Bette & Olivia ain't exactly kissin' cousins in "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte!"

Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland lead a cast of pros in old-school suspense, 1964's "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Once again, Davis is a cracked belle, thought to have committed a crime in her youth. Flash forward to present day, when Bette's Charlotte faces demolition of her home, and Olivia's Cousin Miriam comes home to help. Joseph Cotten is the charming doctor & Agnes Moorehead's the hellion housekeeper. Mary Astor underplays to brilliant effect as the widow with a secret. Great gothic fun! My look at "Charlotte":

A shame Joan didn't star, leave Livvie to her killer bees

I would love to see any of the footage shot with Joan Crawford. I love Olivia but Joan would’ve been so much better in that role, especially the slapping scene in the car.

TCM will offer a rare view on their channel of "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 10 pm/ET. Unfortunally, the intro/outro will be hosted by the annoying Mario Cantone...

I love Mario, you hateful petty bitch.

I really admire and enjoy Robert Aldrich’s psychohag thrillers. This one, in particular, for Olivia De Havilland. She is styled so beautifully in this film, and she presents this thin varnish of sweetness and concern for her cousin, only to show herself to be a truly corrosive shithead in the end.

That one scene in the car late at night where she turns to Davis’ character Charlotte with this mask-like face and bitch slaps her (double) pretty viciously. She growls and hisses “NOW will you SHUT YOUR MOUTH?!”

Joseph Cotten turns out a great greasy chump of a character, all confused by Cousin Muriel’s masterful bitchcraft when she admits to blackmailing Jewel Mayhew for years. It’s super satisfying to see these two dispatched, crushed by a huge cement planter. It’s excellent. The quick cut of De Havilland’s face registering her imminent death and her piercing scream was pretty shocking at the time.

I think Agnes Moorehead’s accent as Velma Cruther has been criticized, but I really like her in almost everything she appeared in.

I like this better than Baby Jane.

The endings of both films were fucking sublime.

I liked Hush.. Hush Sweet Charlotte for all that drippy, southern, two-faced, back-stabbing drama. Like Tennessee Williams on meth 😜

Matthew Martin and Varla Jean Merman do a wicked take off on "Sweet Charlotte." Here's the car scene...

These films can be seen in really crisp and clear prints, and the cars and costumes feel like looking into a Time Machine.

Aldrich admirers probably savor the performance Geraldine Page turned out as Claire Marrable, the pretentious but secretly broke old bag who hires lonely old spinsters as companion homemakers, then brains them with a shovel and steals their savings. It’s all so garish and campy, and great. Aldrich did the most amazing things with these older actors. It’s really cool.

Gay icon Victor Buono followed Bette from "Baby Jane" into "Charlotte."

I wonder why they didn't keep the original title, "Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?"

"Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice" is IMO the best of the three. Page is remarkable and her thin veneer of gentility - with rage seething under it every second - is amazing. There are some terrible supporting performances, alas.

Every eldergay as a gayling LIVED for Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte’s turn in the late-night and Saturday afternoon broadcasts of old movies.

As kids we sang the parody version...

Chop Chop Sweet Charlotte

Chop chop ‘til he’s dead

Chop Chop Sweet Charlotte

Chop off his hand and head.

I love how Olivia turned down A Streetcar Named Desire because Blanche was not a lady in her eyes, but she agreed to do this schlock.

R19 A dozen years later, maybe she needed the money. Plus she wasn’t originally chosen, Joan Crawford was. I seem to remember Bette asked her.

Olivia said she made 3 films with Bette, but it was 4 including HHSC.

This is the only movie where I think Agnes Moorhead turns in a bad performance.

They were no Cathy and Patty.

R23, and to think she won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for it

Rick, I enjoy your fun and informative movie posts.

Agnes looks positively glum when Malden announces her name. Despite winning the globe, she probably thought she didn’t have a hope in hell of winning, considering her previous three nominations came from prestige projects, not a hagsploitation movie.

[quote]TCM will offer a rare view on their channel of "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 10 pm/ET. Unfortunally, the intro/outro will be hosted by the annoying Mario Cantone...

Dude, the reason TCM will offer a rare view of "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is because Mario chose it.

Bette and Olivia must have liked each other as the hauled all over the NY area together opening weekend.

I believe Bette once said that Olivia was one of her few movie-star friends.

Bette’s other movie star friends:

Paul Henreid

Claude Rains

Geraldine Fitzgerald

Debbie Reynolds

Mary Astor as Jewel Mayhew was terrific, they should have given her a few more scenes...

