I found my old 45 of this recently and listened to the song for the first time in years. Yes, it's lovely and deserved to go top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
I read that in the movie the song is sung by Al Martino. I looked for it on YouTube and listened to it. I like Patti's version better.
Who else found this movie scary when they first saw it? Isn't there a scene with a human head bouncing down the stairs?
I found my old 45 of this recently and listened to the song for the first time in years. Yes, it's lovely and deserved to go top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
I read that in the movie the song is sung by Al Martino. I looked for it on YouTube and listened to it. I like Patti's version better.
Who else found this movie scary when they first saw it? Isn't there a scene with a human head bouncing down the stairs?
It's scary in a campy sort of way. Bette Davis got another chance to be outrageous. The film was originally supposed to reunite her with Joan Crawford after WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but they famously didn't get along and Crawford quit. Olivia de Havilland replaced her and made a fine villian.
I found my old 45 of this recently and listened to the song for the first time in years. Yes, it's lovely and deserved to go top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
I read that in the movie the song is sung by Al Martino. I looked for it on YouTube and listened to it. I like Patti's version better.
Who else found this movie scary when they first saw it? Isn't there a scene with a human head bouncing down the stairs?
It's scary in a campy sort of way. Bette Davis got another chance to be outrageous. The film was originally supposed to reunite her with Joan Crawford after WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but they famously didn't get along and Crawford quit. Olivia de Havilland replaced her and made a fine villian.
Yes, Olivia de Havilland was good for that role.
Bits of the movie are coming back to me now. [Spoilers!] Doesn't Bette Davis push a gigantic cement flower pot off a balcony onto Olivia and her boyfriend, and then it shows Olivia dead under the broken flower pot with staring eyes?
I saw this as a kid when I was 11, and it made quite an impression. There was a long string of thrillers that I loved in those olden days. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" which I saw when I was 8, and "Psycho" when I was 7, "Homicidal" when I was 8, "Strait-Jacket" when I was 11, "The Birds" when I was 10. What a great time to be a kid and going to "scary" movies. The Poe Corman series. Just amazing times for those of us who remember.
The scene at the beginning of the film when Bruce Dern has his hand chopped off -- and we actually see the chopping and then the raw stump in close up was considered quite violent for its day -- one of the first "explicit gore" moments in a major studio Hollywood film as I recall. That moment was etched into my mind for weeks thereafter!
I adored the Patti Page single -- but the Al Martino version seems more apt in the film as it is a lament for a lost love by a male for a female. The Intrada release was one of those gobsmacking moments for me as I'd yearned for a release of the soundtrack for decades. And then, finally, there it is was in my hands and on my CD player. A great score and song.
It bugged me how the opening scene was set in 1927 but the women's hairdos were from 1964 (start watching this from 1 minute in). I don't think women wore their hair this way in 1927:
