Episode 759: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

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People say good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater. They want clod sodas, hot popcorn, in. No monsters in the projection booths. Everyone for ten.

Podcasting isn't boring? Put it off? Sure, The winners of five prior Academy Awards and twenty one Academy nominations now bring you suspense, unequaled in the history of the screen, shock that will leave you speechless. Ad What hell you done? Hush hush, sweet Charlotte, Charlotte, don't you cry?

Hush hush, sweet Charlotte. I love you till I die. Yes, I told you, and I told your father too. Why wouldn't I tell him that his pure darling little girl was having a dirty little affair with a married man. You're a vow Sarah, little trap.

How was I to know it would end in murder? But it didn't end with murder, It just began. What was the warped and twisted thing that turned this house into a nightmare? Where do you think you're going on? I'm going upstairs and I'm gonna tell her what you being up to?

What's going on there that you don't want me to see? A co starring Agnes moorehead Cecil Kellaway. Don't you think I know what you're looking for in my house? If you haven't anything to conceal you. Oh but I have.

I have things concealed. Wow, things we suppose I keep. Them, haven't you? Guessed? Guest star Victor Bono, you know what it's costing me, not you, Also starring Mary Esther.

Let me tell you, Miriam Dearing, that murder starts in the heart. Don't turn on the light. It's only real when it's dark. I don't want to turn on my light. Come along, Hello, well you're shut your mouse.

Welcome to the projection booth. I'm your host, Mike White. Joining me once again is mister Otto Bruno. Big Mike, I do declare. Also joining us is mister Tim Madigan.

I'm trying not to lose my head. Buono Palooza continues with a very brief appearance from our boy in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. It's another entry in the so called hag'sploitation genre. I kind of prefer that whole Grand Dame Guignol title that they say. It's a little nicer than ha ex'sploitation.

It reunites many of the players from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, with the addition of a host of terrific actors including Olivia de Havlin, Mary Astor, Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, and a very brief appearance from Bruce Dern. The film stars Betty Davis as the titular Charlotte and out of touch recluse in a big house with a dark secret in her past. Does that sound familiar? It should. Charlotte is hiding after the murder of her man John Mayhew.

Unfortunately John was married at the time to Jewel Mayhew. It's kind of a who did it? Or more really of a why did it? As we peel back the genteel Southern Gothic trappings to look at the deceitful machinations of Charlotte's family, we will definitely be spoiling this movie as we talk about it, So if you don't want anything ruined, please turn off the podcast and come back after you've seen it. We will still be here.

So, Otto, when was the first time you saw Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte? And what did you think you like? Baby Jane? This was another one that I didn't see until probably about seven or eight years ago. In fact, if I'm remember incorrectly, I watched it even then.

In close proximity to whatever happened to Baby Jane, because the connections seem so obvious, and I liked it. I don't remember, looking back now how I felt about the two films in comparison to one another, But after these recent viewings of both of these films, I will say, probably what's in the minority. I guess from things I've read, and that is that I prefer this film to Baby Jane. I'm with you. I'm not crazy about that term ha exploitation.

I mean this and for me as definitely as you mentioned, also Southern Gothic, you know, with all the same that very moody black and white cinematography by Joe Birock and and just the music by the Ball and everything. This is a much creepier thriller for me than Baby Jane. Baby Jane was just too camp for me. I couldn't, you know, take it as seriously as this one. And obviously this film has some campy aspects to it as well.

But I like this film, and tim about yourself. I know, I saw it many times on television when I was a kid, but the last time and the only time I saw it on a big screen was about five years ago at the annual Monster Bash gathering in Mars, Pa where it was shown along with other horror movies. And I guess that raises the question whether this is a horror movie or not. I guess Zotta was saying gothic films, it does seem to be an overlap. But I actually found this one much less creepy than Baby Jane, and I am in the majority.

I should say I actually prefer Baby Jane to this film. I don't know which one I like better. These are both pretty new films for me. I've seen them both as we've been watching them for this series of episodes. I really was not familiar with Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

I listen to the story because it's on the audiobook of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, as well as at least one or two more short stories on there, and I can't really say it's a short story. It's about two hours long as far as the person that's reading it, and it feels like it is. It's basically a treatment for a movie. I was under the impression initially that's was an older story, but once Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was a hit. The writer Henry Farrell went back and wrote this story.

