who is she?- Miss Heather Sears.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Heather Sears, meet our viewers, and congratulations on all our behalfs,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35on getting this rather wonderful part.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37- Thank you very much.- What do you have to do in the film?
0:15:37 > 0:15:42Well, I should say, first of all, I have to be a great pantomimist.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44What exactly is that now?
0:15:44 > 0:15:47You've got to use your fingers a lot to, er...
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Yes, I have to...
0:15:51 > 0:15:53I have to...
0:15:53 > 0:15:56- Sort of...- Communicate... - Yes.- ..with my hands.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58- And you aren't allowed to talk? - And with your eyes.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And with my eyes, but not my voice,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03because Esther Costello was a blind mute.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06My goodness me. So you've really got a lot of work to put in
0:16:06 > 0:16:08- between you both, haven't you? - Yes, we do.- Yes, we have.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10We'll work together well.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13- I hope so, I'm sure we will.- How are you both getting on, before you go,
0:16:13 > 0:16:15how are you both getting on with, you know, the film so far?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18- You haven't actually started, have you?- No.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20- But we will. - In a few days' time then.- Yes.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Bless you both. Thank you so much.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Before you go, I just want one little thing before you do leave.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Thank you very much indeed.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31With our compliments, Joan Crawford,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33thank you very much indeed for joining us.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35And Heather, likewise.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37- Thank you very much indeed.- Good luck to you both in the picture,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41- and thank you for joining us on Picture Parade tonight.- Good luck.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43- Thank you.- You know you're going to be great.
0:16:43 > 0:16:44Thank you.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Joan's fawning over her co-star was not typical
0:16:49 > 0:16:52of the way she dealt with young people.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56She raised four adopted children, but her treatment of them
0:16:56 > 0:17:00became notorious after her daughter, Christina, published
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Mommie Dearest...
0:17:04 > 0:17:07..a book that claimed Crawford only adopted them
0:17:07 > 0:17:09to enhance her public image,
0:17:09 > 0:17:14and accused her of being a cruel disciplinarian.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16She said, "I'm a marvellous mother."
0:17:16 > 0:17:19She said, "My children obey me, and they must obey me."
0:17:19 > 0:17:22And this little boy, I think he was four or five years old,
0:17:22 > 0:17:23was in the living room,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26and on the coffee table was a box of chocolates.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And she told the story, you know, quite proudly, and she said,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32"And he took a chocolate, and said, 'May I have a candy, Mama?' "
0:17:32 > 0:17:35And she said, "Yes, you may have one."
0:17:35 > 0:17:38So when she wasn't looking he took another, and she caught him.
0:17:38 > 0:17:44And she said, "Now, I want you to eat every chocolate in that box."
0:17:44 > 0:17:46And it was a great, big box of chocolates.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50And she stood over him until he ate all the chocolate in the box,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52and then threw them up.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55So she said, "Of course, he won't do that again."
0:17:55 > 0:17:57And she was very proud of herself.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59The book was a sensation,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02although many felt it was an exaggeration of the truth.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06And when it was turned into a film in 1981
0:18:06 > 0:18:11Faye Dunaway said her widely acclaimed portrayal of Crawford
0:18:11 > 0:18:16was an attempt to understand what may have motivated her.
0:18:23 > 0:18:24My babies.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28Someone stole both my babies.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30That's good, darling.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35They were thoughtless, selfish, spoiled children.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Now they won't wake you up when you need your rest.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I do think that Joan Crawford became,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01in everybody's minds,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03the result of a kind of scandal,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05and she became a monster.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08People read the book, said, "Oh, this is what she was really like."
