Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte

A few years before this film came out Bette Davis penned her first set of memoirs, The Lonely Life. She might well have been setting the stage for this film, Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.

Bette is a lonely old spinster woman who back in the day was set to run off with married lover Bruce Dern. Bette's father wouldn't hear of it and paid Dern off. But he wanted Dern to keep a scheduled rendezvous with Davis's character. In keeping that rendezvous Dern was done in with a well wielded meat cleaver.

She's lived in that old mansion, quite a showplace during her youth, for 40 years with only Agnes Moorehead her maid for company. Of course she was suspected in Dern's murder and a whole lot of legends have grown up about her as she's grown older.

People are terrified of who they believe is their own southern fried incarnation of Lizzie Borden. But during the film Bette is more put upon than anything else by some rather unscrupulous people.

Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte is Davis's obligato to her well received Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. She's joined in this film by former work colleagues, Olivia DeHavilland, Joseph Cotten, and Victor Buono.

Olivia's quite a wonder in this. She substituted for Joan Crawford who after the well publicized battles during Whatever Happened to Baby Jane decided she wasn't up to rematch. DeHavilland and Davis were old friends from Warner Brothers. And those of us who remember Olivia from her salad days at Warner Brothers will not be used to seeing her in the kind of role she has her.

Both Charlotte and Baby Jane were well done horror flicks. Unfortunately for Bette some of the later ones she chose weren't quite so good and didn't add anything to her reputation.

Following the success of camp classic 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?' (1962), producer/director Robert Aldrich once again cast Bette Davis in the lead for his follow up 'Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte', this time with Olivia De Havilland as her co-star. One might expect this to be an inferior imitation of Baby Jane, repeating that film's formula of outlandish melodrama and twisted characters, but although it does share some similarities with its predecessor (most notably, Davis's eccentric performance), I consider it to be the superior film, a gripping murder mystery that serves up a large helping of Southern gothic, grand guignol, and the macabre.

The film opens in 1927, at the antebellum mansion of the Hollis family, where patriarch Big Sam (Victor Buono) confronts John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), the married lover of his daughter Charlotte, and orders him to end the relationship. The next evening, during a party at the Hollis house, John meets Charlotte in the summerhouse and tells her that he no longer loves her; distraught, Charlotte runs away. Moments later, John is brutally murdered, his hand and head hacked off with a meat cleaver (this scene being surprisingly gory). Wandering into the party covered in blood and in a state of shock, Charlotte is ushered away by her father.

37 years later, Charlotte (Davis) still lives in the mansion, her father having used his connections to prevent his daughter from being charged or tried. The only other occupant is Velma the housekeeper (a wonderfully unconventional turn by Agnes Moorehead), but this all changes when Charlotte writes to her cousin Miriam (de Havilland), hoping that she can somehow prevent The Louisiana Highway Commission from evicting her from her home. Miriam comes to the house soon after, but helping Charlotte couldn't be further from her mind: with the help of old friend Drew (Joseph Cotten), she intends to push the already mentally fragile woman over the edge and have her certified insane so that she will gain control of the family fortune.

While perhaps not as iconic as Baby Jane, 'Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte' trounces that film's tale of bitter sibling rivalry with its engrossing mystery that, while not always unpredictable, provides bags of atmosphere, lots of suspense, and plenty of opportunity for Davis to do her demented thang. It also neatly switches things around at the halfway point, allowing De Havilland her chance to act deranged, the seemingly sweet Miriam proving to be just as nutty as her cousin. Also a delight to behold: Cecil Kellaway as insurance investigator Harry, who ties up the loose ends nicely.

Like Baby Jane, Sweet Charlotte is perhaps a little overlong for this kind of thing (under two hours would have been nice), but Aldrich maintains a steady pace, and the game cast (which includes silent movie star Mary Astor, as John's widow, and disaster movie regular George Kennedy as the foreman of the crew come to flatten Charloote's home) ensures that there is rarely a dull moment.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), a married man, is having an affair with Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis). When Charlotte's father, Sam (Victor Buono), a local bigwig (the town is even named after the family) finds out that John was planning on eloping with Charlotte, he demands that John tells Charlotte during a big party that he's breaking off their relationship. John ends up dead, and Charlotte is the likely suspect. Thirty-seven years later, Charlotte is still living as a recluse on her family's plantation, but now she is being forced to move, as a highway is going to be built across her property. Gradually, people come back into her life to ostensibly help her.

For at least the first 45 minutes to an hour or so into the film, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 10 out of 10. Unfortunately, given a 133-minute running time, director Robert Aldrich can't sustain the intensity for the length of the film, but Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte finishes as an 8 out of 10 for me.

Although there are some thriller and horror elements, both take up relatively little screen time. At that though, these elements are extremely effective. Some parts are surprisingly graphic for 1964--just enough to be a surprise and evoke the appropriate sense of shock. The best horror/thriller material in the film is in the haunted house vein, and for a time, we wonder if Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte is going to end up being a ghost story.

But the focus here is primarily on Charlotte and Miriam Deering (Olivia de Havilland) and their relationship to one another. Davis and de Havilland are both incredible in the film, and both go through a very wide range of emotions. Oddly, Agnes Moorehead (as Velma Cruther) was more recognized for her performance than the rest of the cast in terms of awards and nominations, with de Havilland receiving neither. Not that Moorehead wasn't good, but in my view, she wasn't the standout performance. However, that's just further fuel for my belief that the Academy Awards have little to do with rewarding the best films, actors and filmmakers.

There are also broader themes explored as a subtext, including the changing way of life in the southern United States between the early and mid-20th Century.

I subtracted two points because the film lost a bit of its momentum and direction in the middle, but the last half-hour is as exciting as the beginning.

It's tough to beat this for a good, deep cast: Bette Davsi, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorhead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, Mary Astor and Bruce Dern.

My favorite character in here was played by Moorhead. She was excellent as the eccentric (but very perceptive) housekeeper. I wish Kellaway's role had been bigger. It was interesting, too, to see such a young Dern. Davis looked really grotesque, but that was the idea. Kudos for her to not care about her looks.

Speaking of looks, the best feature in here might have been the cinematography. I have not seen this on DVD but I'd like to and wonder if it looks tremendous. It sure looked good on VHS. And that theme song! It is played throughout the movie and once you hear it, as I first did in the theater over 40 years ago, you never forget it.

My lone complaint is the length of the film. At 133 minutes, I think it would have been a lot tighter and better at about 110. However, even though there were definite lulls in the story, they were never that long in length.

Well, I loved Bette Davis' performances, as a rule. But I'm willing to bet that even NON fans of Davis would appreciate her tour in this particular movie. Following two years after "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is nevertheless four times the film of its more noted predecessor. The reasons for this are four=fold. The script, though occasionally unintentionally funny, is still crisper, more believable and contains a more satisfying ending. Next, Davis' is more balanced by the performances of DeHavilland, Cotton, a more mature Victor Buono, and the great Agnes Morehead. Thirdly, we have a better set and setting, more attuned to the genre. Finally, the cinematography is several notches better, in my opinion. Adding it all up, you have an exceptionally fine example of that unique genre, the gothic melodrama. In this movie, the genre is virtually defined! If asked to name an example to a "top twenty" or "top fifty" movie list, "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" would definitely make the cut.