a must readAs you've surely heard by now, since it's one of the most striking actressy announcements in some time, Ryan Murphy's next anthology series will be called "Feud" and for its first season the subject is the über showbiz catfight: Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford. Bette & Joan's famous loathing for each other was not confined to just the horror classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) but the series will be confined there since that set is the natural place to dramatize. It was the only film the two combative actresses made together. After the success of Baby Jane, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was intended as a reunion but ultimately Olivia de Havilland (who had her own legendary feud with sister Joan Fontaine) took Crawford's place.
Since Ryan Murphy can't live without Jessica Lange he's cast her as Joan Crawford. It's a terrible call because their screen personas are antithetical...
Crawford's stardom sprung from her maniacally disciplined stone-cold artifice; Jessica Lange's power is all in her febrile quivering emotional rawness. In short: Lange may well give a great performance but it won't be of Joan Crawford if you catch the drift. Which is a pity. The second half of the equation is Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis which feels inspired and not just from the bug eyed beauty but also in the self-satisfaction, innate power, and stubborn temperament.
And then of course the Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina), Victor Buono (Dominic Burgess) and Maidie Norman (we don't know who is playing her) parts should offer actors plenty to work with for their Emmy campaign. Both Lange & Sarandon are ten years older than Crawford and Davis were at the time of Baby Jane. If Murphy continues to use his regulars who are about ten years older than their counterparts expect Angela Bassett in the Maidie role. There could be good drama there, too, since she rewrote her lines so the character would be less of a racial stereotype. Also of note for potential drama: Bette's teenage daughter at the time was in the film in a small role.
If we leave the set of Baby Jane this is the time period when Joan Crawford was on the board of directors of Pepsi and Christina, her daughter, was trying to establish her own (short-lived) film career. We will obvious leave the set occassionally as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis), and mogul Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) will both be dramatized.
Should we be excited or scared of this?
I haven't yet watched The People vs OJ but most people seem to think its Murphy's best work. So perhaps true stories are the way for him to go because his work on "original" material (American Horror Story, Glee, Scream Queens) is wildly inconsistent, even within the parameters of single episodes or, hell, single scenes. Feud sounds enticing but here's the problem: If you love a good screen catfight like I do, it's probably because you share my superpower of ignoring how problematic they can be in terms of misogyny. And Murphy is Kryptonite in this regard because he makes the ugliness under the entertainment value of bitchery constantly visible. Sometimes his work is downright misogynist; One of the reasons (aside from general lack of quality) that I quit watching Scream Queens early in its run was the ugly slurs about female genitalia coming from the mouths of actresses.
a table read for "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" before Crawford quit. Joseph Cotten to the left and Robert Aldritch in the middle. img src
I want to be excited for Feud but Murphy's projects always sound enormously appealing but they come out mangled and leave weird aftertastes. I wish he weren't the only prolific actressexual writer/director working in Hollywood because imagine his general environs (female melodramas within genre hybrids featuring multiple diva parts) being shaped by more than one mind. It's a bit like having to accept that Hollywood is always going to want Rob Marshall behind the camera every time they're funding a musical. Wouldn't it be sweet to have more than one voice speaking these languages?