Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland go head to head in 1964’s southern gothic suspense film, “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
was a follow-up to the surprise 1962 smash, What
Ever Happened to Baby Jane? While Baby
Jane was aptly released that Halloween, Charlotte
oddly opened during the 1964 Christmas season. Both fright films got mostly
good reviews and made money, but Baby Jane
was the one that stayed fixed in movie fans’ memories, with its comic horror
look at Hollywood. Still, Charlotte
succeeds as a straight-up southern gothic suspense film. While there are
numerous similarities to Baby Jane, Charlotte also has some surprises.

“Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte” was the 4th and last film that Olivia de Havilland &  Bette Davis co-starred together.

Aside
from the twisty tale, the top drawer cast really puts Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte over. Bette Davis, as Charlotte Hollis,
gets a raucous role to sink her teeth into. Davis’ son, Michael Merrill, said that
she initially didn’t want to play another hag horror role and thought the
script was too gruesome. Even after Baby
Jane, work and money for 50-something female stars were scarce, so Bette accepted
Charlotte.

Victor Buono’s a big daddy indeed, as Sam Hollis, who wants to make sure daughter  Bette Davis doesn’t become a Jezebel! 1964’s “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
starts with a prologue in 1927 at the Hollis family mansion. Patriarch Sam
Hollis is raging at John Mayhew, a married man who’s having an affair with his
young daughter, Charlotte. After some wrangling, John agrees to end it. At a
ball in the Hollis mansion, Charlotte’s married lover meets her at the “summer”
house. She doesn’t take the news well, despite John’s claims that he did love
her. Moments later, someone comes back. John thinks its Charlotte and whoever
the visitor is, they brought a cleaver that’s been used to open champagne cases.
The ball comes to a halt when Charlotte reappears with blood on her white ball
gown. Though she is never charged, everyone assumes that Charlotte butchered
John Mayhew. Cut to present day 1964, with eccentric Charlotte fighting the
authorities over moving out of the family manse, to make way for highway
construction. When Charlotte’s Cousin Miriam comes to help, it’s an even
bumpier ride.

Bruce Dern’s characters suffered grisly flashback demises in both 1964’s “Marnie” & “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Young Charlotte’s reputation is forever stained by the suspicion of murder of John Mayhew, in 1964’s “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

While
Bette Davis doesn’t hold back portraying Charlotte’s pepper pot personality, she
has subtle moments too, such as scenes with a curious reporter, played by Cecil
Kellaway. The same is true of Agnes Moorehead as brash but devoted maid Velma.
Moorehead is truly outrageous in some scenes, especially when she spars with Charlotte’s villains. Agnes has sly
silent moments as well as sincere ones, like when Velma aims to look out for
Charlotte’s welfare. The veteran character actress makes the most of her over
the top role and got a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination,
and winning a supporting Golden Globe.

Agnes Moorehead has a field day as fiesty housekeeper Velma, in 1964’s “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

As
Cousin Miriam, Olivia de Havilland makes one smooth villain. As the poor
relation taken in as a child by the Hollis family, Miriam returns at
Charlotte’s behest. Olivia’s honeyed gentility and wide-eyed concern harkens
back to her classic role as Melanie in Gone
with the Wind. Except this time, her southern cousin IS too good to be
true. One of Olivia’s few bad girl roles, she’s quite intriguing, and only goes
over the top like her other female co-stars when Miriam shows her
hand—sometimes literally!

Olivia de Havilland plays “sweet” Cousin Miriam in “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Barbara
Stanwyck said that she was never asked to play Miriam, as sometimes written, but
was requested to play Jewel Mayhew, John’s wife. Which Stanwyck turned down, as
the part consisted of two scenes. In this cameo role, Mary Astor as Jewel is
mesmerizing. Mary plays a dying woman in her final acting job, and plays the
role simply and hauntingly. Mary’s encounter with Olivia is zingy, and her long
scene with Kellaway is melancholy. Astor makes
every moment count.

Mary Astor is superb in her cameo role as Jewel Mayhew, the wife of Charlotte’s slain lover. From 1964’s Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

There
are several encore actors from Baby
Jane: Victor Buono plays Charlotte’s imposing Big Daddy, Sam Hollis;
Wesley Addy—Blanche Hudson’s “nice Dr. Shelby”—is the sheriff who must deal
with cranky Charlotte; and Dave Willock, Baby Jane’s beloved daddy, is the cab
driver who brings Miriam back to the scene of the crime.

Joseph Cotten was the original Dr. Drew! He’s Charlotte’s doc and Miriam’s ex-suitor  in 1964’s “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Joseph
Cotten offers his smooth southern charm, played with laconic humor, as Drew
Bayliss, Charlotte’s doctor and Miriam’s former beau. Cotton co-starred with
Bette Davis 15 years earlier, in her WB swan song, Beyond the Forest. George Kennedy just tangled with Crawford in Strait-Jacket, and does the same as head
demolition guy in Hollisport. Bruce Dern plays John Mayhew, Charlotte’s married
beau, in the prologue. Later, he’d work again with Davis, as one her criminal
sons, in a very special Gunsmoke
episode. Cecil Kellaway’s gentle scene stealing offers contrast to some of the
ladies and their scenery chewing. And
look for John Megna (Dill from To Kill a
Mockingbird) as the new kid who’s dared to go inside outcast Charlotte
Hollis’ mansion. Lillian Randolph, the beloved Annie of It’s a Wonderful Life, is one of the packing ladies; squeaky-voiced
Percy Felton is the funeral director; The
Waltons Ellen Corby and Helen Kleeb are local gossips; and Frank Ferguson
plays the local newspaper editor, while he was playing Eli Carson on TV’s Peyton Place.

