Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. A Review

 

HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. It is also a film that I saw for the Plaza Classic Film Festival. Today's star is Joseph Cotten.

Bayou country was never so decadent, murderous and downright loony as it is in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Veering if not crossing the line into camp, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a romp of murder and mayhem, where the actors opted to go all-in on the cray-cray.

Louisiana, 1927. Young Charlotte Hollis plans to elope with John Mayhew (Bruce Dern). Her father, Big Sam Hollis (Victor Buono) discovers this as well as the fact that John is already married to a woman named Jewel. He makes clear to John that there ain't gonna be no nuptuals. Charlotte is heartbroken when John "breaks" their secret engagement, but did she murder him by cutting off his hand and head? The blood on her white dress seems to prove so, but did she actually kill her lover?

Everyone seems to think so, especially since Charlotte (Bette Davis) has become a recluse up in her plantation, a combination Blanche DuBois and Miss Havisham. Thirty-seven years since the unsolved murder, Charlotte now finds herself against the state that wants to build a highway across her land. For help, she turns to her cousin and frenemy Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), who was once the poor relation but now has become financially well-off. Old wounds resurface between the pair, but there are more important things to worry about.

Charlotte now begins hearing and seeing things connected to John. Could he be coming back from the dead? What role does Miriam's former lover Dr. Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten) have in the various machinations? Eyed suspiciously by Charlotte's longtime maid, white trash Velma (Agnes Moorehead), there is human evil at work. What of the secret investigation from insurance adjuster Harry Willis (Cecil Kellaway), who senses something wrong about how Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) never collected her late husband's benefits. Could both Charlotte and Jewel's cases be connected? More people must die before Charlotte finds the truth and is set free.

There is something almost wickedly funny about some of the performances in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. It is almost as if the Southern gothic setting allowed some of them to devour the scenery with crazed abandon. I do not know if that was director Robert Aldrich's intentions, but those were the end results.

Though his role is small and relegated to the pre-title sequence, Victor Buono's Big Daddy was so over-the-top that it was a cartoon. I genuinely do not know if Buono was meant to be so broad (and no, that is not a fat joke). I think he was trying to be serious whenever he scowled at Dern. His efforts, however, led to more suppressed chuckles.

Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland are a study in contrasts. De Havilland came across as surprisingly too patrician for all the down-home nuttiness in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Famously taking over the role intended for Joan Crawford, I think de Havilland did her best to come across as evil. There are a few times when she was more convincing as this murderous harlot. Seeing her whack Velma was effective. On the whole though, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte had a difficult time convincing me that Olivia de Havilland was this thoroughly wicked woman.

Davis, on the other hand, went into Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte with no restraints whatsoever. Her Southern drawl was so rich as to outdo the most exaggerated Foghorn Leghorn impersonation. When she and Miriam are having a confrontation, Charlotte scolds her for her line of work. "Public relations. Sounds like something really DIRTY to me!", Davis bellows with crazed abandonment in her massive Southern accent. When a sleazy tabloid reporter catches her off-guard, Davis' expressions of shock are almost certain to elicit laughter rather than horror.  

Joseph Cotten could never settle on keeping or losing his Southern accent. Oozing charm and milking the scenes whenever he was on, Cotten did not devour the scene but does draw attention to himself. Of particular note is when he sings a bit of the title song, which earned an Oscar nomination. Also drawing a nomination was Agnes Moorehead as the ultimate in white trash. Her Velma was almost witch-like in her look and manner, and she was not above camping it up. Given that Velma was a bit loony to start with, we can overlook things.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is I think a bit long. Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller's screenplay could have been cut or shortened, with the revelation of Astor's Jewel found another way than through Kellaway's character. Incidentally, this was Mary Astor's final film, and while her part was small it did serve the purpose of moving the plot forward.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is not particularly great. I do appreciate the audience reaction: it takes a lot to hear people applaud when the villains get their due. A bit over-acted and long but a good deal of fun, I see why so many will love Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte until they die. 

DECISION: B-