Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte
| Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte | |
|---|---|
Promotional Poster for Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
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| Directed by | Robert Aldrich |
| Produced by | Robert Aldrich |
| Written by |
Henry Farrell Lukas Heller |
| Starring |
Bette Davis Olivia de Havilland Joseph Cotten Agnes Moorehead Cecil Kellaway Mary Astor |
| Music by | Frank De Vol |
| Cinematography | Joseph Biroc |
| Edited by | Michael Luciano |
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Production
company |
The Associates and Aldrich
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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133 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,235,000 |
| Box office | $4,000,000 (US/Canada) (rentals) 79,168 admissions (France) |
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, and Mary Astor in her final film role.
The movie was adapted for the screen by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, from Farrell's unpublished short story, "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?" It received seven Academy Award nominations.
In 1927, young Southern belle Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) and her married lover, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Charlotte's father confronts John over the affair and intimidates him with the news that John's wife, Jewel, visited the day before and revealed the affair. John pretends he no longer loves Charlotte and tells her they must part.
John is then brutally murdered and decapitated in the summerhouse with a cleaver, with one hand severed. Charlotte discovers his body. She returns traumatized to the party in a bloody dress, and most of the guests assume Charlotte is the murderer.
The story jumps to 1964. Charlotte is now a wealthy spinster, still living on the Ascension Parish plantation that has been in her family for generations. Charlotte's father died the year after Mayhew's murder, believing his daughter guilty. All these years, Charlotte has believed that her father killed John Mayhew. Everyone else assumes that Charlotte, the crazy recluse, decapitated her lover.
The Louisiana Highway Commission intends to demolish her house and build a new highway through the plantation. Charlotte is vehemently against this and ignores the eviction notice, refusing to leave. She keeps the foreman (George Kennedy), his demolition crew, and the bulldozer away by shooting at them with a rifle. They temporarily give up and leave.
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Wikipedia