It was called Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte, And basically it was Okay, Robert Aldrich, here's your sequel. And like I said, there's a lot of elements that carry over this whole idea of the Secret in the past. I mean, you even have these caged birds at the beginning, but for me, the birds sound more like rats. Especially during the murder scene. That sounds like little rats that are squeaking.

Is very disconcerting. And yeah, that Frank Devill score is just very heavy handed in this film. They really go for broke with this. I mean the noises, the flashbacks that they have, Yeah, just layering on that Southern Gothic charm. And I mean our guy Victor Bono right here in the beginning of the film, just really doing it up as big Sam Hollis, one of these big daddy types kind of like bur Lives and Cat on a hot ten roof.

And I appreciate that Bono went for it and shaved up his hairline to make him look a lot older. I mean, we talked last week in the week before as far as how he was playing false staff when he was a teenager, and here he's what two years older than he was in Baby Jane, and he looks like a man in his fifties sixties more than that. Super impressive and unfortunately, the only complaint I have about this movie is not enough Victor Buono. This obviously, I think we talked about. This is obviously the shortest amount of screen time that Victor Bono gets in the four Buono films that were covering.

But I just thought he was so good in that limited appearance. He real he carries that swagger of the southern gentleman who you know pretty much controls and manipulates it's everybody around him in his sphere. I thought it was great. And again, the thing that I keep thinking after I watch any of these films is why didn't he get better opportunities after these various parts. I mean, he went from doing a few really good parts in good films and then they just gave him all this crap to do.

And I just don't understand it, because he was clearly a very, very talented actor. So thus far that's my head. I'm scratching my hat even more than I was before we start. I mean, I always felt he was underrated, but you know, even more so now. And it's not like they were not treating these movies seriously.

I mean, he got an Oscar nomination for Baby Jane. In this one, Agnes Moorehead gets an Oscar nomination and then she wins the Golden Globe for her role in this and this movie also just so wonderful to see how unhinged she is. There are times where Agnes Moorehead is stealing this movie. Her character is so good and so just bat shit crazy, and sometimes you can't even understand a fucking word that she says. I was so glad I had the subtitles on for this because there were times where her accent or whatever the hell she's doing gets so crazy that you're like, what what is she saying?

Especially when she imitates Olivia de Haviland and just kind of is trying to make fun of her. I mean, we had the maid character in the previous film, but here the maid is given the time to shine and she's kind of a kind of more of a protector than well. I guess Adina or Elvira was very much a protector in Baby Jane, but I think even more here. But also, I mean, this movie is just it stinks of fish because there's so many red herrings in this film, to the point where you think for a little while that maybe actis Morhead is even the killer, that she's the one who's having these bad things, and you don't really. I mean, gosh, this movie is labyrinthine when it comes to the plot and what's happened in the past versus what's happening now and how does the past affect the present.

Basically, every time she's on screen, she's just stealing the picture. I mean, she brings such energy and every time she's on screen and she's chewing scenery. But it fits with the character and the sequencing. And you know, the one thing when I was watching again, we always tell people we're obviously going to spoil these movies for them, but I remember at one point saying to the screen and Dora, you should have watched more TV because you would have known that you never turn your back on your enemy, especially when you're at the top of the stairs. I mean, that was you know, that was crazy, but she was so and you're right, she was a protector, just as Alvar in the movie with Joan Crawford.

She was a much more no nonsense, serious character, whereas Velma Agnes Moorehead's character in this is still the protector of you know, in this case of Charlotte, but also she's she is able to tease and mock Charlotte, but in a loving way, and you know that she you know, protects her and loves her more than anybody else does, cares about her more than anybody else does. But she definitely brings the only humor that you get in a rather bizarro film. But she brings the humorous aspects. I'm sure doctor Madigan will agree with me on this one. I mean, obviously he thinks there's more flaws.

But for me, the fatal flaw of this movie is the same as with Baby Jane, and that is it's just too long. They could have cut probably a good fifteen minutes out of it and it wouldn't have hurt the story, I don't think. But the plot is so complicated, it's like at the end it starts to get to a point where it's almost getting ridiculous. It's over. You know, it's too much on top of one another.