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Well, that isn't all that she was really like,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and it may not even have been what she was really like,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18so that it's important to make some attempt to change that.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20I think she was an extreme disciplinarian,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24and I think that she lacked gentleness
0:19:24 > 0:19:28with herself, first, and also with this child, anyway.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31I think that she had changed and grown by the time that she adopted
0:19:31 > 0:19:35the last two children. But I think she tended to be very stern,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37because that's how she was with herself,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39and I think that she wanted them to learn that
0:19:39 > 0:19:41you've got to work to get something.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43And I've said this before, but let me say it again,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46the story between the mother and the daughter, I think is the inevitable,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50tragic misunderstanding between a child of want, which Crawford was,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and a child of opulence, which the girl was.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Christina, the girl, could not understand a child of want,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58which is what Crawford was. She took everything for granted,
0:19:58 > 0:19:59she had a Hollywood existence.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01She had incredibly beautiful dresses,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04she had an incredibly, sort of, wonderful parties and everything.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07So... And also I've talked to people like Carrie Fisher,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10and other children of that time, and they say, we all had that,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13that was how it was in Hollywood them.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15So...but...she... That was the norm to her.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19To Joan, Joan had really worked, alone too.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22She essentially didn't have a man to help her,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24a mate, to share her life with.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26So that Joan wanted the girl to be...
0:20:27 > 0:20:30..grateful, and to understand that what she's got
0:20:30 > 0:20:33was the result of a lot of work, but she couldn't.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36So that an inevitable clash set itself up,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38and it was never resolved.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42Being called a bad mother can, sadly,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46be added to the list of things that Crawford and Davis had in common.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Bette's daughter, Barbara, who was always nicknamed BD,
0:20:51 > 0:20:56and actually had a small part in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59would also write a book describing her mother as
0:20:59 > 0:21:02an emotionally abusive bully,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and was criticised for publishing it before her mother died.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Here we see the pair of them before their relationship had broken down,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13- being interviewed on a trip to the UK...- Oh, BD...
0:21:13 > 0:21:15..by the actor Derek Bond.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17..I want you to meet Mr Derek Bond.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20- My daughter, Barbara. - Hello, Barbara.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22- Not a very satisfactory day for riding?- No.
0:21:22 > 0:21:23How long have you been...
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Have you been over here before, to this country?
0:21:26 > 0:21:29No, I've been here once before when I was only four years old,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31but that's pretty hard to remember.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33Mm. How many foreign countries have you been to, outside America?
0:21:33 > 0:21:37This trip is the only time in over...
0:21:37 > 0:21:41I went to Spain, Italy, and France, and this country.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44- Do you enjoy travelling? Do you like it?- Oh, yes, I like it very much,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47- but it is work.- Do you get homesick?
0:21:47 > 0:21:49No. I don't get homesick.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53- You don't?- No.- When you grow up, would you like to be an actress,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56- like your mother? - Not one of my first choices.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59- What do you want to do. - I'd like to be a secretary.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01- A secretary?- Yes.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Darling, why don't you run along.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07- See you later.- Goodbye. - Nice to have met you.- And you.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Ms Davis, how would you feel if she had said
0:22:11 > 0:22:12she wanted to be an actress?
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Oh, well...
0:22:15 > 0:22:19wanting to be an actress is just, if you want to, you must.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21It's kind of a...
0:22:21 > 0:22:24It's a kind of a drive, it's a thing that you absolutely have to do,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27and if this were it, then she must.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31I could hope for her that her life would run along a little more normal
0:22:31 > 0:22:35channels and she wouldn't have this great need for expressing herself
0:22:35 > 0:22:38in this way.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42- But, if so...- Do you think people can be happier doing something else?
0:22:42 > 0:22:46No, I think one is happiest doing what one must do.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49You know? I really think I've been an incredibly fortunate person
0:22:49 > 0:22:51and had a most wonderfully happy life
0:22:51 > 0:22:54as regards the accomplishment of my life.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56I don't think it's an easy life,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58I must say.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Five years after that interview, whilst in Cannes with her mother
0:23:02 > 0:23:06promoting Baby Jane, BD met a man twice her age
0:23:06 > 0:23:10who she married, with Bette's blessing,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14when she was only 16, and he was 29.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Bette later called that trip one of the greatest mistakes in her life.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? may have been a huge
0:23:24 > 0:23:26critical and box office hit,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30but success didn't alter Bette and Joan's feelings about each other.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35If anything, the animosity intensified,
0:23:35 > 0:23:40particularly around that year's Academy Awards, and the statue
0:23:40 > 0:23:43which Bette always felt she had a special relationship with.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47There is one question I am always asked.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49Did I name the Oscar?
