Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

This film was made as follow up to Bette Davis' success in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Alongside Joan Crawford. The two were going to be reunited for this one too, but Crawford fell 'ill' and dropped out. Olivia De Havilland is better anyway.

In this one Davis plays Charlotte Hollis, who has been a recluse in her mansion for 30 years because of s terrible tragedy (her married lover was murdered). Then de Havilland comes along as her cousin Miriam. A level headed woman to contrast with Charlotte's supposed madness. Things unravel from there. But what we (and Charlotte) want to know is if it's all real or if it's just crazy old Charlotte Hollis.

The performances are standouts, but how can they not be when when we have Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Agnes Moorehead (Endora!!!) and Joseph Cotton? Mary Astor was also in it as Jewel Mayhew, i didn't know it was her at first (i had only seen her in Little Women before this) but yes a nice little tidbit for you. Davis is her usual 'i'll steal this scene even if it kills me' self and de Havilland subtly fights Davis for control, leading to a brilliant clash. Both brought out the best in each other that's for sure.

Personally i think that de Havilland has always been a better actress than Davis (but that's just me) but both are good. One part that i really enjoyed (and believe me there were a lot of parts) was where a police officer is looking over an old newspaper clipping of Charlotte and Miriam's family and mentions that they were 'good looking youngsters.' This made me think of the show Gossip Girl, i don't know why but it did, haha. i guess the whole 'privileged kids with lots of drama' angle.

It took a while for the movie to grow on me (i thought Davis was OTT when i first began it) and the effects are not very good, but the parts with the bodies (in my opinion) wouldn't work if they looked real, maybe they look better but that's about it. The music is okay but overused, instead of adding menace to the scenes it sometimes makes them appear horribly dated. However the theme song is excellent.

In short: Good movie. One of my favourites in my Davis collection (i have 5 of her movies: All About Eve, The Nanny, The Anniversary, The Virgin Queen and this one). Strong performances and an interesting plot keep it from going under. I liked it.

"What do you think i asked you here for? COMPANY?" Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

Worst movie ever made? #99

Tattle Tale. Okay, it's a TV movie but it was pretty horrible and i felt i had to tell someone. It's not well known, but the people in it may be familiar:
C. Thomas Howell- Starred in Soul Man, ET and Red Dawn. Now you'd think with these good titles (Soul Man, while being controversial is actually very funny) behind him then he would have had the sense not to appear in this horrific movie. His characters name is Bernard Sprat.
Ally Sheedy- The woman who penned a bestseller when she was 12 starred in popular teen movie The Breakfast Club, sci fi thriller Wargames and St Elmos Fire stars as Laura Perot, Bernards ex-wife.

The plot is quite simple: Ex wife (Sheedy) makes up a bunch of BS to get her 'tell all' book published in an attempt to cash in on an affair with a dead man who had a lot of power. Ex husband (Howell) finds out she wrote him as a mean and abusive man when she was the one who was a bitch to him. So he and a friend (Amanda Elwes) plot to out Sheedy as a fraud. But, of course, this is harder than first thought.

The normally good actors were quite bad in this movie. Sheedy was over the top, but i imagine that had her character been real then her portrayal wasn't far off, but the character is still annoying. A good point though is that the (very few) chuckles that i got out of the scenes were due to her character.
Howell looked bored. Which i can certainly understand, the script is poor, the direction senseless and his shared scenes were either stolen from him due to him being asleep or they weren't worth stealing anyway.

i bought this for $3, it was worth 1. I tried to watch it again as i have a rule of not passing judgement on a movie until I've seen it more than once,i got 20 minutes into the movie and turned it off, knowing i wouldn't change my mind. The whole thing played like a filmed high school production. Not good. I'm dreading having to put a quote from this movie at the bottom as i never want to hear/see this movie a again. You know what? i'll just quote one of the other films i mentioned in this post. Because they were all way better.

"Mum! Dad! theres something i have to tell you... i'm black" Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell), Soul Man