But I thought it was fun. You know, also you mentioned and Dora, because growing up I watched Bewitched all the time, and I never liked and Dora. And that's always the problem when you dislike a character, but you then dislike, you know, the actor who's portraying it. So when I saw this film, it did help me to realize Agnes Moorehead could play a lot of different roles. And then of course the magnificent Amberson, she breaks your heart, and the fact that, like Victor Blono in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, she was nominated for an Academy Award, And those nominations come from your fellow actors, so that's I know.

They always say it's enough to be nominated, that's a non or enough, and mostly to say yeah, but you really want to win, but it actually is. It's a tremendous honor when you consider how many other movies were out at the time. So for both of them, I mean, I remember somebody said I read somewhere, if you're an actor and in your obituary, the first line is going to be either won or nominated for an Academy Award, and I assume that was the case with both Bono and Morehead. Yeah, with more Head. I was only aware of her as Endor for the longest time growing up I'm Bewitched, and it wasn't until I think I saw a Citizen King before I saw Dark Passage.

Pretty sure I did. And of course, you know, when you're in film school, at least in the nineties, they were showing Citizen Kane pretty much as many times as they possibly could, no matter which class you were in. So when I finally connected Agnes Moorehead and Dora to Agnes Moorehead as Charles Foster Kane's mother, I was completely blown away. I was in that bubble still back in the late eighties early nineties, where it's this actor is this role, and yes they can play other things, but I don't really think about them and other things. And especially to see her so young and to realize that she was part of the whole Mercury Playhouse, and it's nice to have both her and Joseph Cotton in here, and Cotton just doing a great job, especially with this whole southern drawl thing that he does so well.

Apparently he had forgotten how to speak with a Southern accent because he had a drilled out of himself, so much in some of his early voice training, but man, when he goes for that accent, he really just lays it all. Well, Mike, I'm so glad that you mentioned Agnes Moorehead in Dark Passage because I saw Dark Passage before I ever saw a Citizen Kane or the Magnificent Amberson's, So that was indeed the first thing I ever saw her in other than Bewitched, and she was if I may say it, I know I'm not supposed to use this word, but she was a fabulous bitch in Dark Passage. I mean she's she's really really mean, and you just I mean Tim said he didn't like Indorra. I mean, none of us liked the Door, but I could still see the humor in Indoorra.

The characters he plays in Dark Passage, she is just awful. And by that I mean fabulously awful. I mean she was so good in that, and I saw that long before I ever saw a Citizen Kane. But I'm glad you reminded me of that. I gotten all about that that particular role.

Oh yeah, she just relishes the villain roles so well. And that's why also watching this, I was like, is she bad is she going to turn out to be the bad person because she's into everything and she's there with that look on her face when the Olivia to Havelin shows up and just kind of like looking down her nose. She's at the top of the porch. You know, we've got a lot of staircases in this movie. She's at the top of the porch looking down at Olivia to Havelin and just kind of sneering at her.

And You're like, Okay, does she just have a dislike of people coming to this house. Does she want Charlotte to herself or does she hate this Miriam character that's coming in. I'm not really sure at first, and I just don't think she likes anybody but Charlotte. And yeah, she gives Charlotte a lot of shit through the whole movie too. There's a lot of other films in this We've talked about Psycho before, We've talked a little about Sunset Boulevard, and then with this one.

There's a lot of diabolique in this movie, a lot of it. Especially the shot of Joseph Cotton underwater just so reminded me of the dead body in the water in the tub in diabolique and just this whole idea of and here's another one, gaslight gaslighting Charlotte into thinking that she's crazy, giving her drugs to make her even more crazy, and just really doing everything that they could to drive this woman mad. Though there isn't a weak heart in this one, it's basically a weak mind. And her mind hasn't been the same since that murder of John Mayhew Bruce Dern in this movie, and that is so unclear as to who murdered him that that really becomes the central mystery of this whole film, which is wild that it goes back to the first few minutes of the movie time and time again, just who murdered this person?

And it seems so obvious that it's Charlotte when you see her come in and she's got that blood on her dress and that blood and I'm sorry to go here, but I have to because this is my whole Freudian thing. That blood just looks so much like menstrual blood. It's so reminded me of Marlena Dietrich in Stage Fright, where she's got that big stain on her dress, and this one is very much the same. And it's so telling to me that Charlotte, her face is kept in darkness because this is supposed to be Betty Davis, and sometimes she's playing young Charlotte, sometimes she's not. Sometimes it's her voice.

Well I think it's her voice through the whole thing, which is interesting. But having her in shadows, seeing that big menstrual stain, and then this being a whole thing about this woman who's locked away and is so and I mean this word when I say it hysterical, and just the relationships between women. I mean, you could cut men out of this film almost altogether. But when it comes to the man's death, I've talked about this so many times before. Not only is he decap but his hand is cut off.

And for me, in so many Freudian interpretations, the cutting off of a hand is basically just a big old castration. Well, since you talked about Freud, you also made a Freudian slipped there when you said scarlets and Betty Davis wanted to play scarlets. Well, they wanted Blanche du Bois herself to come on here for a little while. They wanted Vivian Lee rather than Olivia to havelin too. Yes, and that's one of the stories that Betty didn't want her to play the role.

The other question, getting back to our earlier discussion of Baby Jane, is what would have been the case of Joan Crawford had played the role. It was, as you said, it was kind of set up for a reunion. There are various reasons given as to why that didn't happen, and it's one of the great what ifs if instead of Olivia to Havelin, it was Joan Crawford in the role. I mean, obviously we'll will never know, but we can certainly imagine how she would have portrayed the lovable cousin who turns out to be not so lovable. Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably admit that one of the reasons I probably like this film more than Baby Jane is I am not now, nor have I ever been a Joan Crawford fan.

She always kind of turned me off. I don't think she would have been right for this role, quite honestly, because of what Tim just said, and that is, you know, when Olivia de Heaveln, when cousin Miriam first comes on the scene, for a little while, they make you wonder whether she is good and sweet, whether she is spiteful like you don't know exactly. She doesn't tip her hand right away, and I don't think Joan Crawford could ever convince anybody that she was sweet or innocent in any way. For lack of a better technical term, Olivia de Haln is a softer persona than Joan Crawford is, and I think that adds to this story. I think it helps in this case, in this story because you don't learn, obviously until more than halfway through the movie that she's not a nice lady, and I think her persona helps that.

Of course, it's interesting you do learn about halfway in that she's not what you think she is. But then there's yet another twist. So we learn that she's trying to get her cousin in a mental institution so that she could take over the estate, but we don't learn until much later that she's been blackmailing the actual murderer all those years. So that there's Mike mentioned, there's a lot of twist in the story that you know. Again, I don't remember the first time I saw it and what my reaction was to all of those twists, but I do agree that Olivia de Havilin is to be commended for going against her usual persona, as you know, the lovable, friendly, wonderful person and turning out to be a pretty horrible person.

The wonderful what was her name, Melody or Melanie. Melanie, Yeah, Melanie suddenly turned bad. Scarlett Miriam in this picture is far far scarier than Scarlet ever was. Yeah. I mean at the end, when you realize that this woman, Miriam, the part that they have on place, has essentially tortured these two women for almost forty years in such a cold hearted way, it is chilling.

I mean, that is really chilling. By the way, Mike mentioned earlier about the short story, Tim was kind enough to loan me the book with Baby Jane and the Charlotte short story, and I noticed one thing I noticed is that in the short story, it's only twenty years that has gone by, but in this story it's thirty seven years that have gone by. So that makes quite a difference too. I Mean, the one thing I didn't understand is almost like, why did she wait so long? But I guess you sort of get the idea that Jewel Mayhew's money had just basically run out as she's about to die, and it all kind of coincides with Miriam coming to the Hollis estate.

Yeah, it coincides with the Hollows estate about to be torn down from eminent domain. Yeah, George Kennedy out there wanting to tear the house down. Any movie with George Kennedy is good. I just that's just a given. And so young in here.

There wasn't enough George Kennedy too. There you go, Oh no, no, not enough Ruce Dern, not enough George Kennedy, not enough Wono. I mean I was glad that there's the nightmare sequence later on with Dern and boon overturning, and Wono was there throughout the entire film as a painting, you know, you get that kind of Laura looming over. But so is Betty Davis as well. Her younger self is a painting through So much of this movie just kind of reminding you of these earlier days, the torturing of these two women, especially with Charlotte, all of the letters that she gets, And then I kept saying to myself, are these letters actually from other people or are they all from Miriam?

Because they talk at one point about how she's been in Paris, and I'm like, well, she's a traveler. And Charlotte says, all these letters come from all over the world. Is she just posting them from all the different ports of call that she goes to, like all of the trips that she's on. And she goes, oh, hold on, I got to go to the post office and post something here. And it's just another hate letter to Charlotte.

