Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll be stuck to the chair!, 28 Aug 2006
Bette Davis gives a great performance, sometimes chewing the scenery, sometimes understated, as a Southern recluse, slowly going mad, or is she?
She is the victim, rather than the tormentor, the role she played in '... Baby Jane. Olivia De Haviland stepped in to play her mysterious 'Yankee' cousin from New York. She too gives a top performance, chillingly dark, seething with a repressed jealousy and hatred. Joan Crawford was to take that role, but she gave up part way through the production, claiming that Bette Davis had turned the rest of the cast and the crew against her.
In fact the fim is packed with great performances. It is as though these great stars from a generation earlier siezed the chance to be in a major film again, and put everything into their acting. Mary Astor is superb, and Agnes Moorhead (best known for playing 'Endora' is 60s T.V. 'Bewitched'), picked up a supporting role Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Velma Cruthers, the scary, but ultimately very loyal servant. Joseph Cotton and Cecil Kellaway are fine too, but this is really a film for its female stars.
Back in 1964, this was considered a horror film. By today's standards, the horror is mild and laughable, but it still works, in my opinion, as a great suspense thriller. Some might consider it a high camp classic.
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As good as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (If not better!), 19 Jan 2006
By A Customer
This was meant to be the sequel for Whatever happened to Baby Jane, and they say that sequels aren't as good. In this case they are completely wrong, i prefer this to Baby Jane, and in fact i think it is one of my favourite Bette Davis pictures. Agnes Moorehead stars in this and she is fantastic. All the actors, actresses work brilliantly together.
The twist at the end of the film is extremely clever as well. I was annoyed when i discovered this film even existed and you couldn't buy it anywhere in the uk, now though, being released here im extremely pleased i did decide to order it. I also bought this DVD without knowing there were any special features, so when i discovered there was a trailer, which is also enjoyable, i was quite pleased. Hope you enjoy this fantastic film.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great entertainment, 12 Feb 2007
The story behind the conception of "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" is well documented, so the question is: without being another Bette Davis/Joan Crawford battlefest, does it match up to the runaway success of "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane"? My opinion is that it ranks as a good movie, but falls into the shadow of it's predecessor.
The plot follows Davis as Charlotte, an eccentric recluse who has been shunned by the townsfolk ever since her married lover was found brutally murdered at a party when she was a young girl. Branded as the killer, Charlotte has grown into a bitter and lonely old woman, who is finally forced to come out of her isolation when the county wants to knock down her house to build a new road. The main part of the film begins as Charlotte's cousin Miriam arrives in an attempt to talk some sense into her, and all the skeletons of the past come to light again.
The film is built around it's two central stars, Bette Davis and Olivia de Haviland (who plays Miriam). The two could scarcely be more different. Davis plays Charlotte as wide-eyed, shrill and in a constant state of nervous terror, while de Havilland delivers a performance of sleek velvety calm. The film hinges on the relationship between these two women, and out of the two of them, it is Miriam rather then Charlotte who suggests a character with much more going on beneath the surface, thanks to de Havilland's glacial cool. Davis is brittle and exhausting nearly all the time, and although she was one of the greatest Hollywood stars of her time, some more subtelty would have greatly enhanced the character of Charlotte in places. However, for the most part she is terrific, in fact her performance gets better and better as the film progresses, culminating in a very moving conclusion. De Havilland also does a great job, speaking in silky soft tones for the most part, but capable of erupting into surprisingly venomous anger as more of her true character comes to light. As is usual with a well known film like this, the twists and surprise revelations are already well known, but what impressed me was the the way the various strands were worked into the film, and how effectively some of the twists were then later built up into new twists! It must have been very effective for first time audiences in 1964, and for anyone who has not seen it even today.
The film looks great. Beautifully shot in black and white, it makes great use of selective lighting and deep shadows, more often than not inside the grand but rotting mansion that Charlotte lives in. There are also some great lines in the script, most often spoken by Davis, which make the proceedings border on high camp some of the time, but for the most part it is a quality product. What detracts from the enjoyment are some very lazy post dubbing in several places (where you can see that the actors are either mouthing something different or not speaking at all!), and the opening prologue set at a party supposedly in 1927, which has no attempt at period detail at all as most of the party goers are dressed in contemporary 1960's oufits (one girl even has a beehive hairdo!). This lack of care by director Robert Aldrich is more in line with one of William Castle's schlocky (but enthusiastic) efforts, rather than a major studio production like "Charlotte" was supposed to be.
I haven't really got that many bones to pick though, as the film delivers solid entertainment for most of it's 2hour running time. It IS a little long, but the constantly unravelling plot together with the performances from it's stars (not forgetting to mention the hilarious turn by Agnes Moorhead as the tousled maid) keep you hooked all the way through. Although some of the early parts are a bit of a screech-fest, it definitely improves as reaches the end, in fact Davis' performance in the last half hour becomes quite touching (barring her cross-eyed freak out on the stairs), and the ending scene especially shows that the film has a real heart.
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