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Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

December. 15,1964
|
7.5
| Drama Horror Mystery

An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.

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Protraph
1964/12/15

Lack of good storyline.

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SpunkySelfTwitter
1964/12/16

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

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Madilyn
1964/12/17

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

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Candida
1964/12/18

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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Mark Turner
1964/12/19

This past year a limited series ran called FEUD, this time around focusing on the behind the scenes feud between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, a long standing personal battle that resulted in flaring tempers as the two tried to resuscitate their careers with the film WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE. In the case of Crawford the result found her in some terrible movies while Davis went on to star in roles on TV and films. At the end of the series it discussed their reteaming under the same director, Robert Aldrich, for the film HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE. Their battle of wills resulted in Crawford being dismissed from the film and replaced by Olivia de Havilland and the film being completed. Why mention this? Because it provides an interesting backdrop when looking at the film now on blu-ray from Twilight Time.The movie opens in 1927 in the antebellum south with a party being held by Charlotte Hollis father (Victor Buono). Charlotte has made plans to elope with her lover John (Bruce Dern) but before this takes place her father confronts John with the fact that he knows he is already married. Realizing he can't leave with Charlotte he breaks off with her. That same night someone takes a meat cleaver to John and Charlotte is thought to be behind the killing.The story moves forward to 1964. The grand old house is in ruins and Charlotte lives their almost alone, an aging spinster with only Velma (Agnes Moorehead) there to keep her company. Times are worse than Charlotte realizes with the house set for demolition since a new highway is to be built here. Charlotte confronts the construction crew armed and after the sheriff intervenes is given days to move out.Seeking help Charlotte has convinced her cousin Miriam (de Havilland) to return and help her. Arriving from New York Miriam does her best, renewing her romance with local doctor Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotton) and trying to help. But as the days pass it seems that Charlotte may have gone mad over the ensuing years since Miriam left. She sees images of John at night and fears that her father, the man she thought murdered John all those years ago, is back as well.Something isn't quite right here and we as viewers know it. Velma does her best to keep Charlotte calm and suspects that something is amiss. But just who is behind it we're not sure. Was John really murdered all those years ago? Did Charlotte actually do it and now is racked with guilt over her actions? Or is there some other mystery long buried over the years that is only now playing out? The film offers a solid Gothic style mystery, one where a number of potential solutions are presented. Davis performance would seem a bit on the hammy side if it weren't for the fact that the method she employs here adds credulity to the character of Charlotte and her eccentric ways. Aldrich, who moved on to bigger and better films like THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE LONGEST YARD does a great job of bringing his cast together to offer performances that are among their best.If you read my reviews you may tire of hearing me saying this but yes, Twilight Time has brought a great looking offering here with a fantastic looking print. They've done a great job with extras this time around as well which include an isolated score track, audio commentary track with film historians David Del Vale and Steven Peros, audio commentary track with film historian Glenn Erickson, HUSH…HUSH, SWEET JOAN: THE MAKING OF CHARLOTTE, BRUCE DERN REMEMBERS, Wizard Work, TV spots and the original theatrical trailers. As always it's limited to just 3,000 copies so if you want one order today.

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elvircorhodzic
1964/12/20

HUSH...HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE is a mysterious horror drama which, in addition to the general madness on the surface, has a great deception designed in the background. This is a film about a mysterious murder, deceptions and torture. A gruesome and grotesque secret is hidden behind the walls of a luxurious mansion. „What ever happened to Baby Jane?" the second part...A Southern belle Charlotte is lonely in her house. She is haunted by personal tragedy of the past, which includes the murder of her lover. When a distant relative comes to stay at her mansion, tensions and conspiracy beginning to boil in a pot, in which the truths take human lives...The plot is a somewhat vague, and the procedures of the antagonists are predictable. Mr. Aldrich has offered, again, an array of shocking twists and turns, which include a harsh truth, but he, this time, did not take into account the probabilities. The truth in this story is something like waking up from a horrible nightmare. Mr. Aldrich has relied too much on the relationships between the characters, emotional turmoil and hidden intents.Bette Davis as Charlotte Hollis is a strange combination between a crazy old woman and confused lady. A melodramatic tone in her character is mixed with horror that surrounds her. Nevertheless, Ms. Davis has offered a great performance. Olivia de Havilland as Miriam Deering is a hidden devil under a curtain of goodness. The face of Ms. de Havilland is the embodiment of compassion and kindness. She can be a strong and shrewd woman, but a villain .... Joseph Cotten (Doctor Drew Bayliss) is too theatrical. Agnes Moorehead (Velma Cruther) is energetic and exciting as a loyal servant. Cecil Kellaway (Harry Willis) and Mary Astor (Jewel Mayhew) are pale appearance as a homing pigeon and an eternal enemy.This is not bad ... not at all.

