Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Directed by Robert Aldrich. Starring Olivia de Havilland, Bette Davis, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, Cecil Kellaway, William Campbell, Wesley Addy, Victor Buono, Mary Astor, Bruce Dern, George Kennedy.

The “classiest” post-What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? entry in the psycho-biddy sub-genre shares many of the same elements as Baby Jane (starting with the unpublished source material being written by the same author, and certainly not ending with the casting of Davis as another psychologically-unsound spinster). Did decrepit Charlotte (Davis) hack up her lover with a cleaver decades earlier, or was it someone else? Cousin Miriam (de Havilland) may not be a prime suspect, but it’s clear that she’s up to something when she comes to Charlotte’s deteriorating Louisiana mansion and inserts herself into the woman’s affairs. The ladies don’t hold back (especially Moorehead as the suspicious and excitable housekeeper), and there’s no denying its camp-adjacent entertainment value, but a shrewder editor was desperately needed to cut down this two-and-a-quarter hour Grand Guignol mystery-soaper, and considering how important her character is to the plot, Astor should have been granted more than what amounts to little more than an extended cameo (it wound up being her final film role). Joan Crawford was initially cast in de Havilland’s role, but was replaced shortly after shooting began.

68/100