I have to send this postcard that says murderous. Which is great that she hands that message back to Olivia de Haviln's character. It's like, this belongs to you, ma'am. I said, I hope Sharlie saved the stamp. So it's kind of interesting.

I'm all over the world. By the way. Our friend Steve Hoff he has a sub stack called the Movable Marquis I wanted to get so good, and he recently given a review of this film and he makes an interesting point that the children are singing a Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, which was apparently or a vulgar variation of it was supposedly a love song that her lover had sung to her, and Steve was winning. How would the children know this song which I must admit I didn't think about. But you know, getting back to the torture that of cousin Miriam, presumably she also tortured Big Sam because he thought his daughter was the murderous.

So when she does reveal herself, he you know, he has just balled out her lover and let him know that by no means is he going to marry Big Sam's daughter, and Big Sam will kill him. So there's a kind of a threat there. But then we know presumably Big Sam didn't do it, but he went to his grave thinking his daughter was the murderous and it's mentioned af later that she was never prosecuted because he was such a powerful political figure. Probably called up, you know, the Governor long or whoever else was governor Louisiana at the time and asked for a favor. But that's a pretty horrible thing too.

Tim, as you mentioned, and I think it was I don't know if it was last week when we started talking about this film coming up. Big Sam dies the year after this murder occurs. They show his headstone because I think Tim had made the point that Big Sam and Victor Bono both died in their mid forties. Basically you're right. He didn't know anything.

He just you know, because they say in the film that he pretty much sent her away to Europe right away. So I guess while he could manipulate the political forces and make sure that she wouldn't be she wouldn't be prosecuted in any way. I was reading one article or a few things that make you scratch your head, you know, like in any movies, doesn't seem to fit together right. One article I read said it was certainly magical how Joseph Cotton was able to get out of the swamp and on foot get back to the. To the house before Charlotte could Steve mentions that too in his sub stack.

He was a pretty fast guy. Maybe that slapping scene took a long time. It was an old car. The only thing they could do is when she was slapping her. Maybe he got into the trunk or something.

That slapping scene, Yes, that was very That was the maybe you're right, Mike, because the slow, deliberate nature of it. Maybe it was to throw her off and get him into the into the trunk. You no, will you shut your mouth? Do as I tell you? And if I tell you to lie, you will.

Do that too. I've never got to suffer for. You again, not ever? Do real understand. Whoa she is?

Very serious right now, but kind of to your point, you know, even when it comes to the nursery rhyme, and the nursery rhyme reminds me very much of you know, that kind of twisted version of Husha Sweet Charlotte reminded me a lot of like Lizzie Borden and that whole song that kids would sing. I mean kids, why were we singing about Lizzie Borden in nineteen eighty I don't know, but you know, I mean, sure, sure, why not? And you know, still singing Ring around the Rosie right, you know? But the film is dishonest. The film is very, very dishonest.

There are so many times where people are hearing things or seeing things, or reacting to things that they shouldn't be reacting to, or they are completely private, but yet they're still putting on this act for Charlotte. They're putting on an act for us. I mean, this whole thing is for us, the audience, but it's also for Charlotte. But it really plays fast and loose with what is for Charlotte? What is for us?

The audience, and they keep us guessing the whole time. And that's why we just have, you know, red Herring after red Herring after red Herring. You know, is it Mary Astor? Noah can't be Mary Astor because she was over here at this time. Is it this person?

Noah can't be that person, you know, and just keeps pulling the rug out from under us. I mean, I don't mind. I'm not saying like, oh, well, gosh, you know, he didn't get out of the cockaduty car kind of thing. I'm not Andy Wilkes here. I'm just like, yeah, no, it's it's all for dramatic tension.

But yet I love that they're just really Aldrich knows what he's doing and really doing a good job of keeping us off our toes. Because we love these actors so much and they all get their moment in the sun. It was just great to see Mary Astro and what I guess was her last role, and she do itting enough. Mary Astor Well, supposedly she did one more film after this, but this movie was released after that film was so apparently she did have one more film that she did, but it was released before this film was released. I'm not a doctor like doctor Madigan, but I went to college.

