Crawford moved to the stage.
What her exact expression was, what her bearing communicated, what the people in the audience saw on her face—these are things that subsequent accounts have described in considerable detail, and they should be treated accordingly. Davis later said Crawford wore “a radiant smile.” Others described her as composed, gracious, and professional. The specific quality of the expression is something that live witnesses interpreted through whatever lens they brought to it, and the accounts that have come down to us were recorded long after the moment itself.
What is documented is that she accepted the award, spoke briefly, and left the stage with the statuette.
Davis did not win.
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BETTE DAVIS AND THE AFTERMATH
Bette Davis’s reaction to the evening, and to Joan Crawford’s role in it, has been described in enough detail—by Davis herself, in interviews and accounts collected by biographers—that the emotional substance of her response is not really in question. She was furious. She believed she had been cheated. She believed Crawford had worked actively to produce this outcome.
Whether she was right about Crawford’s role is the question the evidence cannot answer.
What can be traced with some confidence is what happened next professionally. The two women were scheduled to appear together in a follow-up picture—*Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte* (1964), directed again by Robert Aldrich. The film was set in the Louisiana bayou and was similarly atmospheric to *Baby Jane*, similarly designed to exploit the voltage generated by two major actresses in conflict within the frame.