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lasttimeisaw
1964/12/21

Originally a star vehicle to reunite Bette Davis and Joan Crawford after the runaway success of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), HUSH…HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE intended to continue cashing in on projecting their backstage rivalry onto the theatrical canvas of a grueling tale with a similar theme, with Robert Aldrich staying in the director's chair. But when the personal collision between Ms. Crawford and Ms. Davis escalates (as Aldrich, the intermediary, failed to juggle with these two high-maintenance divas this time), also for fear of being upstaged again by Ms. Davis, who insinuates herself into gaining an upper hand during the production for a showier role, Ms. Crawford bowed out completely from the picture by feigning illness, and Ms. de Havilland, a long-time friend of Ms. Davis, was brought to fill her shoes in the eleventh hour. Whereas the legendary off-camera feuding is still of great interest up to a point (Ryan Murphy has an upcoming series named FEUD, starring Susan Sarandon as Davis and Jessica Lange as Crawford, to chronicle the infamous anecdotes for today's audience), the movie per se is a marvel of its own. A prelude sets in Ascension Parish, Louisiana in 1927, effectively tampers its Dixieland gaiety with a grisly tinge when John Mayhew (Dern), a married man, is brutally butchered after his elopement plan with Charlotte has been thwarted by the latter's father Big Sam Hollis (Buono, in a brief but menacing performance bolstered by a heavy make-up to play a character nearly doubles his real age). Then, the story fast-forwards to 1964, 37 years later, Charlotte (Davis), now a faded southern belle, presumably the murderer of her beau, never gets married and lives alone in her father's mansion like a demented recluse, her sole accompanies are the housekeeper Velma Cruther (Moorehead) and Dr. Drew Bayliss (Cotten), who occasionally comes to attend to her well-being. When the estate is on the risk of being torn down by the government in favor of building a bridge, Charlotte seeks help from her cousin Miriam Deering (de Havilland), the only family member she has presently, invites her to stay under the same roof first time after the horrific happening, but many many strange things ensue to drive her further down into lunacy. The intriguing whodunit has been brilliantly contrived as a collision course of no-holds-barred collision course between two leads, and is fraught with pathos and suspense through its full- throttle noir atmosphere, actually, the picture must represent the apotheosis of chiaroscuro cinematography, captured to a mesmerizing effect by DP Joseph Biroc, lights, shades, shadows and facial close-ups all being flawlessly framed against the haunting tableaux where threats and secrets skulking insidiously in the darkness, just like Charlotte's disconcerting confession "It's only real when it's dark". The sequences blurring the line of reality and imagination are extraordinarily conceived and executed, sublimate its pulpy material to cinematic surrealism. But do viewers ever question Charlotte's sanity or regard her as a heartless murderer? No, not when Ms. Davis is is her absolutely most vulnerable state, unlike in BABY JANE, here she switches to the victimized party, tormented and devilled by a past trauma and can never let it go (and someone with an ulterior motive doesn't want her to do that either), battles solitude with delusion and paranoia, marvellously, even in such a passive position, she still obstinately hams it up whenever she feels apt, which injects a perverse defiance into Charlotte's fragile persona, and when she finally gets that vindication, Bette Davis raises again, in her immutably triumphant flair. As great as Ms. Davis in her utmost fearless attempt, it is Ms. de Havilland's sinister turn hits a more rewarding mark for my money, ever so rare, she sloughs off her front of elegance, benignancy and deference, to demonstrate how deceitful, nefarious and hell-bent she could be if given the chance, it is extremely tempting to envision what Ms. Crawford could've improved from her contrasting shifting. Dishearteningly, both these two-time Oscar-winners were snubbed in the Oscar race whilst the movie surprisingly racked up seven nominations (compared with BABY JANE's five but a win for Black & White costume design), so were Mary Astor as the widow Jewel Mayhew, the splendid two- scenes stealer (also it is her final appearance on the silver screen) and Cecil Kellaway, who even- temperedly portrays the reporter Harry Willis from London, introduces a pleasant scent of well- adjusted phlegm to counterpoise the heady melodrama. Only the protean Ms. Moorehead got her fourth and final Oscar nomination in her ostentatiously uncompromising appearance as the muttering caretaker of Ms. Charlotte, but her loyalty is cunningly motivated by the vested interest, she is feisty enough to fight for what she wants against all odds, only too gormless to reveal her intention too early when standing in a perilous position, which is the same fatal mistake the villains eventually make - celebrate too soon when they still have one more show to play, a slightly bathetic feeling transpires when everything is said and done, that swell sensation from the finale of BABY JANE is seemingly nowhere to be found this time.

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Spikeopath
1964/12/22

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller. It stars Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway and Mary Astor. Music is by Frank De Vol and cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc.It's 1927, the Louisiana plantation home of Sam Hollis (Victor Buono), and Charlotte Hollis (Davis) is having an affair with a married man, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern). After a heated argument between Sam and John, John is brutally slain by an unseen assailant, only Charlotte appears on the scene covered in blood. Then it's the present day and just Charlotte and her house keeper, Velma (Moorehead), live at the Hollis mansion, Sam having passed away many years ago. Charlotte is mentally scarred from the echoes of the past, she's a recluse and seen by the townsfolk as the local mental case. As developers try to plough a road through the Hollis home, Charlotte sends for her cousin Miriam (Havilland), but then strange things start happening and Charlotte might once and for all tip over the edge.A bit long at 2 hours 13 minutes and a bit too bonkers at times, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte still comes out as glorious Guignol entertainment. The setting is perfect, a Baton Rouge locale of whispering trees and ominous foliage, the Hollis mansion a place of dark secrets, shadowy halls and mental disintegration. Biroc's black and white photography seems to revel in the misery and emotional turmoil that blows about the place, and the brilliant Aldrich unleashes delirious turns from Davis and Moorehead as the others play perfectly restrained foil. There's a strong mystery element driving the plot forward, because what we think is true may not actually be the case? The narrative deftly reveals back stories as film progresses, hints at means and motives dangle tantalisingly in the Gothic tinged air, and then the finale doesn't disappoint, it has some surprises in store and closes the picture down handsomely.Best served with a good helping of Sour Mash, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is Southern Gothicana with bells on. Or should that be Belles? 8/10

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