HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE - "What Ever Happened To Cousin Charlotte?" (1964)

"Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is a beautifully ugly movie! It was kind of Director/Producer Henry Aldrich's horror followup to "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane" and was originally scheduled to star Joan Crawford and Bette Davis together again, but Joan Crawford became ill when the shooting began, and was soon replaced by Olivia de Havilland!

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had an ongoing feud that was fueled even more by their performance together in "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane," so there is a lot of speculation that she wasn't really that sick, but just did not want to work with Bette Davis any more, and used her illness as an out!! There was lots of bad blood between the two of them!

The theme song for "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" was written by Mack David and Frank Devol! The song as sung by Al Martino was the B side of his 1965 release "My Heart Would Know," that reached  #52 on the Billboard Charts! After the song was nominated for an Academy Award, it was released by Patti Page and rose to #8 a few months later! It lost the Academy Award to the song  "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the movie "Mary Poppins! It was the first time Patti Page cracked the top 10, and because of it's success, Columbia Records gave producer Bob Johnston a chance to work with Bob Dylan, a recording date that turned into one of Dylan's classic best, "Highway 61 Revisited!"

The exterior of the Hollis Mansion was actually the Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow, Louisiana, a beautiful location that you can still go visit, hang out, eat, or have a wedding at!

Even without Joan Crawford, "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is still lush with talent, with many of the same people that Robert Aldrich used in "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane!"  In fact, the original working title was "What Ever Happened To Cousin Charlotte!"  Bruce Dern as Charlotte's married lover wasn't in "Baby Jane," but Victor Buono as Charlotte's imposing Father was!

It's party time at the mansion!!

The band providing the music at the party was Teddy Buckner and his All-Stars! Teddy also had a role as a  trumpet player in the film noir classic "D.O.A.," and if you went to Disneyland sometime between 1965 and 1981, you might have seen Teddy playing "live" at Disneyland's New Orleans Square!

Well, it doesn't take long before the festivities come to a literal screaming halt!

Charlotte turns out to be a real party pooper, not nearly as bad as "Carrie," but a real spoiler just the same!

Some 37 years later, they've come to ruin Charlotte's fun once again, and she doesn't like it! New highway construction means it's time for the reign of the Hollis empire to come to an end!

Much of the interiors of the Hollis mansion like this beautiful staircase were actually shot at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, California. The Greystone Park is open to the public for free on a regular daily basis, and occasionally they offer guided tours of the mansion itself for a small fee!

Olivia de Havilland as the sweet and adorable Miriam attempts to try and come to the aid of her poor miserable cousin Charlotte! The taxi driver is Dave Willock, none other than Baby Jane's Father!

These two stills are awesome! I do believe you're starting to get an idea of what's going on here!

Agnes Moorehead is simply amazing as Charlotte's loyal housekeeper! She did so much in her career, but more than anything, Agnes will always be remembered for her recurring role as Samantha's Mother Endora in 192 episodes of "Bewitched" from 1964 to 1972! For her role here as Velma, Agnes was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and she won a Golden Globes award in the same category!

Somebody is messing with what's left of Charlotte's mind........

..........and it's starting to take effect!!!!!

Poor Charlotte, her little brain just doesn't know whether it's coming or going anymore!!

And cousin Miriam doesn't turn out to be nearly as sweet and nice and she had previously appeared to be!

While all the local women keep the circle of gossip lively, I'll just end on this note! This movie is 49 years old, and if you haven't seen it by now, I'm sure as Hell not going to ruin it for you now, but I will strongly suggest that you go out of your way to see it! It's available on disc from Netflix or streaming on Amazon, so you really don't have any excuses! "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" is a movie that should be on every film buff's bucket list! It's just that good!!!

