The Persecution of Youth?

Somewhen before Christmas I started going through stuff that I'd recorded on my DVR, but had never gotten around to watching.  Amongst these was the Hammer film Fanatic (1965), albeit in a US print, titled Die, Die My Darling.  This was a relatively early example of what is apparently known as the 'Psycho Biddy' sub-genre, a type of film that stars some fading female star considered by Hollywood to be too old to play leads any more, in a convoluted grand guignol style plot, emphasising the horrific elements.  This particular example starred Tallulah Bankhead and featured all of the tropes that the Hammer version of this sub-genre would re-use in subsequent variants - namely the crazy old female relative who imprisons and psychologically tortures a girlfriend of their son/grandson/nephew they deem unsuitable, in their rambling old house.  This one co-stars Stefanie Powers as the emperilled girl, a role she was pretty much too repeat in a subsequent Hammer entry in the sub-genre, Crescendo (1969), this time with Magretta Scott (although Joan Crawford was originally sought for the role) as the weird old lady.  It also threw in crazy twin .sons for good measure.  This sub-genre enjoyed a spurt of popularity during the sixties and - to a lesser extent - the early seventies, kicked off by Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which had starred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

But just why did Aldrich's film spark a sub-genre at this particular time?  The pat answer, of course, is that, by the sixties, there were plenty of ageing female film stars around, ripe to be exploited by producers taking advantage of traditional Hollywood's sexism and ageism to squeeze their stardom one last time by starring them in vehicles they wouldn't have touched with a barge pole during their prime.  I can't help but feel, though, that there was more to it than that and the popularity of these films, particularly the Hammer variation with young female heroines, is inextricably linked to the period in which they were made.  The most obvious sub-text is one of age's jealousy of youth - how else can one interpret scenarios where older women played by actresses who, in their youth, had been known for their beauty, imprisoning and persecuting attractive young women.  (Young women who are usually also threatening to usurp them as their younger male relative's main female interest).  Bearing in mind that the sixties saw the rise of youth culture in the west, with the young increasingly idolised in the form pop performers, film stars and fashion models, it shouldn't be any surprise that this sub-genre should flourish at this precise moment in time.  Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that those actually making films at this time were predominantly middle-aged, jealously trying to preserve their position against a rising tide of younger talent while at the same time trying to exploit it onscreen.  They doubtless found this sub-genre of film, featuring the persecution of youth by representatives of the old established order quite satisfying, playing to their own fears and insecurities.  Then again, I could be reading far to much into what, at the end of the day, are simply exploitation films.