What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 film) caricature. Bette Davis' make-up could very well have been done by Charles Addams, Joan Crawford's perils make those of Pauline look like good, clean fun and the plot piles one fantastic twist upon another until it all becomes nonsensical." Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" was somewhat negative as well, calling the film "far from being a Hitchcock—it goes on and on, in a light much dimmer than necessary, and the climax, when it belatedly arrives, is a bungled, languid mingling of pursuers and pursued which put me in mind of 'Last Year at Marienbad.' Still, Bette Davis and Joan
...All the Marbles it's got to be a big star. Get Burt Reynolds and you can shoot the telephone book." Aldrich says his son suggested Peter Falk, best known for "Columbo". "I gave him the Bette Davis speech - a great hook for any actor," said Aldrich, referring to a technique he used to get Davis to star in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". "It goes like this: 'Peter if this isn't the best script ever written for you put it in an envelope and sent it right back. But if it is the best then lets make it. I don't want you