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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson" data-source="post: 434363" data-attributes="member: 5079">You&#039;ve made great points, I&#039;m not sure why you&#039;re resistant to connecting them.&nbsp; A grande dame in 2025 wouldn&#039;t look the same as in 1964, but that doesn&#039;t mean they can&#039;t exist.&nbsp; The heart of Baby Jane and Norma Desmond, and probably Cousin Charlotte, isn&#039;t the decay it&#039;s the desperation for lost youth.&nbsp; That&#039;s just as relevant today than decades ago; it just takes a different form. Regardless of how well plastic surgery techniques advance, there&#039;s something unsettling about people in their mid-60s and beyond trying to look 30.&nbsp; I can&#039;t attribute this so I&#039;ll just paraphrase: one can look old or one can look weird, but one will never again look young.I&#039;ve never seen the film so I can&#039;t vouch for its quality or even if it&#039;s peripherally a Grande Dame Guignol, but the premise of Billy Wilder&#039;s&nbsp; FEDORA (1978) is intriguing.&nbsp; An Old Hollywood star who is somehow eternally youthful but, as it turns out, not due to cosmetics or surgery, but by forcing her daughter to masquerade as her.&nbsp; (Wilder had wanted Dietrich and Dunaway -- the cheekbones match -- but Marlene was none-too-thrilled at the offer.)&nbsp; A variation of Norma Desmond to be sure; the delusion can take different forms, but the delusion is the key.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crimson, post: 434363, member: 5079"] You've made great points, I'm not sure why you're resistant to connecting them. A grande dame in 2025 wouldn't look the same as in 1964, but that doesn't mean they can't exist. The heart of Baby Jane and Norma Desmond, and probably Cousin Charlotte, isn't the decay it's the desperation for lost youth. That's just as relevant today than decades ago; it just takes a different form. Regardless of how well plastic surgery techniques advance, there's something unsettling about people in their mid-60s and beyond trying to look 30. I can't attribute this so I'll just paraphrase: one can look old or one can look weird, but one will never again look young. I've never seen the film so I can't vouch for its quality or even if it's peripherally a Grande Dame Guignol, but the premise of Billy Wilder's FEDORA (1978) is intriguing. An Old Hollywood star who is somehow eternally youthful but, as it turns out, not due to cosmetics or surgery, but by forcing her daughter to masquerade as her. (Wilder had wanted Dietrich and Dunaway -- the cheekbones match -- but Marlene was none-too-thrilled at the offer.) A variation of Norma Desmond to be sure; the delusion can take different forms, but the delusion is the key. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?