What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 film) films "Parachute Jumper" and "Ex-Lady" (both 1933) and the Joan Crawford film "Sadie McKee" (1934) was used to represent the film acting of Jane and Blanche respectively. The character of Liza, Mrs. Bates' daughter, was played by Davis' real-life daughter B. D. Merrill. After Joan Crawford's daughter Christina wrote the best-selling tell-all book "Mommie Dearest", Merrill published a memoir that depicted her mother in an unfavorable light. Crawford was scheduled to appear alongside Davis on a publicity tour of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" but cancelled at the last minute. Davis claimed that Crawford backed out because she did
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 film) White. The intensely bitter Hollywood rivalry between the film's two stars, Davis and Crawford, was heavily important to the film's initial success. This in part led to the revitalization of the then-waning careers of the two stars. 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 then-unheard of and controversial plot meant that it originally received an X rating in the UK. Because of the appeal of the film's stars, Dave Itzkoff in "The New York Times" has identified it as being a