In spite of the sole pull to the film being the bitter and well publicized rivalry between both lead actresses it surprisingly still holds up. About the first forty minutes are actually really good, like peak cinema. The two prologues are beautifully eerie. The last really good part of the movie is about halfway in when Bette Davis gives Joan Crawford a covered platter just after the disappearance of Joan's bird. The revelation that her bird is what Bette was trying to feed her is honestly very bone chilling.
The movie really does start to fall apart as it continues. It becomes rather mundane and repetitive as Joan Crawford contemplated going downstairs about twenty million times. We are also supposed to somehow have enough suspension of disbelief so as to believe literally anything surrounding their maid. She makes no sense whatsoever, she realizes that Davis is deranged and abusive and that Davis is also only giving her time off due to an obviously evil ulterior motive, and she cares. The maid actually cares about Crawford, but she just gives in to Davis' suggestions. She also somehow manages to get herself killed by Davis which seems to be a feat worthy of recognition. I don't even want to speak about the end of the film, it just wasn't as good as the beginning. That's not to say it was bad, it's just that I really enjoy the first forty minutes. Another bonus is the extremely creepy singing by Davis when she sings 'A Letter to Daddy.' Now that was the stuff of nightmares.
The movie really does start to fall apart as it continues. It becomes rather mundane and repetitive as Joan Crawford contemplated going downstairs about twenty million times. We are also supposed to somehow have enough suspension of disbelief so as to believe literally anything surrounding their maid. She makes no sense whatsoever, she realizes that Davis is deranged and abusive and that Davis is also only giving her time off due to an obviously evil ulterior motive, and she cares. The maid actually cares about Crawford, but she just gives in to Davis' suggestions. She also somehow manages to get herself killed by Davis which seems to be a feat worthy of recognition. I don't even want to speak about the end of the film, it just wasn't as good as the beginning. That's not to say it was bad, it's just that I really enjoy the first forty minutes. Another bonus is the extremely creepy singing by Davis when she sings 'A Letter to Daddy.' Now that was the stuff of nightmares.