Bette & Julie, Joan & Gina (Image via Warner Bros.)
I'm very much enjoying Feud. I think Jessica Lange is sublime as Joan Crawford, and while Susan Sarandon is not up to the challenge of filling Bette Davis's shoes (she often sounds like she's trying to sound tough), she's not terrible and has her moments.
Lange as Crawford (Image via FX)
Overall, it's an entertaining look at a fantastic film's fascinating journey from desperate ploy to stay relevant to greatness. Gossipiy? Sure.
West German lobby card (Image via Warner Bros.)
It made me wonder a bit about the cast of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Of course, Crawford died in 1977 and Davis in 1989, and I remembered when Victor Buono — so deliciously desperate as Edwin Flagg in the movie — died very young, at age 43, in 1982. (Impossible to fathom that he was in his early twenties in Jane!)
There were very few other memorable faces in the film, but among them, future soap diva Anna Lee made an impression as the warring sisters' neighbor (she died at 91 in 2004), and of course Maidie Norman was wonderful as the righteous housekepper Elvira (she died at 85 in 1998).
Maidie as Crawford's smart-as-a-whip secretary in Torch Song. (Video still via MGM)
Norman had previously worked with Crawford on Torch Song (1953) — yes, the movie in which Crawford donned blackface:
That leaves the bit players and the kids:
