The whole time I was watching HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE I was convinced I had watched and reviewed WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? for Horrorfest 2010 or 2009. Both films are directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller. Both star Bette Davis as lonely, crazed, aging women who have fallen from youths during which they were placed on pedestals.So, I went back to look at my BABY JANE review and found that it did not exist. I did watch that movie for the first time within the last couple years, and it was definitely horrifying, but I guess it wasn't for Horrorfest. Weird. My mind had played a trick on me, but luckily I'm not as crazy as Davis' character in HUSH... HUSH.
Davis stars as an old shut in, living in a crumbling plantation house that was once the scene of her "perfect" childhood as a southern belle attending formal parties. She's days away from being thrown off the land so the city can tear down the house and build a bridge. She refuses to leave the property even though she is the victim of much local gossip -- almost 40 years before, Davis was planning on running off with a married man (Bruce Dern) who was found with his hand and head hacked off. Although the authorities never solved the murder case, it was a media sensation and everyone in town thinks Davis did it except her loyal, if rough around the edges, housekeeper (Agnes Moorehead).
Davis has called on her only living relation, her cousin (Olivia de Havilland) to come visit in the hopes that she'll be a helpful ally in her attempts to fight the eviction. The local doctor (Joseph Cotten) is also on hand to help, but he's disturbed by Davis' insistence that there's some conspiracy or feud against her perpetrated by the widow (Mary Astor) of her long dead beau. Although Davis seems clearly disturbed, it's not all in her mind -- she is receiving anonymous accusatory notes in the mail, local kids do dare each other to break into her house, and she is awakened in the middle of the night either by ghostly visitations or possibly hallucinations that constantly remind her of the murder.
So, we have the natural drama of the trainwreck of Davis' character, along with the intrigue of the murder -- who did it? On top of that, everyone surrounding Davis suspects each other of attempting to take advantage of her. Is Moorehead, as the loyal housekeeper, trying to stay close to Davis to get into the will? Has cousin de Havilland returned to try to get her inheritance? And what about the old romance between de Havilland and Cotten that I forgot to mention before, or the journalist who keeps snooping around (Cecil Kellaway)?
Not only does this movie cash in on the similarities between it and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, but I also found it reminiscent of JEZEBEL and GONE WITH THE WIND. In JEZEBEL, Davis played an antebellum southern belle who could have possibly turned out like Charlotte in this movie given the right circumstances, and of course de Havilland is famous for her turn as the sweet and kind Melanie in GONE WITH THE WIND, both a friend rival to Scarlett O'Hara.
HUSH... HUSH has a bunch of twists and turns so I can't exactly go into anymore plot details without giving stuff away. I will say that it is fun how the story allows most of the characters to play both good and evil -- the plot surprises us enough that some characters who seemed honest and true turn out to be snakes and others who seemed to be creepy turn out to be good people. So, not only do we get good performances out of everyone, but we get multiple good performances per actor. The way the story unfolds also allows for a variety of different scares -- actual violence, potentially supernatural events, people conspiring against each other, a woman sliding into insanity.
It's also cool to see four middle-aged actresses really going at it with their acting chops -- Davis, Moorehead, de Havilland and Astor all have multiple great scenes in various match ups and it's a shame that that seems like a rarity, but unfortunately we don't get good stories involving older women all that often in the movies.
Man, I used to be in love with Olivia de Havilland when I was little. I first saw her as Maid Marian in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, so I was already in love with her by the time I saw GONE WITH THE WIND later. I was pleased to see that she still looked good in HUSH... HUSH, almost 30 years after the other performances I'd seen. I was also pleased to see that she had some more stuff to do in HUSH... HUSH beyond just being sweet and perfect. In this one, de Havilland really gets to dig in and show what she can do, playing a totally three dimensional character with a lot of surprises.
Of course, Davis is great as well -- she's kind of doing a riff on her Baby Jane character, here, but this one may even be a little more complex, if not quite as showy. In any case, the two performances show the same bravery and ambition of a once young and beautiful movie star not being afraid to get downright dirty, ugly and over the top.
Just a quick note on Joseph Cotten's character -- his name is Dr. Drew. First we have Steve Martin in GODZILLA, now Dr. Drew in this one. Sheesh.
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