Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
To be shown: 12 November 2007
To be introduced by JFS Patron, Harry Patterson
USA 1964.
Director: Robert Aldrich.
Starring: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton.
Certificate 15. 133 minutes.
Synopsis
Bette Davis plays Charlotte Hollis, a wealthy spinster from the Deep South, living in the decaying plantation where she grew up, with only her crotchety maid Velma (Agnes Moorehead) for company. All the folks around believe Charlotte killed her lover (Bruce Dern) 40-odd years ago and, although she was never convicted, she has been ostracised ever since. This isolation, plus strange visions of the murdered man, has driven her towards madness.
One day the Louisiana Highway Commission tells her she's to be evicted from the house, which has been in the Hollis family since the Civil War. They plan to build a bridge in its place. Naturally, she is determined to stop this and calls upon her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) to help. Miriam agrees but it soon becomes obvious that her interests do not coincide with Charlotte's. After all, she is next in line to inherit the estate...
For 1964 this movie has a surprisingly graphic opening, the gory murder scene, and the viewer is kept guessing as to Charlotte's guilt as the story slowly unfolds. Indeed, just how mad is she now? Is Miriam right to think she needs to be put in an asylum? What secrets will the house reveal if it is pulled down?
The plot may be a little lightweight but the performances make this film a real treat to watch. As in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (1962), Davis goes over the top in portraying the tormented woman and this time she is ably assisted by Moorehead, (who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as the wise-cracking Velma). They endlessly shriek and bicker, presenting an interesting contrast to de Havilland's understated Miriam. Usually cast as the good girl, De Havilland is terrific as a baddie and it was she who persuaded the director that Miriam should have "exquisite manners, exquisite courtesy — then she becomes really dangerous... It's always the charming ones of evil intent who are the dangerous ones".
Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte was based on a short story by Henry Farrell, who had also written "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and at first it was to be called "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?" It was later changed to avoid people thinking it was a sequel and the new name came from the title song, which had already been written.
Not a movie to be taken too seriously, it is great fun They don't make them like this anymore!
Notes
As filming started Joan Crawford took sick and was hospitalised so scenes were shot around her. When it became evident that she would have to be replaced, her role was offered to Katharine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh. Hepburn didn't return the studio's call, while Leigh declined, saying, "No, thank you. I can just about stand looking at Joan Crawford's face at six o'clock in the morning, but not Bette Davis'."When Miriam Deering (Olivia de Havilland) is preparing to close up the house in anticipation of moving out, she is packing a box which is stencilled "Sam Strangis Storage & Transfer, Baton Rouge, LA.". Strangis was the assistant director on this picture.
The film was shot at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, just south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The home and grounds are now open to the public and if you take a tour the guide will point out several bits of trivia pertaining to the film, including the bedroom where Bette Davis slept while filming.
When cousin Miriam's taxi pulls up at the foot of the steps, if you look closely before she gets out you can just for a split moment see it is in fact Joan Crawford in the back and not Olivia de Havilland. You can't see Crawford's face but you can tell it's her by the black dress and dark sunglasses that she is wearing. De Havilland was wearing a white hat and light-coloured clothing.
In Belgium the title is "Berceuse pour un massacre", which rather gives the game away.
In the ballroom dance scene near the beginning of the film, the women's hairstyles are 1964 vintage, rather than in 1927 style as the scene calls for.
Released in the USA on 15 December 1964, it took 42 years to reach Italy where it was screened at the Turin Film Festival on 13 November 2006.
Disturbed by a noise in the middle of the night, Miriam gets out of bed and puts a revolver in the pocket of her negligee. Shortly after, a wind storm whirls the gown around her head, something that could never occur if there was actually something as heavy as a gun in her pocket.
"...beautifully shot and contains enough scary sequences amid the brooding, tense atmosphere. Splendid performances from Davis and Moorehead, too." – Geoff Andrews, Time Out Film Guide
When she was 9 years old, Olivia de Havilland made a will in which she stated "I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan (Joan Fontaine), since she has none".
Whilst her belongings are being packed up by the servants, a haggard Charlotte wanders through the house wearing no make-up. But the minute she sees an insurance investigator in the yard, she's suddenly wearing lipstick, eye makeup and looking years younger.
Joseph Cotton said "I didn't care about the movies really. I was tall. I could talk. It was easy to do."
Barbara Stanwyck was originally going to play Jewel Mayhew, widow of Charlotte's lover, but this cameo role eventually went to Mary Astor. It was to be Astor's last film.
Bruce Dern's Godmother was Eleanor Roosevelt.
