‘Feud: Bette and Joan’ review: Classic Hollywood glamour and a generous use of the b-word

You may have heard this before: an actress has a short shelf life. Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Bette and Joan throws light on this unfortunate reality of the entertainment industry. Things have changed since the golden days of Hollywood, but not enough.

Before being thrown off by newer talent, two Hollywood legends gripped the world with their beauty, acting skills and fierce attachment to stardom. Joan Crawford (Mildred Pierce) and Bette Davis (All About Eve) were Hollywood superstars between the 1930s and the ’50s as well as two parts of a famously bitter celebrity dispute. This animosity is the subject of Feud: Bette and Joan. The eight-episode miniseries, which is being screened on Star World Premiere HD, follows the legendary rivalry between the icons, which peaked during the filming of their 1962 film, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

With a powerful cast that includes Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Alfred Molina, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judy Davis, Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson, the series is an ode to classic Hollywood. But it is also highlights the challenges faced by older actresses. The series uses the conflict to highlight the innate sexism, ageism and misogyny in the entertainment industry that kept the women apart and at each other’s throats throughout their long and illustrious careers.

Somewhere at the beginning of the first episode, Olivia de Havilland, portrayed in all her grace by Zeta- Jones, points out, “Feuds are never about hate, feuds are about pain.”

Once placed on the highest pedestal and now set aside, Crawford and Davis ran the risk of being as easily shelved as they had been elevated. The innate jealousy between the actresses, coupled with the realisation of impending futility and the many machinations of an industry that fed their feelings, make for entertaining but also thought-provoking television. It is undoubtedly hilarious to watch, but also heartbreaking.

In 1961, Crawford (Lange), sitting pretty on the board of the cola brand Pepsi, and Davis (Sarandon), wasting away in a thankless theatre production, find that there are no roles left in Hollywood for them. After turning down a bunch of roles, Crawford decides to make her own movie. She reads Henry Farrell’s novel Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and takes it to director Robert Aldrich (Molina). Together, they convince Davis to return to Hollywood.

On the sets of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Crawford and Davis may finally be collaborative, but they are not compatible. They need each other, but their many years of experience, stardom and fame are lined with manipulation and exploitation at the hands of the men who run the big studios. So the two stars spread stinking rumours. Each tries to outdo, outperform and outwit the other. With Aldrich, both Davis and Bette attempt to use their best and most trusted weapon – their sexuality.

Nearing their sixties, these women don’t have much left to bargain with. Lange’s Crawford sums up the career of an actress as “ingénue, mother and gorgon”. When Aldrich first takes the movie to Warner Bros head Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci), he asks the director, “Would you fuck them?”

Sadly, things aren’t very different today. There are good roles and opportunities for a diverse spectrum of ages and appearances across big studios and independent producers. Women have been able to create small cracks in the glass ceiling to emerge as powerful actors, comedians, writers, directors and producers. Yet, the entertainment industry fails to be inclusive enough. Women still get paid less than their male counterparts. A successful male actor finds work in his fifties, while an actress finds herself replaced by younger actors.

The actresses are more alike than dissimilar – both are single mothers, ambitious and egoistic. Lange and Sarandon are flawless and powerful. Sarandon looks uncannily like Davis and captures her unapologetic attitude and commitment to perfection with charm and ease. Lange is as much a picture of regal grace as of insecurity and vanity.

The show is full of the most delicious form of bitchiness, enviable sass and the right amount of gloss and glamour. The writing is quotable, and more than one dialogue may survive the clutter to emerge as some of the year’s intelligent and succinct insults.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was an instant success and gave Davis an Academy Award nomination, much to Crawford’s well-documented chagrin. The miniseries does seem capable of achieving similar (if not as groundbreaking) success. Feud has already been renewed for a second season, which will be aired in 2018 and will be titled Charles and Diana, discussing the relationship between Princes Charles and Princess Diana.