This
troubled follow-up to the hugely successful Whatever
Happened to Baby Jane? was all but completed,
with the re-teaming of stars Bette
Davis and Joan
Crawford, when Crawford’s
persistent illnesses brought production to a halt
(see Shaun Considine’s wickedly gossipy book,
Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud for the fascinating
details).
The
company aimed high for a replacement: not surprisingly,
grandes dames Vivien
Leigh and Katharine
Hepburn both turned down the role in this Southern
Gothic melodrama, which eventually went to Olivia
De Havilland.
The
Greek Revival mansion with its three-story spiral
staircase (watch out for those bouncing heads) is
the Houmas
House, 40136 Highway 942,
just west of Burnside
on Route 44, between New
Orleans and Baton
Rouge in Louisiana.
The
house, which has also been seen in Moon
of the Wolf (1972), Mandingo
(1975) and Fletch Lives
(1988) among others, is open for tours, conducted
by impressively knowledgeable guides in Antebellum
costume.
HARD
COPY:
For the details of the filming locations of 1,600
of your favourite movies, check out The
Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. 464 pages
of fascinating facts, illustrated with over 1,000
original photographs.
