Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Robert Aldrich re-assembles a goodly number of the team from his 1962 hit What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?  including author Henry Farrell, screenwriter Lukas Heller, cinematographer Joseph Biroc and in the title role, Bette Davis, back as a loony spinster.

After a lengthy preamble (also a feature of the earlier film) establishing the Southern plantation setting and depicting a grisly murder we jump forward 35 years when Charlotte Hollis (Davis) is living in the mouldering remains of her Daddy’s house with her loyal housekeeper, Velma (Agnes Moorehead) still grieving the death of her married beau (Bruce Dern) whom she believes was murdered by aforesaid Daddy, although gossip has it that Charlotte did the deed. The Louisiana Highway Commission wants to build a road through her property and Charlotte asks her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Haviland) and Miriam’s former boyfriend Dr. Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten) to come and help her fight off the development.

Unsurprisingly the only elements of merit in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte are those that were not in the previous outing namely Olivia de Haviland and Agnes Moorehead. The former successfully plays against type and Moorehead is a treat as the curmudgeonly housekeeper. For the rest (Cotton is indistinguishable from any number of appearances as his usual urbane persona) this film is pretty much a retread of its precursor with Davis only marginally less florid but with the same drawn-out running time.

 

Want something different?