I have a degree, but I always feel like I learned as much, if not more, from television than I did from school. And learning all that I have from television and watching all the mysteries that I've watched, I should have figured out that it was Jewel because I believe like in real life, most of the time you're murdered by some I'm very close, and in the case of a cheating spouse, it makes total sense. But they don't show us her. I don't even think do they show us her at that party at all? I don't think so.

I was wondering that myself. I don't think they did. Yeah, they don't do a very good job of saying who some of these younger people are. I thought there would be a much more direct correlation of oh, well, that's the Agnes Warhead character. If she's you know, maybe a maid at the party or something.

I don't think she was a socialite. But you know, here's the Olivia de Havilin character. I would have liked that a little bit more had we had you know, here's even doctor Drew, which is hilarious to say because of the Doctor Drew. Kids these days probably don't remember who Doctor drews, thank god, because he was such a shyster. But just yeah, Doctor Drew Bayliss with Joseph Cotton.

Maybe maybe had they done the weird thing kind of like they're doing with Betty Davis and had them dub all of their voices for the characters, that would have been weird but might have helped you recognize them later on if they're actually at that party. Yeah, I agree that was not made clear at all. And the thing about Betty Davis walking in with the blood stained dressed, I don't think like you say, they try to keep her face in shadow in that shot, but I think you see her hands and there's no blood on her hands, And if you're hacking away at a body, I'm guessing the blood is going to splatter on your hacking hand if nothing else. So that's another tip that she doesn't really she's not the real person who did it.

I always thought it made most sense that the father did it, But as you say, he comes in almost immediately and he's you know, he doesn't have any blood on him anywhere. He would have had to have had a big Butcher's apron on, but he hadn't done he hadn't done that Butcher movie yet. I gotta say that you're confusing that with another Victor Buono. I guess it all connects, uh, you know, I I was interested to see that. Another actor in the movie is Ellen Corby, so there's quite a Corby connection.

We're talking about her last time with the Strangler playing his his mother. Here she's the town gossipy. They don't have any scenes together, but it's still nice, you know that. I guess Aldrich was kind of noted for trying to cast people, including his family members, you know, in all of his movies, so he was comfortable with. Well, the cast is, as we've already said, I mean, the cast overall is really magnificent.

Uh it will it will be rivaled only by next week's movie that we're going to a very different type of film, obviously, but this cast is just it's really that's again for me watching old films, watching classic films, it's always a kick to see the great character actors and actresses that are in these things, and this one is just so magnificent. Speaking of actors who I always liked, Yes, Joseph Cotton is way up there for me. I love Joseph Cotton, absolutely loved them. One of the guys that I like so much just plays a small role as the funeral director Percy Helthy Helton, Yes, whose real life voice sounds a lot like Sterling Holloway or John Fiedler. Like, as I'm listening to him, I'm like, is he Piglet or is he Pooh?

He sounds a little bit like both of these guys. And he's just got this dark sense of humor in this character where he's you know, kind of like, oh, you want to see the body kind of stuff. It's like, this guy's a real creep. I love it. And now I'm like, well, I want to see more Percy Hilton movies.

I want to see, like, you know, Wild Wives are some of these movies that he was in. I'll bet this is the first time you've ever seen the County Colin operate out of a funeral pollody. Yes, it's a bit different where I come from. It's a bit different most places. Still, for a town of this size, it's it's kind of a hand I've just.

Heard the news about Belle mccrellor's death. The newspaper office. It was miss Colors. He came to see it wasn't there. She certainly had a nasty accident.

All right, would you would you like to see the body? Well, step inside it. Oh God, he's been in a lot. He was in no watch stuff. He actually looks a little like Feedler.

He doesn't doesn't look like what's his name, but he looked Holloway, but he looks a little like Fiedler. And I was so shocked that he didn't become part of that voice cast that Disney was using, because when I looked up both Feedler and Holloway, it was remarkable seeing just how many times they were being used. You know, I think Holloway is the voice of the snake in the Jungle Book. And I can't remember what else Fiedler did besides Piglet, but they were showing up in a ton of movies just as voices. Towards the well, I can't say towards the end of the career, because it was even pre Colchack.

For Feedler was pre Bob Newhart Show, you know. It was Yeah, he was just going strong and yeah, to be able to use that little voice that he had in such a big way. Was really nice. It was a perfect role for him. And Percy Helton was in for for Texas, so he had worked with the Aldridge not too long before this.

