Glorious Southern Gothic Delirium. Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller. It stars Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway and Mary Astor. Music is by Frank De Vol and cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc. It’s 1927, the Louisiana plantation home of Sam Hollis (Victor Buono), and Charlotte Hollis (Davis) is having an affair with a married man, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern). After a heated argument between Sam and John, John is brutally slain by an unseen assailant, only Charlotte appears on the scene covered in blood. Then it’s the present day and just Charlotte and her house keeper, Velma (Moorehead) live at the Hollis mansion, Sam having passed away many years ago. Charlotte is mentally scarred from the echoes of the past, she’s a recluse and seen by the townsfolk as the local mental case. As developers try to plough a road through the Hollis home, Charlotte sends for her cousin Miriam (Havilland), but then strange things start happening and Charlotte might once and for all tip over the edge. A bit long at 2 hours 13 minutes and a bit too bonkers at times, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte still comes out as glorious Guignol entertainment. The setting is perfect, a Baton Rouge locale of whispering trees and ominous foliage, the Hollis mansion a place of dark secrets, shadowy halls…

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