Joan Crawford been left near-penniless following Alfred Steele's death, accepted a small role in "The Best of Everything" (1959). Although she was not the star of the film, she received positive reviews. Crawford would later name the role as being one of her personal favorites. By 1961 Joan Crawford was once again her own publicity machine with a new script, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", sent by Robert Aldrich. Crawford starred as Blanche Hudson, an elderly, disabled former A-list movie star who lives in fear of her psychotic sister Jane, in the highly successful psychological thriller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
Say Hello to Yesterday them.' Jean Simmons returned to London after a five-year absence to star in the film and shared the star billing with Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo, Leonard Whiting. The original title was to have been "Whatever Happened to Happy Endings?" but Cinerama didn't want to use this title, partly because Jean Simmons had just starred in, and been Academy award nominated for, the similarly titled "The Happy Ending", and partly because Cinerama feared that because "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" was a film of the era and there was a series of 'Whatever Happened...' films, they might be sued by other companies.