“Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte” is a psychological thriller surrounding a murder that happened many years before. It is directed by Robert Aldrich, and stars Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, and Joseph Cotten. The murder, in the end, becomes a side issue to the events of the film.
The story starts in the 20s, at the mansion of the Hollis family. Samuel Hollis (Victor Buono) is busy yelling at John Mayhew (a young Bruce Dern) because he has found out Mayhew intends to run off with his teenage daughter Charlotte. (Mayhew is already married.) While Hollis’ anger is understandable, he is very threatening to Mayhew during this scene, and demands he break things off with Charlotte at the party where they intended to run off. Hollis threatens Mayhew, who is visibly terrified of him. At the party, Mayhew does what he is told, and Charlotte is deeply upset. Later, a meat cleaver one of the servants had been using is seen missing from the table where the servant put it, and shortly after this Mayhew, still in the summerhouse where he was talking to Charlotte, is attacked by someone wielding the cleaver. At the house Charlotte’s cousin Miriam is looking for her, and no one knows where she is. She then appears at the party, stopping all the music and dancing because she has blood down her dress.
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In the ‘present’ of the movie, an older Charlotte (Bette Davis) lives alone in the mansion, distressed because the authorities have decreed there is to be a road built through there and have issued eviction orders for her to leave. Charlotte is apparently not very stable. She screams at the workmen, shoots at them with a rifle, and is insistent she will not leave. She writes to her cousin Miriam to come and help her, under some notion that Miriam will be able to help her stop the eviction. She is looked after only by her housekeeper Velma Cruthers (Agnes Moorhead).
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All of this is scene setting for the main events of the film. The murder is alluded to – the general consensus is that Charlotte killed Mayhew, and her father paid people to cover it up. (Given Charlotte’s age at the time and the general difficulty of cutting someone’s head off, as well as the weapon used, I would think any policeman worth his salt would quickly realise she would not have the strength). A far more probable suspect is her father, now deceased. It eventuates Charlotte always believed her father had done it and stayed on at the mansion in order to protect his secret.
Davis is great in this role. There is a sizeable amount of scenery-chewing, something she is very good at. But I don’t think the role is as histrionic as one might imagine. Charlotte is a troubled woman, certainly, but is intelligent, and sees more clearly than some of those near to her might imagine. It seems that she genuinely loved Mayhew, and her grief remains even after so many years. It also seems Mayhew was hardly worth her devotion – he was easily scared off by her father and was referred to later in the film as being promiscuous. Davis showcases beautifully the different aspects of Charlotte’s character – her depression, her anger, her will to fight, her mental confusion, and towards the end, her terror and breakdown. I found Charlotte very believable.
Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) is a different kind of role for de Havilland to play. She comes to the house with kindness and affection for her cousin, expressing concern for her welfare and promising to help her with her move. Charlotte does not want to move, of course, but Miriam eventually manages to get through to her that nothing can be done against the ruling by the authorities. Miriam starts to organize for the house to be packed up while Charlotte remains in denial. The audience will learn that Miriam was an orphan, and lived in the house when young as a poor relation, who was to be grateful for the scraps thrown her way. There is also a suggestion that Samuel Hollis may have abused her (I am not certain whether this was intended, but it certainly sounded that way.) Miriam turns out to be not so kind, having harboured resentment and a desire for revenge for many years.
**Spoiler alert** Miriam has laid her plans well, and fed Charlotte’s paranoia from afar through anonymous letters. Charlotte believes Mayhew’s widow Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) is responsible for the letters, and Miriam has only to say kindly that she doesn’t think that can be the case for Charlotte to hold onto the idea more strongly. Miriam’s manipulation, when she could have and should have just started a new life and left the past behind her, indicates that she, like Charlotte, is stuck in the past. De Havilland is superb at this unscrupulous and manipulative role. Once she has dropped her kindly exterior, she is really quite cruel and vindictive.
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Both Charlotte and Miriam are living in their past, preoccupied with memories and regrets. Miriam feeds her resentment and desire for revenge, while Charlotte feeds her grief and her love. It seems like the whole town has not moved on from that murder – the women gossip and the children tell each other spooky stories about it. Jewel Mayhew is also stuck there, snarling at Miriam about her revealing of Mayhew’s plot to run away with Charlotte, as if this made Miriam guilty of murder. Miriam was a child at the time, and in appearance seemed to be even younger than Charlotte. Even knowing what she was guilty of later, it seems odd that the widow would blame her for what happened next. When at the end we find out what Jewel herself was guilty of, her words seem even stranger. It’s like she wanted to project onto Miriam her own guilt. She is very much guilty of shooting the messenger here.
Doctor Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten) makes up the third of the main characters. He acts as family doctor and friend to Charlotte, and flirts with Miriam. She says she doesn’t trust his intentions. Miriam and Drew have conspired between them to feed Charlotte drugs, and then through manipulation and suggestion to send her crazy. The idea is that she will be committed and Miriam, as the nearest living relative, will have control of her estate. Even without the house, there is apparently a great deal of money. The final touch to their plan (reminiscent of the French film ‘Les Diaboliques’), seems to be enough to push Charlotte over the edge. She curls up in a ball, shrieking maniacally, and the conspirators think they have won. But Charlotte is stronger than anyone suspects and wins in the end. Cotten’s portrayal of Bayliss is spot on as a sleazy and unpleasant, (and often drunk) character. His motives are purely mercenary, and he has no emotional investment in Charlotte in spite of acting as her doctor for years. His disregard makes him as unpleasant a character as Miriam.
The direction and cinematography make this a superbly atmospheric film. The light and shadow that black and white film makes more striking is used to great effect here. The sinister scenes, including the dream or hallucination, that take place in the music room, are especially creepy. The contrast between these night time scenes and the final scene in broad daylight, is almost jarring, but that is of course the beauty of it. Charlotte’s terror in the night time, and her final solution, has given way to a calm and composed Charlotte, dressed impeccably, who leaves the house and gets into a car to be driven away, smiling and waving elegantly at the gawping townsfolk. She keeps her dignity in the end.
This is a really great movie. It has some magnificent acting from the cast, impeccable direction and filming, and a great script. I would really recommend this to any who appreciate fine films from some Hollywood greats.
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