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60 years of Baby Jane – how it changed the depiction of women on screen
October 31st marks the sixtieth anniversary of the release of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The film not only revived the careers of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, but spawned a new genre of horror movie which cast older women as demented spinsters. In 1962 American soldiers were preparing to fight in Vietnam, Marilyn…
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“She’s a Star” – an extract from Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror
Joan Crawford made her entrance on stage wielding an axe. In January 1964, at the age of fifty-eight, the Hollywood grande dame began an exhaustive tour across the United States, with personal appearances at big city and small town cinemas to publicize her new horror film, Strait-Jacket, directed by B-movie master William Castle. Attracting huge…
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Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror
My latest book, Crazy Old Ladies: The Story of Hag Horror has just been released, and so I’ve answered some question on what it’s all about. 1. Your book tells the story of the ‘hag horror’ sub-genre, which cast former queens of the Golden Age of Hollywood. What was the inspiration? A couple of years…
