Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte - 1964

Cindy and Marty discuss a 37-year-unsolved decapitation, a decaying Louisiana mansion, and an aging recluse who may — or may not — be losing her grip on reality: Robert Aldrich's follow-up to Baby Jane pits Bette Davis against phantom harpsichords, a scheming cousin, and a plot to have her committed.

Essential Elements

Director/Producer: Robert Aldrich
Stars: Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten; with Agnes Moorehead, Mary Astor, Victor Buono, Bruce Dern
Screenplay: Henry Farrell & Lukas Heller
Release: December 16, 1964 | Running Time: 133 min | Black-and-white
Awards: 7 Academy Award nominations — a horror-genre record at the time — including Best Supporting Actress for Agnes Moorehead, who won the Golden Globe

Trivia

• Director Robert Aldrich took three planes, a train, and a mountain taxi to reach Olivia de Havilland in Switzerland, needing four days to talk her into replacing an ailing Joan Crawford.
• Barbara Stanwyck and Loretta Young both turned the role down; Young said her horror-for-women objection wouldn't change even if she were starving.
• Davis leaked de Havilland's casting to the press before Aldrich could formally notify Crawford, who heard the news over the radio.
• Davis installed Coca-Cola vending machines on set purely to needle Crawford, a longtime Pepsi board member — then had a Coke delivery truck driven through a shot for good measure.
• On Crawford's last day of filming, the crew reportedly packed up and left her at the location with no ride back to her motel.
• A $200,000 replica of the Hollis mansion was built on a Fox soundstage; exteriors were shot at Houmas House Plantation outside Baton Rouge, where tour guides still point out Davis's bedroom.
• With no time to alter her wardrobe, several of de Havilland's costumes — including a Christian Dior gown — came straight from her own closet.
• Crawford's brief cameo survives anyway: she's glimpsed for two seconds in a taxi's back seat before the footage cuts to de Havilland.
• The title came from the theme song's lyrics after Davis vetoed the original title for sounding too close to Baby Jane; Patti Page's recording became a million-selling top-10 hit.
• Joseph Cotten's character's plot to convince Charlotte she's insane is now pop-culture shorthand for "gaslighting" — a term that traces back to another Cotten film, Gaslight (1944).

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