STRAIT-JACKET - Van Alexander - "Lucy Harbin Took An Axe..." (1964)

Well, by the fate of the magpies, it's a Bloch to Bloch weekend, because just like last night's "Asylum," tonight's feature was also penned by Robert Bloch! It's called "Strait-Jacket,"and it is a pretty straight ahead, and down to earth scary flick, perfectly suited to this time of year!

Produced and directed by Dungeon All-Star, William Castle, "Strait-Jacket" jumps right out of the box and doesn't stop until the ride is over, and again, it's William Castle, so it's not just your average Rollie Coaster! This sumbitch has broken tracks, and hairpin curves aplenty!

Yep, believe it or don't, it's Lee "The Six Million Dollar Man" Majors in his first on screen appearance as bad boy Frank Harbin, the husband of a much older woman, whose wife is out of town! On the other hand, Stella Fulton, was played by Patricia Crest in what would amount to be her last role ever, maybe what's about to happen got to her!

Frank takes Stella back to his house, and makes passionate drunken monkey love to her with the bedroom door open, just knowing his little girl Carol is fast asleep!

It just so happens that Frank's wife Lucy Harbin got home earlier than was originally anticipated or planned! That first step sets the scene!!

Lucy Harbin was portrayed by the obsessively amazing Joan Crawford, who it is said, personally answered all her own fan mail, but obviously, by looking at this shot, not the kind of gal you want to go out on!! "Strait-Jacket" was sandwiched like a piece of head cheese in between "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Joan was on a roll!!

You get the idea! If this movie seems a bit pseudo psycho to you, it might be because master horror author Robert Bloch, among his other achievements was also responsible for writing that very famous novel, "PSYCHO!"

After 20 years in The Nuthouse, Lucy Harbin is free to roam again. Welcome Home, Mother! Lucy Harbin's grown daughter was played by Diane Baker, who is still working today!

Carving meat in front of a reformed axe murderess is just downright mean!!

I thought it was probably William Castle trying to make an extra buck, but in reality, Joan Crawford was the one who insisted upon the Pepsi product placement! Joan was the widow to a Mr. Alfred Steele, who just happened to be the CEO of the Pepsi Corporation, and Joan was on the board of directors!

Look Mom, I saved these annoying jangly bracelets you love to wear so much, that you can hear rattling around for the whole rest of the movie!

Carol has decided to take her Mom to town to get a makeover, and it looks like The Harbins have the only Fiat in town! I know how that feels, my folks used to have an Opel when everybody else was driving Buicks and Oldsmobiles!

With one of them new style wigs, and a new outfit, here she is, the new old Lucy Harbin!!! Joan Crawford actually started her entertainment career as a dancer before running off to California to seek fame and fortune as an actress!

Mom is doing pretty good, really, considering the circumstances, and Carol is feeling pretty smitten with herself!!

But all is still not well, especially when the night mares and stallions start to stampede through your brain!

The killer music for "Strait-Jacket" was composed by Van Alexander!! Later in his career, Van seemed to have a penchant for composing for TV shows about chicks, including "The Donna Reed Show," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Hazel," "Bewitched," and "I Dream Of Jeannie!"

Lucy gets kind of mean spirited when she drinks, maybe you should have left well enough alone, Carol!! What the Hell were you thinking, anyway??

Ever since Lucy was released there have been a series of brutal killings, imagine that!! This particular one included a man for all time, World War II vet George Kennedy, as the handyman Leo Krause!! George is still active and has work in production right now!

"Did somebody fart?"

William Castle paid attention to every detail, and always came up with some kind of stunt, so no matter what, his movies would always be something you would remember, and it worked!!!! "Strait-Jacket" was released on DVD as a double feature with another Castle chiller classic "Homicidal" and is also available on Netflix! What a deal!!

I SAW WHAT YOU DID - "I Know Who You Are" (1965)

Probably should have saved this flick for a Saturday Night Special, but planning things ain't really my forte! It works for a Wacky Wednesday just the same, because it looks like a 60's TV sitcom, it's mean and brutal, and has music that sounds like it came from a cartoon! What more could you want from a movie?

