Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte
With Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton.
US, 1964, DCP, black & white, 134 min.
DCP source: 20th Century Fox
The surprise box office success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? dared Aldrich to draw from the same lurid well of Gothic nightmares another black fable of a spinster trapped in a decaying mansion together with the macabre Oedipal phantoms that are her only companions. Bette Davis returns as the unhinged heroine whose beauty and sanity are fading into the dank, fragrant air of Hollywood’s fantasy Deep South, where the actress triumphed long ago as the indomitable Jezebel and the most arrogant of the Little Foxes. Yet times have changed, and Classical Hollywood's more polite innuendos of cruelty have crumbled to unleash the dark and sadistic forces that now ensnare Davis and perfume Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte with a feverish intensity and strangeness. The frenemy role of the long-lost cousin refused by Joan Crawford was gamely accepted by Olivia de Havilland, who glitters with feline charm and malice as she leads Davis and the film into a fascinating, gliding dance between reality and dream, between quaint Southern rituals and barbaric horrors.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Four Star Playhouse: The Squeeze, The Witness and The Hard Way
The Southerner