Really right, It almost must have been back to back almost those two films. Oh yeah, he was in a lot of He was in The Music Man. He was the train conductor and the music Man. Oh my god, he's got so much. He goes back to what year.

Oh, it looks like he did some silent film. And I hear that voice. I don't know if this is true or not, but I hear that voice is from him in a play where he had to scream and yell so much that he ended up becoming permanently hoarse for the rest of his life. Oh. I didn't know that.

Believe that, if you will or not, that was IMDb tricks. You should have stuck to silent movies. Here's another great one I forgot about. He was the drunken Santa Claus in the original Miracle on thirty fourth Street. Another bit player who I liked very much like is William Campbell.

Is that his name? Oh yeah, in a lot of Star Trek episodes, and he's the photographer who's also pretty sleazy character in the movie. Yeah, that whole thing with the photographer and the other reporter, so there's the two competing magazine. So you get it a lot more, I think in the story than you do in the actual movie. But between when is it Cecil Kellaway as this genteel British guy who writes for a really nice magazine or newspaper, and then yeah, William Campbell, who's just this kind of you expected to meet chewing gum through the whole thing is just this kind of like hey, pops, get on my way, you know, like works for basically like a National Inquirer type rag type of thing, and their competition trying to get the story and everything.

I'm like, oh, that could have ended up on the cutting room floor without very much problem whatsoever. I mean, it is nice to see the way that Kellaway, as Harry Willis talks with Charlotte. He seems to be other than potentially velma. He seems to be the only one that treats her with kindness at all, and she is the most normal during that sequence until one of the people that's packing up the house touches a music box that makes her go crazy again, and yeah, she goes. I mean, Betty Davis is fantastic.

She goes from zero to sixty like nobody's business in this movie, and most of the time she's just playing at eleven through so much of this film. It's a good point about the Cecil Kellaway character, because yeah, I thought that character was very different from what was in the short story. I did kind of scratch my head how they came to pick him and to kind of direct the character in that direction. And maybe it's, like you say, maybe it's to have one ally for Charlotte besides Velma, because of course Velma doesn't make it through the entire story. Kellaway says to the William Campbell character at the end, he says, basically what we already would all of us kind of know that wouldn't it be something if she didn't kill him, and that it had been Jewell who killed her husband because of jealousy or whatever like that.

But he doesn't give us any idea that he has opened that envelope yet before he gives it to Charlotte. And then it's like when Charlotte, like I always thought it was interesting, like Charlotte reads it and then as she's being driven off she I guess she would be thankful to him, But at the same time she seems too happily satisfied instead of enraged that she was just screwed with for forty years. Well, of course she got revenge by killing the two of them. Well that's true. Maybe she was still enjoying that moment.

But that's what I was wondering, jumping to the end. Was it clear to people that she had pushed whatever you called a big vase onto the two of them and killed them or was it not known? In other words, was she being taken to prison or was she just vacating the house because of eminent domain. The impression that I got from the reviews that I read was that she was being driven off to the loney Bend, and I really wish that it wasn't the case. I really wish that she got away with the murder that was justified, because she was tormented for all those years for the murder that she didn't do but thought she had for me.

She's paid her debt and basically Miriam and doctor Drew, they deserve to die. And I find her completely without fault, and I love that she has that moment of clarity when she's listening to them and almost shaking off the drugs and realizing what's going on. And yeah, I love that we have that foreshadowed at the beginning when she pushed them one off when George Kennedy's walking away, and then she uses to the other one as the murder weapon later on, and I'm like, well, why not. The house is falling apart, right, maybe it just fell over who knows exactly. Yeah, no one saw her push it.

Well, the two victims saw it, but not just a time to realize, Oh. Didn't help him any But yeah, how would anyone know? Of course, the question must she must have been pretty strong to push that down, and she did push one earlier too, so you didn't want to mess with Charlotte. But if Callaway had given that note to the sheriff, would that have changed anything? Would she have been brought away to the looney bin or not?

You know, that's another question about it too. So yeah, like you said, Mike, there's a lot of dishonest aspects to this film. By the way, no one mentioned the wonderful Frank Ferguson, who was the editor of the paper because I always loved Frank Ferguson too, and he was in there. I mean that, I just keep shaking my head. Wesley Addy as a sheriff.

