Why I made the list:

I recently rewatched the excellent first season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud, about the bitter rivalry of actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and the making of the iconic film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

This led me to realize that the success of that film spawned a whole sub genre of movies about older women becoming mentally unhinged, colloquially known as hagspolitation or psycho-biddy, many starring Crawford and Davis themselves.

However, the trend expanded to showcase other past-their-prime golden age actresses such as Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Page, and Olivia de Haviland, all playing either monstrous spinsters or helpless victims of manipulation and gaslighting.

So, after learning that there was quite an extensive filmography of such films, I set out to watch as many as I could to rank the top psycho-biddy films!

I stuck to the heyday of the genre, the 60s to the early 70s, and excluded any later films that might fall into the label, such as Mommy Dearest (1981) or Flowers in the Attic (1987).

So, let’s dig in!

The Nanny (1965)

In the last Hammer horror to be filmed in black-and-white, Bette Davis plays a mentally unstable nanny who struggles to keep order after one of her young charges returns from a school for emotionally disturbed children. She attempts to maintain a facade of grace and duty as the family still reels from a vague tragedy 2 years earlier involving the youngest child, Suzy.

Young Joey is described as having an ‘inborn antipathy against middle-aged females’ and the boy is a positive terror towards the nanny on his return, acting unruly and difficult, pulling cruel pranks, and becoming practically homicidal towards her.

The reasons why are gradually revealed, as the mystery of what happened to Suzy comes into focus. The plot of The Nanny is thin and the solution to the mystery somewhat predictable, but Davis holds the attention with a mix of sing-song voice and gentle determination combined with a terrifying ability for self-preservation and denial.

What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971)

Set in the 1930s, the bizarre story of What’s the Matter with Helen? sees 2 middle-aged woman cheerily up and leave rural Idaho to start a dance studio for children in California – after their sons have just been convicted of a murder!

Once in Hollywood, the vivacious and optimistic Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) and the dowdy, fervently religious Helen (Shelley Winters) attempt to start a new life. However, tension arises as Adelle just wants to move on while Helen can’t seem to let go of the past and begins to slowly unravel. Then, an accidental murder both binds them together and pits them against each other.

The dance studio plot seems like an excuse to let Reynolds bust some moves, which she admittedly does very well. Also, as in Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971), Winters does a good job at playing unhinged (the actress was apparently suffering a real-life nervous breakdown at the time).

The supporting cast is also fab – Michéal Mac Liammóir is entertaining as a flamboyant elocution teacher, while Agnes Moorehead appears as an evangelical radio preacher.

Straight-Jacket (1964)

Joan Crawford’s second foray into hagsploitation after What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Straight-Jacket is a gimmicky thriller from the master of horror film gimmicks, William Castle, penned by Psycho writer Robert Bloch.

Crawford plays a woman who was convicted of murdering her husband and his lover 20 years before and is now tentatively released from an asylum into the care of her remaining family. The film largely generates its tension from Crawford’s fragile mental state, as a variety of triggers seem set to pull her back into her ax-murdering ways.

Crawford is actually really good in this film, transcending the low-rent material to give a jittery and fragile wonder of a performance. There are few surprises in the film apart from a batshit crazy last-minute twist, and it ends with an unconvincing exposition dump.

But the leading lady is great and the film is fun in a schlocky way. Crawford would later reunite with Castle for another film in the genre, 1965’s I Saw What You Did – an equally entertaining story of 2 teen girls harassing people with prank calls to murderous effect.

The Night Walker (1964)

Castle’s second collaboration with Bloch, The Night Walker, sees Barbara Stanwyck play a woman seemingly suffering from vivid dreams/nightmares in the wake of her possessive husband’s death in a mysterious accident. Disturbed by the realistic nighttime excursions, she enlists the help of the family lawyer to help figure out fantasy from reality.

Stanwyck is engaging in the lead role, and there are some trippy dream sequences, including an opening barrage of surreal imagery amid ominous narration, and a faux-marriage in a chapel overseen by a waxwork mannequin pastor.

The musical score is a bit too loud and intrusive and the plot is convoluted, but in an immensely entertaining way. Plus it ends with a bonkers villain reveal and not one but two evil mastermind monologues.

Lady in a Cage (1964)

Lady in a Cage is an economical thriller that, true to its name, revolves around a well-to-do older lady (Olivia de Haviland) who becomes stuck in her home elevator.

But because this premise would be a bit of stretch to fill out a feature alone, the woman is also terrorized by a succession of unwelcome visitors. These include a bum who breaks in looking for booze and a trio of unhinged street hoodlums seeking sadistic thrills while they loot the place.

De Haviland ably carries most of the claustrophobic drama with a subtle performance that conveys her increasing desperation, while a very young James Caan is suitably menacing as the lead aggressor.

The film is very well-edited and throws in a strong seam of social commentary, as the drama inside the house is frequently contrasted with the uncaring wider world bustling on outside, oblivious to the woman’s desperate plight.

Dead Ringer (1964)

This noirish thriller gives Bette Davis 2 juicy dual roles as polar opposite twin sisters, and she dives in with expected gusto.

The (somewhat convoluted but immensely enjoyable) plot of Dead Ringer concerns a bitter woman who sees the chance to steal her more successful sister’s life, promptly murders her, and then carries on with her twin’s affairs.

The fun comes from seeing Davis try to slip into her sister’s shoes and evade suspicion (her die-hard tobacco habit almost gives her away a few times, the closest the 60s has to an anti-smoking ad). There’s also a healthy dose of plot twists to keep things interesting.

