‘Had very sore knuckles’ Joan Crawford details injury on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Talking Pictures: Joan Crawford discuss movie scene with rat
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The Oscar-winning actress will always be remembered as the quintessential star product of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her career spanned more than four decades, with one of her most successful films being What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? In a classic Talking Pictures episode about the silver screen icon, Joan Crawford opened up about how she got sore knuckles on the set of the psychological thriller.
The 1962 horror film is based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell.
Joan stars in the thriller alongside her Hollywood rival Bette Davis and it follows an ageing former child actor tormenting her paraplegic sister in a Los Angeles mansion.
The bitter feud between Bette and Joan is said to have been pivotal to the Oscar-winning movie’s success.
Joan portrays Blanche Hudson whose career was cut short when she became paralysed from the waist down and was forced to live in her sister’s shadow.
In an unearthed interview about filming intense moments for the film, Joan said: “It’s wonderful to do those scenes.
“You want to bring the audience so close to you, you want to put them in your lap, in the palm of your hand.
“It’s very exciting when you go to the theatre and find you have done it in a couple of scenes.”
The American star also revealed: “I worked in a wheelchair on set and all weekend because I had an inch on either side and with your hands there, on the wheelchair, if they were too far out I had very sore knuckles.
“As a matter of fact, I took the wheelchair home with me at night to learn how to get through doors.”
Joan said she had sore knuckles for two or three days while using the wheelchair in the film.
When asked about her rivalry with Bette in the same 1960s interview, Joan said: “I didn’t have time to be friends with her because we only did the one picture movie.”
She also shut down the interviewer for pronouncing Bette’s name in a different way.
Joan explained Bette would hate for her name to be said in that way.
“She’d killed you if she heard you say, ‘Bet’,” the actress snapped. “She’s a fascinating actress, Bette Davis.”
The movie was partly responsible for the revitalization of the stars’ careers.
The film grossed $9million in theatrical rentals in North America which gave Joan and Bette their biggest hit in more than a decade.
While Joan did not win an Oscar for her role as Blanche, she was nominated for one, unlike Bette.
The film did receive an Academy Award for the best costume design in black and white.
Its success even started a succession of horror films featuring psychotic older women.
Talking Pictures: Bette and Joan is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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