Review of Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) by Jennifer S — 26 Mar 2011

What could have been a juicy, delicious plot ends up overcooked into mostly a soupy mess (with a little meat in there as well).

Bette Davis plays Charlotte Hollis, an aging southern belle spinster who seems to have emerged from Tennessee Williams' dark subconscious. Back in the late 1920's, Charlotte wanted to run away with a handsome married man, but her daddy was (obviously) against it. During a party at the Hollis estate, the young man is murdered with a meat cleaver. The local authorities could never solve the murder (and the audience is left in the dark as well), but most of the locals assume Charlotte was the culprit.

Fast forward 36 years: Charlotte lives in her squalid, empty childhood mansion with her maid/friend Velma (Anges Moorehead, completely unglamorous). She is on the verge of losing the property (the city is trying to build a bridge or something there) when her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) comes to visit. Miriam's return triggers what seem to be hallucinations in Charlotte--she is haunted by visions of her dead beau and seems to be going crazier by the minute.

I wont spoil what happens, but I will say that the final 20-30 minutes are really excellent--the plot takes an expected turn and I was genuinely surprised by some of the revelations.

However, up until those last 30 or so minutes, I felt that the movie was draggy and overacted. Moorehead plays the blue collar maid Velma for maximum laughs, but the result is just annoying and over the top. Likewise, Bette Davis screams and wails like a banshee from start to finish. In some scenes, the director seems to be going for a tense atmosphere, that to me felt slow and repetitive. I think that if the film were a little more subtle and controlled, it could have been that much more horrifying and effective. But as it is, I was fidgeting in my seat most of the time.

That said, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is worth seeing for all the great performances--even if they are a little over the top. Bette Davis really humbled herself for this role--playing an old, crazy, shrieking and whimpering woman. You don't seem too many once-glam actresses willing to go full crazy-bread, and not sexy-crazy, just crazy-crazy. Joseph Cotten and Olivia de Havilland are also great as two characters who aren't what they seem.