Feud: The Other Woman and Mommie Dearest

We’re catching up on the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford feud currently airing on FX. In the second episode “The Other Woman” (3/12/2017), the stars’ plan to support each other while making “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” was doomed from the start, thanks to Jack Warner. He wanted them to be at each other’s throats because “nobody wants to read about these two battle-axes making nice with each other.” He orders director Bob Aldrich to make that happen if he wants his film to make a big splash. It doesn’t take much to fan the flames of their professional jealousy.

Warner isn’t the only one manipulating. Joan Crawford felt insulted by the actress hired to play the neighbor girl next door. Her sin was making Joan feel old even though, by then Hollywood standards, she was old. It’s great to think that maybe somewhere in the afterlife, the two “battle-axes” know they are being portrayed by women who are much older than they were when “Baby Jane” was filmed. The pert starlet asked for Joan’s autograph for her mother, foolishly adding that her mom was a huge fan of Joan’s since she was a kid. Joan manipulated Bette Davis into helping her get rid of the girl by claiming Aldrich would start sleeping with her, and that will affect their star status.

Needy Joan also tried to seduce Aldrich herself, getting him to come over to her home in the wee hours with a story that her latest man, Peter, left her and she can’t continue on the film. Aldrich comes over but begs off on her advances. He doesn’t want to rock the sea of matrimony. Peter returns home in the midst of this only to get kicked out. “It’s a relief,” he says, as would anyone who had spent any time dealing with these histrionics.

Bette had problems dealing with her daughter, B.D. After notice her flirting with the crew, she wanted to ship her little Lolita off somewhere for the summer. B.D. reacted with incredible venom, telling Bette that she’s jealous because her turn is over and she doesn’t want B.D. to have her turn. Given Bette’s fierce reputation, it really was a bit hard to believe that her kid would call her a has been. But this is how both actresses are being portrayed: needy and insecure, using alcohol and men to cope and refusing to accept that they can’t be stars forever. Oh, and speaking of using men to cope, Bette also puts in a late night call to Bob Aldrich and the two of them wind up in the sack.

Episode 3, “Mommie Dearest” (3-19-2017), offers more of the same: insecurity, backstabbing, chain-smoking, lots of drinking, spite and malice, but adds a look at the formative years of Bette and Joan, and their parenting skills, such as they are.

B.D. gets the role of the neighbor girl next door. Joan caught B.D. offering Cindy and Cathy, her twins, a cigarette. She went to Bette’s dressing room with instructions to keep B.D. away from her innocent lasses. Bette asked what Joan’s “secret” is in raising children who are like “well-trained Pomeranians.” We guess Bette didn’t notice that the girls were scared to death of incurring Joan’s wrath. Later, over drinks, Bette told Joan about B.D.’s role and they shared childhood stories. Joan seduced her stepfather at age 11 to rectify her loveless home life. Her mother kept the husband but shipped Joan off to a convent where the nuns taught her the importance of discipline and cleanliness. Bette’s father left the family and Bette was sent to a strict boarding school while her mother worked. She missed her mother, but the experience made her tough. When they were reunited, they grew very close. Bette thinks her mother was her only female friend. Joan evidently never had a close female friend because she said Bette was lucky.

Both stars attack each other through the gossip columns and when filming, engage in crazy shenanigans that one would hardly call professional. Betty has to drag Joan out of bed and across the floor so Joan makes that as difficult as possible by pretending she is ticklish and laughing, resulting in many retakes. She also had some stuff under her outfit to make her even heavier. That was just mean. No wonder Bette “accidentally” kicked her in the head.

We have to say that so far, Bette Davis is the more sympathetic character. B.D. is her biological daughter, but she has a developmentally disabled adopted daughter named Margot who lives at a school. Bette tells her co-star, Victor Buono, that is why she still works: to pay for Margot’s care. In most of her interactions so far in the series, Bette’s first instincts seem a lot more humane than Joan’s. When Victor was arrested for we don’t know what charge, she bailed him out. But when threatened or crossed, Bette’s a tigress.

Out at dinner, Mamacita tries to give Joan a card to send to her daughter, Christina, to congratulate her on her opening night in a play. In front of the twins, Joan meanly refuses to send it because her mother never sent her a card or flowers. After she gives the twins permission to go to the ladies room and remove the big hair bows they didn’t want to wear, she changed her tune and signed the card. So what was that? A big show for the twins or just a change of heart? The depths of Joan’s loneliness and misery are so deep that she goes out and tries to adopt another child, but is turned down because of her age! Well, there’s one less kid who would have been subjected to Joan’s neuroses.

Missed it? These episodes are available to watch on FX