Enmity never been so deliciously served as in FX’s Feud. At the end of the fourth episode of this series, which chronicles the long rivalry between Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, one gets this feeling he’s watching the two actresses reprise their battle against themselves and each other.
There are many problems working against this show. There is, for one, the extant interviews and forums participated in by the two actresses now accessible by way of YouTube. We can always check the veracity of certain claims and even review over and over again the mannerisms and manners of the two personalities. Given the rich sources about Davis and Crawford, at a certain points of their life, we are all eager biographers, experts no less about the feud.
There is also the question: Who remembers Bette Davis and Joan Crawford?
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford each led a sprawling life that was equivalent to film histories. Davis moved easily from theater to film and back again; Crawford survived the death of the silent film era to be an “It” girl. The two lived through film genres and personal tragedies. They represent an era that’s gone and hard to come by already. They were divas and acted like one. They were icons and they never knew it.
Against the monumental lives of Davis and Crawford, the writers of the series won by deeply focusing the narrative. The story is set with the filming of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? In fact, what pushes the plot to move with such grandeur is this project that involved them.
The first episode begins with Joan Crawford broke and Bette Davis losing the fame she once had in bountiful measure. In her rambling mansion, Crawford has to deal with unpaid bills; onstage, Davis has to get used to curtain calls with no bouquets offered to her.
Crawford, perhaps used to the glamorous and expensive lifestyle, makes the first move. She looks for a project worthy of a comeback—no, make that two comebacks. She starts looking for books upon which a film can be based.
She finds it in the book about two sisters who are aging, down-and-out actresses. She calls Robert Aldrich, who directed her in Autumn Leaves. All throughout this time, the person of Crawford hogs the screen; Davis would make an entrance later.
The first scene showing Crawford and Davis would please all lovers of camp. Crawford, with the book for the proposed film project in her hand, attends a play of Davis’s. Crawford comes face to face with Davis inside the latter’s dressing room. Davis’s head is bundled up for a wig, the face ashen with stage makeup. For the cineastes and lovers of Davis, the scene is madly inspired by that scene in All About Eve, when Eve, as played by Anne Baxter, presents herself as the greatest fan of Margo Channing, played by Davis. The inspiration is trenchant and tongue-in-cheek. Has Crawford become the vicious and ambitious fan of Davis?
With her uncanny physical similarities with Bette Davis, Susan Sarandon has the upper hand in portraying the actress more than Jessica Lange has in channeling Joan Crawford.
Bette Davis has inspired many impersonators for her mannerisms, and on these rides the success and credibility of Sarandon’s portrayal. Joan Crawford doesn’t have recognizable broad gestures, accent or inflections. Jessica Lange, herself a beauty, makes use of that voice, husky with just the right amount of velvet vodka in the lower register, to bring her characterization closer to Crawford.
Whether it’s a confirmation of the real, Bette Davis’s character is written to be that of a stronger person, perhaps arrogant and tactless, but more confident about herself. Crawford is depicted with all the insecurities and anxieties of an actress who isn’t famous anymore.
Fully immersive, the series has one impact on the audience: Susan Sarandon is Bette Davis and Jessica Lange is Joan Crawford.
There are interesting characters in the series. Caherine Zeta-Jones is ethereal and all poise and good manners as Olivia De Havilland. Kathy Bates is naughty and witty as Joan Blondell. The characters are drawn from a documentary made on Crawford earlier and made use of Blondeel and De Havilland who are both Better Davis’s friends. Could there be a bias therefore in the presentation of J0an Crawford’s persona? Judy Davis as Hedda Hopper in various headgears threatens to steal the scene every time she appears. Jackie Hoffman as Mamacita, Crawford’s housekeeper, is a presence.
Stanley Tucci is Jack Warner, candid and callous. Lest we forget, there’s a third major character in this Greek tragedy: Robert Aldrich, as played by Alfred Molina. His performance has all the aura of an unauthorized biography. The actions that he does allow us to ask: Did that really happen?
The fourth episode has all got to do with the success of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Davis faces the success and looks forward to not only being nominated for Best Actress but also winning it. Crawford believes she also has to be nominated or this would be the end of her career.
The fourth episode ends with Joan Crawford stumbling out of her bed into the living room where her assistant waits to tell her whether she has been nominated or not. The camera takes us outside her fabulous home. A terrifying scream follows.
The series Feud: Bette and Joan is created by Ryan Murphy, Jaffe Cohen and Michael Zam.