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
has the same upsides and downsides as Baby
Jane. On the plus side, the cast is uniformly good, the story entertaining,
and the production values strong. The debit side is mostly director Robert
Aldrich’s weak points. While he’s a strong storyteller at his best, Aldrich’s
tendency to overstatement causes Charlotte
to run 2 and ¼ hours, and like Baby Jane,
about 15 minutes too long. Both movies have entertaining but lengthy prologues
and drag a bit in the last half. Both thrillers have some plot points that
don’t bear scrutiny. Also, both movies have theme songs that get reprised one
time too many!

Cecil Kellaway as a curious reporter & Bette Davis as Charlotte share some subtle moments in “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Among
the other similarities between Charlotte
and Baby Jane: Prologues that get a
kicker in the films’ finales; two outspoken housekeepers; Bette as a disturbed
daughter with daddy issues; Davis’ antagonists are charming phonies; dead
bodies that must be disposed of; and Charlotte and Jane’s last scenes are of them
being gawked at by onlookers.

Charlotte
and Baby Jane were made in the early
‘60s, when there was the last vestige of film glamour versus plot sense. In Jane, Joan Crawford’s invalid Blanche
still has lovely nail polish and lipstick despite having been a recluse for three
decades. In Charlotte, after Bette
Davis bravely threw down the glamour gauntlet as bizarre Baby Jane, is this
time out the star that sneaks in a little glam for her aging Jezebel. Though
Charlotte Hollis has seen only the maid and her doc for the last 35 plus years,
she still sports makeup mortician Gene Hibbs’ war paint. And wears high heels,
when not running around barefoot sporting a nightie and a shotgun! If only
Bette had sported a more authentic no-makeup look like co-star Mary Astor. But
then, maybe that’s why Bette was playing the title role and Astor had a
two-scene cameo. Interestingly, Olivia de Havilland shows her Paris way of life
in her own Dior wardrobe and chic bouffant, plus makeup that stays inside the
lines of her facial features!

“I thought this Gene Hibbs makeup was supposed to make me look younger!”

Much
has been made of Joan Crawford’s departure from Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I’ll only say that Joan could have
played the silky villain with assurance and style. In fact, Crawford played a
number of charismatic, insincere types for nearly 15 years before Charlotte. Who knows whether Joan left
because she was genuinely sick or just sick of sparring with Bette Davis.
Crawford claimed illness in another tense situation nearly two decades before,
on Oscar night of 1946, with similar speculation. What’s unfortunate is that some
Joan fans take out their ire on Olivia, who was a reluctant last minute
replacement. Crawford probably would have played in a grander style, closer to
Bette and Agnes’ performances. But Olivia’s casting against type, as a cool
villain is its own fun.

Joan Crawford was to play Cousin Miriam but claimed illness and dropped out.

Was this the sparkly dress that Olivia’s Miriam found slashed in the closet?

Trivia:
Was the sparkly dress that Olivia’s Miriam finds slashed in her closet the one
that Joan’s Miriam wore for the homecoming dinner scene? Also, I found it
amusing that Bette, who liked to slap co-stars as much as Joan did, chickened
out in the car scene where Miriam drops her mask. Though new Miriam Olivia was
a long-time friend and co-star, Bette asked that her slaps be faked, and it
shows! Finally, while a younger double is used for Charlotte, why on earth did
they use Bette’s 60-ish cigarette voice, where she attempted to sound younger?

And
typical of the mid-century moviemaking, the flashback scene of a ‘20s party
looks like a ‘60s prom with a flapper theme. Also unfortunate is that the only
blood on Charlotte’s dress is on her lap area! At least the other girls didn’t
throw tampons at her, like Carrie!

The
story/script by Henry Farrell and Lukas is most clever, despite some holes in
logic. The music by DeVol is atmospheric, and Joseph Biroc’s wonderful
cinematography is striking and truly adds to the mood. Also, I’ve visited one
of the two Louisiana’s mansions featured in Charlotte.
Miriam’s home is actually Oak Alley Plantation and it is stunning.

Mary Astor as Jewel, with a the reporter, played by Cecil Kellaway. Jewel’s home is  represented by the Oak Alley plantation. “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”

Here’s
my take on the legendary Baby Jane! https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2016/10/bette-and-joans-acting-duel-whatever.html

Here’s
the one other time Olivia played evil,
in The Dark Mirror! https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2023/07/10-takeaways-olivia-de-havilland-dark.html 

Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland aren’t exactly kissin’ cousins in 1964’s “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.”