Cecil Kellaway and Bette were very charming in their scenes together...

fun thread

Now I have to go watch it.

R27 - Agnes was still bitter about her breakup from Karl.

This thread needs Hag Mash...

Joan had the last laugh—she had a cameo role at the film’s ending after all, hiding curled up inside the huge concrete container that Bette pushed over the ledge onto deHavilland and Cotten!

"What do you think I asked you here for.......COMPANY?!?!?!!!!!?"

42! Yeah, I want that for my voice mail!

Here's Bruce Dern telling some bullshit stories about working as a young actor on "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Aside from some questionable personal interactions with the stars, his specifics about Davis, Crawford, de Havilland, and Joan Fontaine are just factually false. But hey, gotta feed the social media...

Lots of innacuracies, r44. He has an active imagination - or dementia is kicking in, maybe.

Yes but I can believe Davis acted this way.

[Spoiler Alert]

I really enjoyed this movie but when I realized it shared the plot of Les Diaboliques I lost interest quickly. I need to watch again if only to appreciate the camp factor and the performances of the leads.

[quote]Bette and Olivia must have liked each other as the hauled all over the NY area together opening weekend.

How cool it must have been for movie fans go to the local bijou and have not one but two genuine movie stars show up, both double Oscar winners to boot.

Between "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" & "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" they earned 12 Academy Award nominations including Bette's Best Actress for "Baby Jane".

I well remember going to a Saturday matinee to see HHSC alone back in 64. Never should have done that. Scared the living bejeesus out of my young self.

My dad had a huge crush on Olivia Dehaviland. Also Piper Laurie.

I always thought that spoke well of him.

That’s all I’ve got on this subject. Carry on.

I disagree that Crawford would have been a better Miriam. For the film to work, you need an actress who can keep you guessing for a while, and even basic nuance wasn't Crawford's strong suit, especially at that point of her career. Watching de Haviland turn nasty is more of a shock.

Regarding AUNT ALICE, Aldrich produced that film but he didn't direct it. Lee H. Katzin, who mostly did TV, directed it, which may be why it has the look of an ABC Movie Of The Week, in spite of the on-screen talent.

"Why, you're just a vile, sorry little bitch!"

That's what I want for my voice-mail greeting.

[quote]which may be why it has the look of an ABC Movie Of The Week, in spite of the on-screen talent.

Good description, r51. I saw it when it came out and it felt like Page was slumming.

When Joan left the film, her role was offered first to Vivien Leigh, who famously declined with the remark:

"I could almost stand to look at Joan Crawford's face at 6 am, but not Bette Davis."

Sorry but I find Olivia dull. Not a fan. She is no Joan Crawford. Even the way she plays that car scene is so boring. She was best doing simpering or slow-witted which is why The Heiress worked out so well for her, with the enormous help of William Wyler. She couldn't play sophisticated as well as her sister. To see her being really godawful and out of her depth watch her musical number in Thank Your Lucky Stars.

Here's the great car scene, where Miriam (Olivia) drops her genteel mask once and for all. She and Bette are terrific. Joan would have been great, too, but in a grander way, more similar to Bette...

Changing Times:

Jane clearly says "bitch" in WHTBJ, but her voice is obscured by Blanche's persistent buzzer.

Charlotte just comes out right and says "vile bitch" in HHSC.

The films were only a couple of years apart. They were made near the end of censorship. Then came "Who Afraid of Virginia Wolff?" and that was that.

The title change was due to Davis' objection. She was not making a carbon copy of the earlier film. Would been fun to see Crawford be the phony Miriam.

I actually think Olivia is better than Joan would have been and agree with the poster who singled out Mary Astor for praise. But the film is overly long. And the ending with Charlotte smiling and waving from the car taking her away while the onlookers including the sheriff who look like they're waving goodbye to an old, respected friend is ridiculous. 2 people are dead on Charlotte's property. WTF!

I wonder what prompted Leigh to say such a cunty thing about Davis and Crawford (well really about Davis). It’s not like they ran in the same acting/social circles that I know of.

R59 Likely just a fun, gossipy rumor

[Quote] A shame Joan didn't star, leave Livvie to her killer bees

a shame Joan didn't star in Lady in a Cage (1964) as the wealthy woman trapped in her home elevator. She's portrayed as a woman who dominates her (gay?) son's life.

What was the line in Feud they had Olivia say about Lady in a Cage?

Here's a wide-ranging interview with both Bette and Olivia by Bobbie Wygant...

R62 Here's part of it but I do remember it being mentioned elsewhere in the series. Lady in a Cage was Olivia's Berserk!

r62

's Columbia Pictures.