Tonight's feature film is called "I Saw What You Did," a William Castle film from 1964!  Here's a link to all of Bill's films we've covered so far, and a fine array of titles it is, and this one is right up there with the the best of the rest! Follow that link, and you can catch our take on "13 Ghosts," "The Tingler," "13 Frightened Girls," "Mr. Sardonicus," "House On Haunted Hill," "Straight-Jacket," "Macabre," "The Night Walker," and more.

Here are the main two little missies who start all the trouble! It was all innocent enough, just some silly phone pranks gone horribly bad! Besides this film, Andi was in four episodes of "Wild, Wild, West," and one episode of "Black Sheep Squadron" before hanging it up forever! Sarah went on to act in 105 episodes of "The Virginian," something called "Schoolgirls In Chains," and two Billy Jack movies! "I Saw What You Did" was both girls first appearance in film or TV!

Just in case you missed it, William Castle was responsible for an assortment of movies that affected movie makers everywhere! Gizmos, gadgets, and ghosts, Bill liked to use them all, and........He was really good at it! As far as I can tell, this is the only movie produced by William Castle that we haven't written about, except for his last movie in 1969, "Riot!" I obviously need to try and track a copy of that sucker down!

The parents are going out of town for the evening, and the babysitter has ironically called and said she couldn't make it, so they reluctantly agree to leave! Sharyl Locke is the little sister Tess! Sharyl only has a couple more acting credits, one being a character named Jenny McGillicuddy in a "Bonanza" episode! The parents are Leif (Invaders From Mars) Erickson and Patricia (Homicidal) Breslin!

Libby and Tess show their blonde friend Kit who has come to spending the evening how they like to make prank phone calls, but instead of calling a bar and asking them if they have mouse knuckles, their regular act when somebody answers the phone is to say "I know who you are, and I know what you did!" and then they usually just hang up, but not this night...........

The name the kids find in the phone book is Steve Marak played by John Ireland, but it's Steve's wife who answers the phone as she's packing her bags to leave! The girls don't do the title line, but just ask for Steve, who is in the shower! His wife decides to take things into her own hands, but fails miserably!

Steve ends up stabbing his wife viciously and throwing her through the glass shower door, and then his neighbor/lover shows up and it starts getting complicated William Castle style very quickly! That necklace is just too much!!

The kids have been on hold the whole time, but haven't really heard anything of importance! The dog is very well trained!

Probably not a good ideal to listen in on other people's phone calls unless you can run real fast! Joan Crawford got top billing just for her name, but this wasn't the end of the line for Joan, she went on to be in "Berserk," and "Trog!"

Libby's got her learner's permit, and it's only about 20 miles to the madman's house, so she gets all gussied up, and they head out on a road trip in the middle of the night to see what this guy looks like! (Stoopid Kids!)

You'd probably have to be at least in your 50's to remember when it was commonplace to have your car registration wrapped around the column of the steering wheel for easy access in case you got stopped!

Here's a good shot of Joan Crawford, not exactly smiling, but at least smirking!

I had so many good shots I wanted to show you, but I just couldn't resist going with these three peeper scenes instead, because they just kind of say it all!

John Ireland puts in a very credible performance as a murderous madman! I laughed out loud when he finally tracks down the kids via the car registration with full intent to kill them and after hearing Libby's innocent explanation, he tells her, "I should really tell your parents about this," and she responds that he doesn't know what a mess she would be in, if they found out! (Without realizing how huge of a mess she is already in!)

I do love this simple shot!

Leave it to Bill to have an end with a double meaning!

This has got to be one of the strangest posters I've ever seen!

All through the 40's and most of the 50's William Castle directed mostly western movies, but it was in 1958 that he hit his stride as Producer/Director with "Macabre," and a string of cool movies that will never be duplicated! If there's not a shrine to this man somewhere, there sure should be!