Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965)

"...a Grand Guignol romp from beginning to end...Long after you've watched the movie you'll be haunted by the soundtrack...  Don Willmott, FilmCritic.com
"...must-see viewing simply for Aldrich's atmospheric direction, and for its historical importance as Baby Jane's infamous "sequel"...  FilmFanatic.org

Editor's Note Bette Davis plays Charlotte Hollis, a hermetic spinster haunted by memories of her murdered fiancé. Charlotte, whose only social contact is with her maid, Velma (Agnes Moorehead), is crushed to learn that the state wants to tear down her mansion and put up a highway in its place. She calls on her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) for help, but Miriam fails to offer any assistance other than bringing in the family physician (Joseph Cotten) to have her troubled relative committed. As the nightmares of her fiancé continue to haunt her, Charlotte ends up fighting not only for the Hollis estate but for her sanity as well. Director Robert Aldrich resumes the electric collaboration with Davis begun in the terrifying smash hit WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Davis heads up the stellar cast (which includes Bruce Dern and George Kennedy in small, early roles and Mary Astor in her last film appearance) with a performance that radiates desperation, entrapment, and inevitable collapse. HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE provides a chilling investigation of a heartbreakingly demented mind.

	Agnes Moorehead
	Bette Davis
	Joseph Cotten
	Olivia de Havilland
	Bruce Dern
	George Kennedy
	Mary Astor
	Victor Buono
	Frank De Vol - Musical Score
	Henry Farrell - Writer
	Joseph Biroc - Cinematographer
	Lukas Heller - Writer
	Michael Luciano - Editor
	Robert Aldrich - Director
	Robert Aldrich - Producer
	Frank De Vol - Original Music By
	Joseph F. Biroc - Cinematographer
	Walter Blake - Producer
	William Glasgow - Art Director

New York Times
"Though Davis gives her standard spectacular performance, it's Ms. de Havilland who gets the chance here to show some range." 08/09/2005 p.E5

Entertainment Weekly
"Robert Aldrich's cast of great vets keeps mystery in the magnolia-scented air." 08/19/2005 p.127

DVD Town 8 of 10
I've always thought of "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" as a last hurrah for the Hollywood of old. Not only did it star of bevy of old-time stars--Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Mary Astor--it was shot in black-and-white...Not that this 1964 Robert Aldrich film was the last picture these actors ever made--far from it, except in the case of Ms. Astor--or that it was the last picture ever shot in black-and-white; but it was among the last memorable films these folks made together, and it was at the tail end of the great B&W era. Be that as it may, the movie is probably best known today as a somewhat campy if always engrossing exercise in Grand Guignol...Aldrich fills his story was all the elements of good film noir, with shadowy passageways and angular photography the order of the day. Equally important, he fills the story with enough quirky and suspicious characters to keep a viewer busy guessing for hours, and it all starts with Ms. Davis's Charlotte. Davis is made up to look as old and dowdy as possible, a stark contrast with the enduring beauty of cousin Miriam, whose radiant beauty doesn't seem to have succumbed to the same ravages of time as Charlotte's. - John J. Puccio