And Lady in a Cage is on track

to do even better.

I heard that's supposed to be an excellent picture.

That's Paramount.

^^ or perhaps Olivia's Strait-Jacket

7 Oscar nominations for Hush . . .Hush

R59, And it’s not like Vivien aged well herself.

Davis got better reviews in Baby Jane and Crawford thought Davis was sleeping with Aldrich and she was reducing her part. It’s all there in The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine.

Most of "Lady in a Cage" is high camp, but none higher than Olivia de Havilland trapped in the elevator singing "Alouette" at the top of her lungs.

This was Mary Astor’s last movie role. She had been writing her memoirs and novels. She wrote that this was the perfect movie to end her career on. Davis had been instrumental in Astor’s winning her Oscar.

I don't think Olivia is really very effective in CHARLOTTE but I'll give her this: she looks young enough to be Bette's daughter.

why didn't they cast BD as young Charlotte?

The Divine Feud was fun, mostly fan fiction. Then Ryan Murphy used it as gospel for his own Feud.

R73 Wasn’t young BD in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane as the neighbor’s daughter? Her character was named Liza Bates and she read her lines with an odd cadence, like she was reading them aloud for the first time. Even as a young kid watching that film, I thought “Wow, she’s awful”.

I think Aldrich used some cutaways to Anna Lee when BD was speaking in that scene.

r75 "Wasn’t young BD in...?"

Why would you ask, then go on to explain all the details. You already knew, dumbass.

It's called conversation, r77.

You might consider it some time.

Bette couldn't carry a tune, even with a wheelbarrow. That didn't stop her.

An incomplete list:

Minnie the Moocher (Cabin the Cotton)

They're Either Too Old or Too Young Thank Your Lucky Stars)

The above-mentioned Two's Company and Andy Williams Show

I've Written a Letter to Daddy (WEHTBJ). Tried to pair up Davis' version with the earlier vaudevillian one for a duet. This was a failure. Bette is like a freight train going downhill that's lost it's brakes and couldn't correct the line where she goes wildly off-key.

Think she tried to chirp the title song to HHSC. Patti Page had a hit with it.

1976 LP (recorded in England), was reissued some time later.

r54 poor Vivien had lost her looks by then, too.

Bette evidently said some bitter things about Vivien back in the GWTW days when she thought she had a decent chance of snagging the role of Scarlett.

Didn't Bette say when Warners asked her to sing she laughed for 3 days straight before giving an answer?

The whole album is in the link. Enjoy!

I always thought it was weird how they used Bette to play her younger self in the opening scene. And they made zero effort to make the guests look 1920s style.

Victor Buono b.1938 was 26 years old when he played Charlotte's father

Vivien Leigh was still doing quality work in films like Ship of Fools and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and a Tony-winning performance on Broadway in Tovarich while Bette, Olivia and Joan had resorted to hags-ploitation.

[quote]I've Written a Letter to Daddy (WEHTBJ).

I got to see her sing it in person, r81.

Here's Olvia and Ida Lupino in Thank Your Lucky Stars.

R86, According to Bruce Dern, Bette insisted on playing her younger self.

R82, Gee, I wish I’d said that.

Finally listened to that podcast clip of Bruce Dern at r44. He sounds demented and got all of his facts and time lines mixed up. For one thing, Olivia never made a film with Hitchcock.

I think she tested for Rebecca.

But Bruce has a whole other take on Hitch and Livvy.

Was Bruce mixing her up with Sis?

Just read a blog on Rebecca that claims Olivia was first choice but Warners would not loan her out.

[quote]I think she tested for Rebecca.

How delighted Livvy must have been when her sister was cast instead.

Livvy was busy with some other project, r98.

I’ve always thought Joan was a better actress than Olivia, and also prettier.

R99, Yeah, riding Errol Flynn’s cock.

Wouldn't take Bruce Dern's showbiz stories too seriously, he also claimed Joan Crawford came on the Charlotte set and found Olivia there, taking over her role...

Well, that's exactly what Bruce claims in the upthread link, r102.

Also that Hitchcock made a film with Olivia and met Joan during filming and signed Joan to a long term contract instead of Olivia. News to me!

Bruce Dern is a bullshitter. He also gave an interview saying that Kirk Douglas gave "Posse" co-star James Stacy his comeback break after nearly a decade of not working after his motorcycle accident. Uh, Posse came out in '75 and James had his accident the fall of '73. Bruce also referred to Stacy as once one of Walt Disney's biggest stars... James made one Disney movie, Summer Magic, in the early '60s. Dern doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about...

