Darlings, Only On Here Would These Two Films Be Connected!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              The two films in question, girls, being "Ordinary People" (1980) and "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" (1962).   Both I have seen numerous times over the years, and I suppose the one thing connecting them is both deal, albeit in very different ways, with mental illness and its effects on others.  It also offers up a constellation of brilliant acting performances.

                                Let's start with "Ordinary People," since it recently popped into my head.  The character who most stays with me from that film, or story, is Karen, a girl Conrad Jarrett (played by Timothy Hutton, to an Oscar winning performance, in the film!!!!) met while he was in the hospital, recovering from a suicide attempt.

                                 Now, we all know Mary Tyler Moore is the Monster Mother in this--WASP, repressed, unloving, not very different from her own mother, played by Meg Mundy, who just wants to be "through with all that" when it comes to Conrad's emotional problems.  The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, loves!!!!!!!!!!!  Mother may have been the main problem, but Granny helped!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Karen is played by Dinah Manoff (and what has happened to her, I want to know???????  Too gifted, to just disappear!!!!!) in only one, but very pivotal, scene.  It is not only one of the best acted scenes in this movie, but one of the best acted scenes anywhere.  It also sets things up for a plot element that is from the book, but carried out differently on film.

                                  In the book, Karen is mentioned, though I cannot recall if they meet. Perhaps in the novel they talk on phone.  The idea seems to be she is out of the hospital and doing great...while Conrad is struggling.  Later, in the novel, Conrad reads in the paper about the suicide death (I think, in the novel, by carbon monoxide poisoning in a car)  of a young girl--it turns out to be Karen--and he is devastated.

                                    The scene in the movie is very revealing, and it completely depends on Dinah Manoff.  Timothy won the Oscar, and deservedly so, but this is DINAH's scene!!!!!!!!  Karen comes in, all buoyant, but with an underlying hesitation.  She tells Conrad how busy she is at school--"We're doing 'A Thousand Clonws'.  Do you know it?  I'm secretary this year!"--just a bit too enthusiastically.
When he goes deeper, wanting to talk about life in the hospital, versus life on the outside, Karen withdraws,  mumbling platitudes given to her by her father about how the only one who  can  help yourself is you.
It is very clear what happened. Karen came to the hospital for the very same reason Conrad did--she tried to kill herself, and her denial family could not ignore that.  So they do the "right thing", but once Karen is released, they convince themselves, and her, that she is as good as new--even though she is really NOT. And this is revealed tellingly by Dinah.  When Karen says she has to leave, she repeats herself--"We're doing 'A Thousand Clowns."  When Conrad replies she told him already, she gets a funny look on her face, and says, "Did I?"  That response, and the look Dinah brilliantly pulls off, tells volumes that Karen is not recovered, and foreshadows the tragedy that we, the reader or recurring film viewer,  know is to come.

                                 It is a moment worth mentioning, and worth watching.

                                 Now, for 'Baby Jane'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Just when I thought I heard everything in relation to this film, and its camp aspects, comes something I never, in all my viewings even THOUGHT of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   The scene is where Elvira (Maidie Norman) shows up for work, but Jane brushes her off, saying, with exaggerated pleasantness, how she got up early and fixed the house, that Elvira can have the week off, and gives her her week's pay. She also says she wants to apologize for "being unkind" to Elvira the other day.  Elvira is puzzled, but accepts the situation, knowing, or believing she knows, that "Miss Blanche" knows about it.  She blithely walks out the door, uttering a casual, "See you next Tuesday."

                                    There are a lot of strange folk out in cyber, and if you think I am one of them, well, you may be right, but this beats all!!!!!!!  Now,  pay close attention to the lettering, because this will tell all. Someone with nothing better to do suggests that Elvira's parting line is a code--that the line is "C U Next Tuesday,"--and what do those letters spell, darlings????????  Not a word I use, I can tell you!!!!!!!!  Which is kind of a way of her telling Jane what she really thinks--except I think this is stretching points to absurdity.  I never connected this line this way in all my viewings.  Now, of course, it will stand out, and glaringly, for me, and anyone else who reads this, next time they watch the film.  Personally I think the only designee of this word is, I believe, the embittered male queen--you know, a REAL Victor Buono type--who thought this up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Even at the Chelsea Classic screenings, with Hedda Lettuce, where you would think this would have come up--it NEVER has!!!!!!!!!  What will these dizzy queens think of next??????????

                                      Henry Higgins was right, but it had nothing to do with women, but queens!!!!!!!

                                     "Straightening up their hair is all they ever do. Why don't they straighten up the mess that's inside???????????????????"

                                         I mean, REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!