0:23:50 > 0:23:51And fascinatingly enough,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54the only night I was not asked this question was
0:23:54 > 0:23:58in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the night of the Oscar show, which
0:23:58 > 0:24:02I thought was very, very strange, because I'm always asked that.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05I was asked that everywhere in Australia and New Zealand.
0:24:05 > 0:24:06What's the answer?
0:24:06 > 0:24:08Uh...
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Well, I feel I did.
0:24:10 > 0:24:11How?
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Well, my first husband's middle initial was O,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17and he never would tell me what it was,
0:24:17 > 0:24:21because he detested the name, so finally I found out that
0:24:21 > 0:24:23his middle name was Oscar.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25And...
0:24:25 > 0:24:27the rear end of the Oscar looked like him!
0:24:32 > 0:24:34And I always called it Oscar.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37Now, the Academy refuses to accept this,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40- and I sort of willingly say the Academy.- I see.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41But that's my memory of it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Of course, it was a long time ago.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49Bette Davis was nominated for Best Actress for Baby Jane...
0:24:49 > 0:24:52but Crawford wasn't.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Had Bette won, she'd have had become the first woman
0:24:56 > 0:24:59to win the award three times.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01And after all the praise for her performance,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04she was confident of a victory.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06But it was not to be.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Were you sorry that you didn't nab that third Oscar?
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Oh, please, be sorry, I broke my heart.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20My two children came with me to the Oscars, the night of Jane.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Michael and BD were in the audience.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26It was a rough shot, I couldn't believe it.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28I was so sure this time,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32because it was that kind of a part, I really should have had it,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35- no question.- Do you think she should have been nominated
0:25:35 > 0:25:39- for What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? - No, I do not.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41I'm very honest about it. I think I should have been.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47The "she" Bette referred to there was, of course, Joan.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50And to make matters worse for Bette,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54when Anne Bancroft was declared the night's big winner,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58the award was actually collected by Joan -
0:25:58 > 0:26:02an arrangement she made in advance, knowing that Bancroft
0:26:02 > 0:26:06couldn't attend because she was busy appearing in a play.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Amazingly, the director, Robert Aldrich, attempted to repeat
0:26:11 > 0:26:17the success of Baby Jane by casting the two arch-rivals
0:26:17 > 0:26:21in his 1964 film, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Even more amazingly, they both signed on.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31But Bette Davis got her revenge for that Oscar night...
0:26:33 > 0:26:35..by securing a producer's credit.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42She conspired to make life on the set so challenging for Crawford
0:26:42 > 0:26:45that Joan ended up pretending she was too ill to work,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48delaying production by weeks.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Eventually, Crawford was dropped,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55and replaced by Bette's long-time friend, Olivia De Havilland.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01Joan humiliatingly only discovered the news on the radio
0:27:01 > 0:27:03after it had been leaked to the press,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06allegedly, by Bette.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Not surprisingly, the pair never worked together again,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and never had a good word to say about each other,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18until Joan's death in 1977...
0:27:19 > 0:27:23..when it's claimed that Bette was quoted as saying...
0:27:34 > 0:27:36Over the top?
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Certainly.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41But then everything about this clash of the titans was off the scale.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47That quote perfectly illustrated the uncompromising,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51never-give-an-inch nature of Hollywood's most notorious feud.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55It was frightening in its intensity...
0:27:57 > 0:27:59..and strangely fascinating,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03just like Bette and Joan themselves.