[quote]Livvy was busy with some other project, R98.

Of course. How silly of me. In that case, Olivia wouldn't have minded at all that Joan got the plum role that was originally intend.ed for her.

So is Dern just bullshitting or suffering from dementia? That's the real question here.

He's bullshitting. The interview is filled with other lies.

r106 You take a while to catch on, don't you?

My memory is that Bette doesn't play the young Charlotte. They just use her voice over the darkened face of the actress who does.

[quote]The endings of both films were fucking sublime.

One whack-a-doodle in a Shirley Temple wig and whiteface dancing with ice cream cones around the beach while her ghoulish sister dressed in black lays dead nearby.

Sublime as a pile driver.

Miss Charlotte does more than throw a clump of clay to keep encroachers off her property!

[quote]Here's Olvia and Ida Lupino in Thank Your Lucky Stars.

Forgetting someone?

I never miss a Bette Davis musical.

Bette should have had three Oscars

Emoting for the ages in "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" wasn't going to get her an Oscar. "Baby Jane" was a better performance despite the clown make-up and more of a comeback vehicle.

Mary Astor should have gotten a supporting actor nom for the film. Not only her last movie, it's a fine minimalist performance done in a single take. Davis turned up on set, though she had no scenes that day, to see her work. Astor had been a drinker and had had a scandalous personal life--just as much drama as Davis or Crawford.

[quote]Astor had been a drinker and had had a scandalous personal life--just as much drama as Davis or Crawford.

Everything but the hound dogs nippin' at her rear end.

Why do you suppose Davis and Thelma Ritter never made another film together?

Are there any bios or great interviews with Ritter out there? I bet she had a lot of dish to share.

R115 I was thinking about Dangerous, The Little Foxes' and All About Eve. I think she was good in Baby Jane but by the 60s he best work was in the rear view mirror

To dispel the ongoing rumor that there was friction between Bette and Anne Baxter because Bette felt that Anne insisting she be nominated for Best Actress for “All About Eve” split the voting, go to 16:00 on this recording.

R117: Ritter was a contract player at Fox. Davis made rather few films in the 50s and 60s and wasn't attached to any one studio.

[quote]Everything but the hound dogs nippin' at her rear end.

Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end.

Hush Hush and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice will be playing in a double feature on the over the air Movies channel at 1145 PDT today.

Here's a good copy of the 1969 hagsploitation film Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice an Associates and Aldrich Company Production. The film's production feels like a made4TV movie. Page is great fun to watch in her psycho-bidddy role.

For those of you who don't get TCM, here's a 1080p copy of "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" to watch here...

Hush Hush misses camp value shortly, i tried too hard. I hate Olivia de Havilland, haminess unbridled in everything she was in and, again, rarely camp except when she was stuck in a lift ot attacked by bees. But Bette , whom i loce, was nor great in this. Also, their alleged great friendship sounds false, with Havilland being a fangiirl to Davis, without any inkling of it being mututal.

Too bad someone didn't take a cleaver to the script and Cecil Kellaway

R126 - you may be right. Look at how Bette receives Olivia in the This is Your Life clip. She stays stiff when hugged.

Bruce Dern may have confused the behavior of Bette and Joan with that of Diane Ladd and Laura at their last family get together.

Bruce Dern's voice is the non-singing equivalent of Neil Young's nasal twang...

I always got the impression that the real bond between Davis and de Havilland was that they'd both sued WB , and Olivia finshed what Bette started..

Davis styled herself as an old New England Yankee. Olivia was a missionaries kid. I wouldn't expect either one to be huggy-kissy.

I heard that Olivia deliberately turned down good roles and then retired to make certain she never won a third Oscar before her dear Bette, so much was her love for, and fear of, the old bat.

R133 That seems highly unlikely to me--they may have been good friends (whatever that meant to both, especially to Davis), but work is work. I think de Havilland just became matronly and not particularly inclined to leave Paris very often. The last possible Oscar-worthy role might have been "The Light in the Piazza," but after that, really nothing especially noteworthy--other than HHSC, and if Davis wasn't getting nominated, neither was de Havilland (hough I think she's great in the role). Poor Agnes Moorehead--I suspect she and others thought she would finally get her Supporting Actress award for her Velma (she did get the Golden Globe), but Lila Kedrova had the advantages of a) Zorba being a Best Picture nominee that they could reward by giving her the award, b) the material is simply so much better in Zorba, and c) Kedrova gave one of those legendary performances that, even if you find Zorba annoying (Alan Bates is dreamy), you remember forever. (She got the Tony years later for the revival of the musical with Quinn--she had been an interesting Frau Schneider in the London Cabaret, so could manage the music, even if no Regina Renik).

