Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (DVD)

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Then there's Joseph Cotten as the family doctor, Dr. Drey Bayless, a Southern gentleman oozing Southern charm and hospitality, who just happens to have been soft on cousin Miriam for decades. And Agnes Moorehead as Velma Cruther, Charlotte's crusty, frumpy, outspoken housekeeper, a part that won her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. And Cecil Kellaway as Harry Willis, an insurance investigator snooping around to discover why nobody ever claimed the insurance policy on the deceased Mr. Mayhew. And Mary Astor in a small but pivotal role as Jewel Mayhew, the wronged widow of so long ago. And there's even a minor part for George Kennedy as a construction foreman.

Not that everything works. I've mentioned Davis's sometimes bombastic performance. The film is also much too long at 133 minutes. The prologue alone is almost fifteen minutes before the opening titles even roll. The insurance investigator seems like only an easy but clumsy gimmick to open up a few new plot elements. And the ending is far too pat and far too obvious, closing not with the expected bang, but a whimper.

None of which should deter a person from seeing this classic thriller at least once. Thrillers don't always make perfect sense, and a degree of open-mindedness is needed to enjoy any of them. So it is with "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte." It passes a good, spooky few hours.

Video:
Oddly, the keep case announces the film's aspect ratio at 1.66:1, yet I measured the film at 1.77:1, big enough to completely fill a widescreen television. Neither of these dimensions match the movie's statistics at IMDb (1.85:1), but they may be wrong. At any rate, the black-and-white print Fox used in the transfer was obviously quite good, and just as obviously they did some additional touch-up work on it because there isn't a scratch, a line, or an age fleck in sight. The B&W contrasts are good, though not the best I've seen, and object delineation and inner detailing is about average for a well-preserved film of this age. Moiré, or motion, effects are present, but they are not intrusive, and grain is virtually nonexistent.

Audio:
The English audio is available in either Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo or Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. Neither is entirely satisfactory, and I actually preferred listening to the monaural track. The stereo opens up the sound a bit to the side channels, though it isn't very wide, and it clarifies the sound somewhat. Unfortunately, it's at the expense of brightening and hardening the sonics, too; so the mono track hasn't quite the edge to it that the stereo track has. Nevertheless, both tracks offer clear, crisp audio reproduction for one's easily discerning dialogue, which is mostly what the sound is about.

Extras:
The main bonus item on the disc is an audio commentary by film historian and DVD Savant author Glenn Martin Erickson. Erickson's comments are of the straightforward, no-nonsense variety, scholarly and informed. He warns us at the beginning that we had better already be familiar with the film because he is going to give away some of its secrets well in advance. Fair warning. At times he is a little dry and his remarks perhaps too obvious, but the commentary is filled with fascinating background trivia, especially his biographies of the actors. He tells us, for instance, that Victor Buono, who plays Charlotte's father, was only twenty-six years old at the time of the production, two years younger than Bruce Dern, who was playing his son. A good friend of mine knew Buono in college and said he always looked much older than he was, a kind of aging disease. Buono died of natural causes in his early forties. In addition to Erickson's commentary, the disc includes two widescreen theatrical trailers, and three TV spots; looks at four other vintage Fox horror releases; plus a generous thirty-two scene selections, but no chapter insert. English is the only spoken language provided, with English and Spanish subtitles.

Parting Thoughts:
If it's Grand Guignol you're after, here's where you'll find it. "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" may be highly derivative of other previous films and stories, but it gets most of the details right. The ending never impressed me much--I always expected more of a surprise--but I suppose it is in keeping with the logic of the narrative. Although it may not be the most sophisticated thriller around, and parts of it--Ms. Davis's ofttimes flamboyant acting in particular--can be downright silly in their exaggerated hokum, that's pretty much what fans of the genre expect, and it's what they get.

"Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is a first-rate chiller even by today's standards. Indeed, comparing it to something like 2005's would-be thriller "Hide and Seek," "Charlotte" looks better and better. In 1965 the movie was nominated for (but didn't win) seven Academy Awards: Moorehead as Best Supporting Actress, in addition to Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (black-and-white), Best Costumes, Best Editing, Best Musical Score, and Best Original Song (the serious one, not the children's lyrics, and sung over the closing credits by Al Martino).

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