The helpless disabled 'victim' stereotype can be seen in these two films, although both have a twist at the end, which counterbalances it to a degree.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is a film about two middle-aged show-biz sisters. The audience, and just about everyone in the film, is led to believe that, years ago, 'Baby Jane' Hudson (Bette Davis) accidentally hit her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) with a car while in a drunken stupor, forcing Blanche to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. The film reveals much later on that the circumstances surrounding Blanche's accident were very different. It was Blanche, humiliated by her sister at a party only moments before, who tried to run down 'Baby Jane' but missed her and struck a stone gatepost, snapping her own spine. Blanche still took revenge on her sister by fostering her feelings of guilt. Once she learns the truth after twenty-five years, Jane treats Blanche as a prisoner and torments her with unspeakable horrors. Made on a low budget, this film's success relied on the old stereotypes to become a big box-office success.
Wait Until Dark
Another seemingly helpless victim is blind Suzy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn) in Wait Until Dark. Suzy is independent and resourceful and learning to cope with her visual impairment, caused by a recent accident. Suzy's life is changed as she is terrorised by a group of criminals who believe she has hidden a baby doll they use to smuggle heroin into the country. Unknown to Suzy, her photographer husband (Efrem Zimbalist, Jnr.) took the doll as a favour for a woman (actually, a drugs courier) he met on an international flight, when she became afraid of customs officials. He brought the doll to the couple's New York apartment.
Alone in the apartment (her husband is away) and with the telephone line cut, Suzy must fight for her life against the gang, led by the violent Roat (Alan Arkin). The tension builds as Roat, aided by his gang, impersonates police officers and friends of her husband in order to win Suzy's confidence, gaining access to her apartment to look for the doll. Suzy is suspicious, challenging the idea of blind people not knowing what's going on in their environment. The climax of the film, a violent physical confrontation between Suzy and Roat in her darkened kitchen (where, supposedly, the blind woman has the advantage), is one of the most memorable and frightening scenes in cinema history. In the end, Suzy is saved, but not before every ounce of tension has been wrung from the situation of the ingenious, but nevertheless victimised, Suzy. Still, it gives a more positive portayal of blind people than many films that followed later.
These two films set up a winning formula for filmmakers, following such films as Union Station (1950, Rudolph Mate, USA) and leading to Witness in the Dark (1959, Wolf Rilla, UK), Manhunter (1986, Michael Mann, USA), Afraid of the Dark (1992, Mark Peploe, UK), Jennifer 8 (1992, Bruce Robinson, USA), Blink (1993, Michael Apted, USA), Mute Witness (1994, Anthony Waller, USA), In the Company of Men (1997, Neil LaBute, USA), Blind Terror (2001, Giles Walker, USA), and Red Dragon (2002, Brett Ratner, USA/Germany).
Make sure you prepare the ground by covering the material in the Introducing disability guidelines before looking at issues in any specific film.
