‘Feud’ gives ‘Baby Jane’ all-out love

For campy confirmation that the Oscars are taken too seriously, look to FX’s wonderfully over-the-top “Feud: Bette and Joan.”

That would be Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who are joined forever as the warring sisters in the 1962 horror film “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

“Baby Jane” runs 2 hours 15 minutes, and Davis is mesmerizing as the title character. “Feud,” starting Sunday, rolls on for eight parts, and the first five present Crawford (Jessica Lange) as more complicated and vindictive than Davis (Susan Sarandon).

This backstage standoff may mean little to people who don’t know old movies. But executive producer Ryan Murphy gives “Feud” the same intensity he lavished on the widely admired “People v. O.J. Simpson.”

Crawford saw “Baby Jane” as a comeback vehicle. Then Davis went all out as hideous Jane, a former child star who tortures her wheelchair-bound superstar sis, Blanche (Crawford).

Davis received a well-deserved best-actress nomination, but her co-star was snubbed. “Feud” presents Crawford and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis) as conspiring to deny Davis a third Oscar.

Anne Bancroft won for the uplifting “Miracle Worker,” and Davis’ chilling Jane was probably too way out for Oscar voters. Yet the sumptuous “Feud” and the magnetic stars will enhance the Oscar legend.

Sarandon portrays Davis as a lonely, prickly professional put off by Crawford’s silliness. “Feud” is more sympathetic to Crawford than “Mommie Dearest,” and Lange responds with a bravura turn as the damaged star.

The expert cast includes Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia de Havilland, who provide juicy insights into the feud. Alfred Molina plays stressed “Baby Jane” director Robert Aldrich, a referee between the stars.

Stanley Tucci portrays crass studio boss Jack Warner, who plotted to keep the stars fighting. They happily kept cutting each other down long after filming ended.

“Baby Jane” ends with a plot twist that changes everything you’ve seen. “Feud” suggests that the stars could have succeeded by working together, but then there would be no legend and we might not still be asking whatever happened to Baby Jane.

SUZANNE TENNER/AP Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis, left, and Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford in a scene from, “Feud: Bette and Joan,” premiering on FX Sunday at 10 p.m.