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)

In the first scene of this over the top-thriller, the recently widowed Mrs. Marrable (Geraldine Page) is dismayed to learn that her supposedly rich husband has left her nothing but old butterfly and stamp collections.

This is apparently enough to send her over the edge, as in the very next scene, it’s revealed she’s moved to Arizona and has come up with a get-rich-quick scheme involving bumping off her hired help. She steals money they’ve given her to invest in stocks, buries their bodies under newly planted pine trees in the backyard, and then promptly hires a new elderly housekeeper.

After we see a couple of these callous enterprises go down, it seems that Helen (Ruth Gordon of Rosemary’s Baby fame) is going to be the next victim. But the wily old woman turns out to be much more than she seems, and more than a match for the demented Mrs. Marrable.

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? gives both of its veteran performers entertaining characters to chew on, and Page in particular proves to be wildly entertaining as the despicable Marrable, who cackles with glee after each murder. Her attempts to deal with a meddling dog who threatens to dig up incriminating evidence and her eventual scrappy showdown with Helen are a joy to watch.

Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)

This Hammer production, also known as Fanatic, gives a good idea of what to expect right from its opening titles: neon-colored footage of a cat chasing a mouse.

The ‘hag’ in this film is an intensely religious fanatic, the totally insane Mrs. Trefoile (played by Tallulah Bankhead), who thinks that red is the devil’s color and that condiments are evil. She also insists on performing her own church services at home with her servants because she finds the local minister too progressive.

Trelfoile, upon learning that her deceased son Steven’s ex-fiancee Patricia doesn’t measure up to her strict religious code, decides to hold the poor woman hostage in her rickety old house.

There, she attempts to sway Patricia (Stefanie Powers) away from her supposedly sinful ways by reading sermons at gunpoint. Things quickly escalate and Patricia attempts to escape, but this only further fuels Trelfoile’s wrath, and she enlists her vicious maid Anna and sadistic butler Harry as brutal enforcers to keep her in line.

Die! Die! My Darling! is full of effective scenes, including the many clashes between Patricia and Trefoile and her minions. And there’s a surprisingly disturbing sequence where a grinning assailant with a face half-lathered in shaving cream chases the protagonist down in a forest.

The screenplay, by I Am Legend‘s Richard Matheson, is superb and gives both Bankhead and Powers plenty of memorable dialogue. Bankhead gets some moments to truly chew up the scenery as Trefoile, including the scenes where’s she’s alone and wailing out to Steven, and one in which she guns down a double-crosser and then goes into full on-psycho mode.

Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

As close to a follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? as it gets, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte was also directed by Robert Aldrich and set to reunite its 2 leading ladies, until Joan Crawford was replaced by Olivia de Haviland during the production.

As it is, Bette Davis plays an aging Southern belle who haunts her old plantation house, still traumatized after her domineering father thwarted a planned elopement in her youth. What’s more, her intended beau was then subsequently brutally murdered during a lavish party, leaving Charlotte the prime suspect.

She’s never managed to shake the stigma, and has become a recluse and somewhat mythic figure in the aftermath (the local children sing songs about her having hacked her lover to death).

Her stilted existence is interrupted by an attempt to tear down the house to make room for a freeway, and then by the arrival of a cousin (de Haviland) who professes to want to help manage the estate but who may have ulterior motives.

Most of the pleasures of the film come from Davis’ performance, as she makes a strong impression from the moment she manically tries to stop the demolition crew by toting a rifle. Her gradual unraveling in the face of gaslighting makes the mystery of her past engaging till the end, and there are juicy supporting turns from Agnes Moorehead as a housekeeper and Mary Astor as a prime suspect.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The mother of all Hagsploitation films, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is legendary for both its on-screen and off-screen battle of wits between leading ladies Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. As it’s set in and around old Hollywood and has faded actresses as its protagonists, it has a meta quality that many other psycho-biddy films lack.

Davis stars as Baby Jane Hudson, a washed-up former child actress who ‘cares’ for her former movie star sister Blanche (Crawford) in their delapidated mansion, after Blanche was injured in a car accident.

As Blanche eventually had the more successful career, Baby Jane has become bitter and resentful of her, routinely humiliating her sister and keeping her shut off from the world.

When Blanche makes plans to sell the house and move out on her own, as well as arrange psychiatric care for her sister, Baby Jane becomes increasingly unhinged and abusive towards her and seeks to totally cut Blanche off from the world.

The film is full of positively iconic scenes, and gives the 2 actresses some particularly choice dialogue to chew on. The fact that the 2 screen legends were also supposedly at each other’s throats between takes just makes everything more campy and entertaining.

Although Crawford is good at playing sorrowful and restrained, Davis has by far the showier role and really goes for broke: her haggard look is simply iconic and she gives a shrill and unhinged wonder of a performance as a conniving and terrifyingly manipulative terror of a person.

Honorable Mention: Berserk (1967)

Perhaps the most purely enjoyable haspolitation film aside from the greats, Bersek is anything but subtle, but has enough enjoyable elements to make it a campy delight.

Joan Crawford is perfectly cast as the domineering owner of a circus, determined that the show must go on even as a series of murders plagues her big top.

Most of the runtime is padded out with lengthy scenes of the circus acts, but what drama there is is delicious, as Crawford manipulates and threatens the circus folk to get her own way.

Plus, Crawford looks absolutely fabulous throughout in a range of extravagant outfits, not least in her sexy ringmaster get-up.

So, what did you think of my pick for the best psycho-biddy films? Any egregious omissions? Let me know in the comments!