What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological horror thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and featuring Victor Buono in his major film debut. The screenplay, adapted by Lukas Heller from the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell, follows an aging former child star tormenting her paraplegic sister, also a former film star, in a dilapidated Hollywood mansion.

The film was shot in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962 on a budget of approximately $1 million. The production was noted for rumors of on-set feuds between Davis and Crawford, though the actresses would later deny this. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? premiered in Cincinnati October 31, 1962, and opened the following week in various U.S. cities. The film was met with critical acclaim and was a box office success. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won one for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, with Davis receiving her tenth and final nomination for Best Actress.

The alleged bitter rivalry between the two stars, Davis and Crawford, was pivotal to the film's initial success, which helped revitalize their careers. In the years after release, critics continued to acclaim the film for its psychologically driven black comedy, camp, and creation of the psycho-biddy subgenre. The film's controversial content resulted in it originally receiving an X rating in the United Kingdom. Because of the appeal of the film's stars, Dave Itzkoff in The New York Times has identified it as being a "cult classic."

In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked no. 44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."