The psychological thriller “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is a perfect representation of early 60’s film noir for five main reasons. These include: lighting, Music and instrumentals, makeup, costumes and the acting and expression. These representations of film noir are also what make it more of a classic story.
The lighting and music throughout the film was set to be accenting to the plot lines. The lighting often showed off unruly or gruesome features being underhead a lot of the time. While the music played a large role it really showed off suspense and climax moments. The music was usually a loud flat decline in scale which created a thick surrounding feel. This complemented the lighting in a way to work together and create a scene which builds suspense and makes you want to know what happens next. The makeup and costumes in the film were very different from person to person to show either manic or considerably “normal” personalities. Baby Jane had a very drag like wardrobe inside the house but as soon as she left the house she tried to seem as put together as possible. This also goes for her makeup which was most of the time very poorly done, smeared or very dark and unappealing. This was to add to the fact of her being
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They had very bold parts so the acting was imperative for how this film was going to play out. Baby Jane having one of the biggest parts had a very cynical and menacing type of acting. This caused you to have a constant suspicion about what she was up to. This also is why when she went crazy on Blanche {not feeding, tying up, no phone, taking away buzzer} is why that acting was so important. It made the film very successful and it was important the film noir genre. Blanche on the other hand trying to keep her composure while remaining the “good” character really helped emphasize Baby Jane’s role in the