Bette Davis film, "Lady for a Day"), based on a story by Damon Runyon. She accepted her next role, in the Grand Guignol horror film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), after reading the script and believing it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10% of the worldwide gross profits in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's biggest successes. Davis and Joan Crawford played two aging sisters, former actresses forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Bette Davis of Margo Channing in the film as fifth on their list of 100 Greatest Performances of All Time, commenting: "There is something deliciously audacious about her gleeful willingness to play such unattractive emotions as jealousy, bitterness, and neediness." While reviewing "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962) in 2008, Ebert asserted that, "No one who has seen the film will ever forget her." A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors featured on the cover of "Life" magazine. In a film retrospective that celebrated the films and stars of 1939, "Life" concluded that Davis