I find his satire to be a bit over the top, often offensive and cruel to my taste,
If that's the case I wouldn't look for any groundbreaking material from him. Mommy Dearest, Joan Crawford's adopted daughter's hatchet job on her mother, was despised as a movie not because it was necessarily inaccurate, but because it was so painfully and poorly overdone. Throw in Baby Jane, which I agree is painful to watch, and you've got all the material you need for a cruel and offensive film that has little to do with the real actresses.
You didn't hire Bette Davis unless you wanted a strong woman character. In an era when starlets (including Joan Crawford!) were hired to be pretty first and actresses second by their employers, Bette Davis was an exception. She wasn't the only one who could act, but if Bette Davis couldn't have acted very well she'd have never been anywhere near starring in movies. She played her roles with such personality you total forgot what she looked like. As she got old, she mostly got rolls as loud, nasty older women, but she was capable of much more. I suspect that in Baby Jane, she was only acting exactly as the director asked her to.
Patient Blanche in Baby Jane was the kind of role (though certainly not the kind of film!) Joan Crawford thrived on in her hey day; quiet, socially approved, strength as opposed to Davis' usual, dare I say, feminist strength. They may have frequently wanted the same parts, but it's doubtful the studio ever thought they belonged in the same roles. It's odd to think that both Davis and Crawford were considered for Scarlett O'hara, perhaps for mostly for one of their names on the marquee. I can imagine either in the role, but it would have been almost unrecognizably different with either!
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If that's the case I wouldn't look for any groundbreaking material from him. Mommy Dearest, Joan Crawford's adopted daughter's hatchet job on her mother, was despised as a movie not because it was necessarily inaccurate, but because it was so painfully and poorly overdone. Throw in Baby Jane, which I agree is painful to watch, and you've got all the material you need for a cruel and offensive film that has little to do with the real actresses.
You didn't hire Bette Davis unless you wanted a strong woman character. In an era when starlets (including Joan Crawford!) were hired to be pretty first and actresses second by their employers, Bette Davis was an exception. She wasn't the only one who could act, but if Bette Davis couldn't have acted very well she'd have never been anywhere near starring in movies. She played her roles with such personality you total forgot what she looked like. As she got old, she mostly got rolls as loud, nasty older women, but she was capable of much more. I suspect that in Baby Jane, she was only acting exactly as the director asked her to.
Patient Blanche in Baby Jane was the kind of role (though certainly not the kind of film!) Joan Crawford thrived on in her hey day; quiet, socially approved, strength as opposed to Davis' usual, dare I say, feminist strength. They may have frequently wanted the same parts, but it's doubtful the studio ever thought they belonged in the same roles. It's odd to think that both Davis and Crawford were considered for Scarlett O'hara, perhaps for mostly for one of their names on the marquee. I can imagine either in the role, but it would have been almost unrecognizably different with either!