Psycho-biddy

Definition, themes, and influences

Psycho-biddy thrillers are a bricolage of many genre elements and themes: gothic, Grand Guignol, black comedy, psycho-drama, melodrama, revenge, camp, and even the musical. But neither of these, nor their combination, mark a particular film as belonging to this peculiar sub-genre.

A psycho-biddy film, by its very nomenclature, must possess a psycho-biddy: a dangerous or mentally insane woman of advanced years. Often times (but not always), there are two older women pitted against one another in a life-or-death struggle, usually the result of bitter hatreds, jealousies, or rivalries that have perculated over the course of not years, but decades. These combatants are often blood-relatives, and live a life of relative wealth.

The psychotic character is often brought to life in an over-the-top, grotesque fashion, emphasizing the unglamorous process of aging and eventual death. Characters are often seen pining for lost youth and glory, trapped by their idealized memories of their childhoods, and the traumas that haunt their past.

History

The genre began in 1962 with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

The film bolstered the flagging careers of its stars, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, whose real-life feud probably added a degree of versimilitude. It was the only time the two actresses worked together, and the making of the film, by all accounts, was hellish, the two women fighting constantly over their acting styles (Davis's Baby Jane is rendered in a highly theatrical, very loose style and Crawford's Blanche is created in very self-conscious, restrained "moments") and personalities. One example: Davis had a coke machine installed on the set; Crawford was the widow of Pepsi executive.

Baby Jane set many trends and more-or-less defined the genre: the theatrical performance, the trappings of wealth and Hollywood, and a psychologically complex heroine. Baby Jane goes quite insane over the course of the film, torturing her crippled sister and venting long-pent up hostilities and guilt. At the same time, it is Baby Jane Hudson who is often considered the more sympathetic character: Jane is trapped into the ill-suited caretaker role because her sister lies. To some, it might feel as if Blanche is merely recieving comeuppance.

The film was quite successful, garnering many Academy Award nominations, including one for Davis. She reunited with the film's director, Robert Aldrich, the book's author, Henry Farrell, and co-star Victor Buono for its "follow-up", Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Originally, Crawford was going to co-star as Davis's cousin, but Olivia De Havilland took the part: neither Davis nor Aldrich was ready for another hellish experience, and Crawford herself was upset about how she was overshadowed by Davis.

This time, Davis was not only the one going nuts, but the "officially" sympathetic character, who suffers exhausting mental anguish at the hands of her cousin (de Havilland) and her cousin's lover (played by Joseph Cotten). In this film, her character is again haunted by guilt (though this time the ante is upped from crippling to murder) and long-gestating family hatreds rule the day.

Charlotte is, more likely than not, the masterpiece of the genre, and certainly the most well-regarded. Many of the others were, to say the least, less inspired, but they do have their defenders and they gave older actresses, such as Ruth Gordon, Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Tallulah Bankhead, and Geraldine Page juicy roles of (some) psychological depth, instead of regulating them to matriachs and bit parts.

Notable films

Henry Farrell also wrote What's the Matter with Helen, and while not the most inspired entry in the genre, it does stand up as an archetypical, if not exemplary, entry in the genre. It features two older women (Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds), who move out to Hollywood during the hey-day of Shirley Temple. Their sons have gone to prison for a Leopold and Loebesque murder and the two mothers are on the run from a man who threatens to kill them in revenge. But the real danger is not an external, but a psychological one: the eponymous Helen (Winters), a religious fanatic who may have murdered her husband years before (and possibly led to her son's criminal behaviour), has a lesbian crush on her promiscuous roommate, Adelle (Reynolds). This leads to a less-atmospheric and more graphically violent climax that was to mark many of the future excursions into the genre.

The glamour (and decadence) of Hollywood is both a common Farrell theme and wealth in general a recurring one in the genre. Also, like Baby Jane and Charlotte, music plays an important role in Helen (and, Helen shares co-star Agnes Moorehead with Charlotte).

Who Ever Slew Auntie Roo is notable in that only one older woman (the slewn Auntie Roo, played by Shelley Winters) is featured prominantly in the cast, and that her victims are children. The children are surrogates for her own child, lost years ago; once again, the themes of deep-seated past guilt and youth are explored. The film itself is less-successful than others in the genre: the narration tries to tie the story in with that of Hansel and Gretel, and since it is told from the children's point of view, Roo's insanity is decidedly less poignant.

Wealth is a more prevalent theme than revenge in Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice. Alice (Geraldine Paige), a socialite, finds herself (apparently) penniless when her husband dies. She then begins hiring financially-independent older cleaning women, murdering them, taking their savings, and planting them in her garden. The corpses apparently make the ground quite fertile, and it's not until maid number four (Ruth Gordon), that someone begins to suspect something is amiss. For all the convolution in its plot, the film has a certain status as a cult classic, and is fairly well-regarded.

Most films in the genre conform to the Question word Verb Character name titling convention. There are, however, a few exceptions:

William Castle's schlock masterpiece, Strait-jacket, stars Baby Jane co-star Crawford as an ax-murderess who is haunted by both her past and a new string of ax-murders. The film is very high on camp, and at the film's close, the Columbia torch-bearer appears to be missing her head.

Die! Die! My Darling stars Tallulah Bankhead as

The Genre's influence

Though the genre is more-or-less dead, the influence of the psycho-biddy flick can be felt in many films. One example would be Requiem for a dream, the Darren Aronofsky film. A highly-technical anti-drug film, the most memorable and effecting performance is perhaps that of Ellen Burstyn, which owes quite a bit to psycho-biddy tradition. Aging unglamorously, pining for youth and the ability to fit in "the red dress", reality warping around her: the only thing that's really missing is the cruelty, back-stabbing, hidden secrets, and the trappings of wealth. Online film critic Harry Knowles in fact, trumpeted Burstyn's performance as being like Davis's in Baby Jane: one by which all other performances will be judged.