Did Bette do any further Oscar bait roles after WBTBJ?

Does Madame Sin count, R135?

Olivia was so wrong for the movie.

R135, Bette's best film work from '65 on was in The Nanny, Connecting Rooms, and The Whales of August. Whether any of those was Oscar bait is debatable, though she did win an Emmy and several Emmy nominations.

I don't think that was Lila Kedrova who won the Tony for ZORBA but Maria Karnilova who played Madame Hortense opposite Herschel Bernardi as Zorba in the musical (I saw her, she was magical).

Karnilova also originated the roles of Tessie Tura in GYPSY and Golde in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Kedrova, however, did recreate her role in a revival of the musical opposite her original costar Anthony Quinn.

R140, Lila Kedrova won the 1984 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the Zorba revival.

Oh OK! That surprises me, but there she is. And Karnilova probably didn't win?

Did Bette ever get the chance to show more of herself after they relaxed the strict rules against screen nudity?

Olivia did. Too bad Bette passed on The Killing of Sister George.

On TCM tonight! 10:00 Eastern.

Olivia refused A Streetcar Named Desire as she feared her performance would easily win her a third Oscar and give her beloved Bette a conniption!

R134, I think that was a joke.

"There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?"

Who's Jewel Mayhew?

Here's Al Martino's pop version of "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." He's no Frankie Fontaine, but it's pretty good!

If Crawford had played Charlotte, they'd have had to change the title to "Lush, Lush, Sweet Charlotte."

I liked Olivia in the role. I had only ever seen her in Melanie (dumb, sweet) in Gone with the Wind. So, it was interesting to see her as conniving.

R149, Patti Page’s recording was a hit and she sang it on the Academy Awards when it was nominated for Best Original Song.

I watched it tonight on TCM. They did have Bette covered in shadow play young Charlotte when she's crying at the table. Then when she comes in covered with blood it's a young actress very poorly dubbed in by Bette. Robert Aldrich was bad with continuity.

I just caught it randomly on TCM, too. Weird, in a lot of her films from her different eras, Bette just always comes across to me as playing/projecting a reiteration of...Bette. But for some reason in this fun film, I really do forget that she's Davis and is really channeling the Charlotte role, who is believable as an angry, fiercely protective and defensive woman holding on to a sad former love's memory -- but without camping it up over the edge, given the circumstances her character and setting are trapped in.

[quote]Patti Page’s recording was a hit and she sang it on the Academy Awards when it was nominated for Best Original Song.

Well, she was the Singing Rage, after all.

Mario tweeted last night...

Thank you @tcm fans @TCM_Party and those that may still be watching in LA or on your DVR. It was a blast! I appreciate all of it. Truly. I see you. I don’t know if @BenMank77 does but I do

Was that snark against Ben?

Oh, it was just Mario being Mario--nothing personal, I'd guess.

Ben Mankiewicz often makes mistakes in his intros and outros.

Some, even a minor film fan would catch as incorrect.

Bette did state Hush Hush Sweet C song would have been a BIGGER hit with her singing it, not Patti Page. I have her cd, Bette Davis Sings and her song, Single, is a riot.

Bette sings "Single" shilling HHSC.

No mention of that ridiculous Halloween costume fake hand that gets lopped off of Bruce Dern? Or is it his head? It's been a long time since I've seen the film. No wonder Bruce has a gripe with this film.

Ben and Mario both thought she wasn't being arrested at the end, though I could clearly see a cop driving the car at the end. I'm assuming the hosts don't actually sit there and watch the movie together.

R162, Wouldn’t the letter exonerate her?

R163, Not of the double murder.

Mary Astor’s diary entries of her affair with George S. Kaufman were pretty hot, even by today’s standards.

She wrote of how his cock filled her so well and that he could go all night long.

There was no shit Bette wouldn't eat to keep working.

[quote]Well, she was the Singing Rage, after all.

Really? Who knew?

[quote]There was no shit Bette wouldn't eat to keep working.

She supported her entire family.

R162, I always thought she was being taken to an asylum.

Does she have to kill me in every movie?

[quote]No mention of that ridiculous Halloween costume fake hand that gets lopped off of Bruce Dern? Or is it his head? It's been a long time since I've seen the film. No wonder Bruce has a gripe with this film.

I think we see her lop of Bruce Dern's hand, but I confuse that scene with Joan Crawford lopping of George Kennedy's head in "Strait-Jacket."

R171, Joan beheads Lee Majors in the opening scene.

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