The Piss Poor Acting of the Teen Next Door Neighbor
I just love movies, both good & bad, but Baby Jane has always been a favorite. Rarely, even in the worst movies, do the actors deliver their lines in a manner that would make a high school drama coach cringe. Yet that's what I thought of whenever the teen next door neighbor spoke. She didn't have a big part, but her few lines were just horrible. I'm talking about Denise Richards in a James Bond movie bad, and at least Richards had sex appeal. I always wondered who she knew, to be that bad of an actor & yet still make it into the film. Her character & lines did nothing to forward the plot & should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Well she is actually Bette Davis's real life daughter. A few years later she tried to capitalize on the "no more wire hangers" craze of children bashing their Hollywood royalty parents. At least Christina Crawford waited until her adopted mother was dead before she published Mommy Dearest. Bette Davis was still alive when her daughter published the book & was able to defend herself. Most critics panned her book as the unfounded accusations of a spoiled brat.
Just wanted to share this little piece of trivia. It' gives you a new perspective watching her bad acting when you know she only got the part due to her family's star power and thanked them by stabbing her in the back years later. Let's hope she didn't try running her mom over with the car too.