This is really this is really a stacked cast. Since Monster Basher's all time favorite movies abn A Costello, meet Frankenstein, who was in that, Frank Ferguson. It's always good to see him. When I see Frank Ferguson, I think of the grosser on Andy Griffith's show. Well, and it wasn't just people in front of the camera that Aldrich had to use.

It was so many of the technicians. Like Aldrich used the same art directors, the same cinematographers, the same composers, the same editors. He just had this kind of stock company of people, and he would work with them, not just one or two films, for like sixteen films, you know, just really keep trying to use these same people. The one story I heard while I was doing my research on this was that Aldrich's company was called Associates and Aldrich, not Aldrich and Associates, which I thought was really nice that he's putting the associates before his own name, even just to say that it's them, it's not me. It's almost like decrying this whole tour theory where it's like, no, no, it's not just me, it's all of these people that I work with.

They're the ones that bring this magic together. Right. I read that too, that he did that on purpose because he wanted them to get the credit. You know. Well it includes his family members because in the credits there's not one, not two, but three of his children.

Now we got the NEPO babies. He was into that before it was cool. I noticed in the end credits that I don't know who it was, but there was another Aldrich who was like the script supervisor or something. Adele Aldridge was the script apprentice. She was, but she was listed on the credits as Adele Aldrich Bravos.

So maybe that was a daughter too, but she was married at the time. Yeah, I think it fewed his daughter or actress playing his daughter is the script supervisor. You know, he kept it in the family. Also, getting back to the credits, one of the things I noticed at the when the credits roll, getting back to our friend Victor Blono, he gets a guest star credit. I've always wondered, how do you guess star and that seems like a television kind of credit, And I wonder at what point because you see it a lot, but it seems to be in movies around that time and in the seventies, when did that start to be a credit?

Yeah, these days, I don't know if he would get the what they call what the hammer where it's the end Victor Blono, you know, because he just shows up briefly, does has been the business and then leaves for almost the entire film. If I'm not mistaken, the main thrust of his appearance at the beginning is all before the credits run, right. It is, Yeah, yeah, it's like a seventeen minute prog prologue. The other person who I think again should be mentioned is Joseph Berrock, who was the cinematographer and apparently Aldridge loved him and they worked together a lot. But I mean, Birock goes all the way back.

The first film that he's credited on, I guess as director of photography is It's a Wonderful Life, So that goes back to forty six. But he did My Dear Secretary with Kurt Russell, who was crying danger. Don't forget the ever Lovable Wuana Devil from nineteen fifty. Two first three D film. Correct.

Yeah, I mean he did a lot of stuff, and. I think his last movie was Airplane. You might be right, because I know I saw Airplane on here somewhere film was Airplane two. Oh I thought that Finkleman tried to get him back but he couldn't. But okay, all right, I mean that's what IMDb says, so IMDb obviously can be wrong.

Yeah, No, you're right, because he did Hammett after that as well, after Airplane. And speaking of Aldrich, All the Marbles. Right, I was just going to say the last movie he did with Aldridge was All the Marbles a couple years before Airplane. Also, he did Sst. Deathflight, which was another one of those airport exploitation films from that time.

No George Kennedy in that one, but that was Bert Convey and Peter Graves and Lauren Green. You're talking about a great cast, and it was another TV movie. It took me while to find that one. It was really I think it was a few years before the Concord, but it really felt like it was. That if there's no George Kennedy, it doesn't count as an airplane film.

There's no Joe PETRONI forget it. And he's going to be back next week when we talk about who's minding the mint. There you go. He did, I go, Like I say, he did a lot. Bye Bye Birdie.

He worked with Dino and Toys in the Attic. He also worked with William Castle for I Saw What You Did, which was another Joan Crawford William Castle joint. But I have to say there's a lot of straight jacket for me in this movie. It feels like we've gone very lurid in this especially when it comes to the disembodied hand and the head that falls out of the box. I mean that head falling.

I just was getting visions of William Castle from that so much. It just was so exploitative. But I say that in a good way. Well, when the angets chapped off, I was thinking of Herschel Gordon Lewis. I mean that was really, you know, especially for a mainstream film that had to be incredibly shocking for the time.

Oh yeah, and within the first few minutes. Of the movie, Yeah, people must have gone crazy. And what did this come out? Sixty five? I think or sixty Yeah, well it was released in LA in sixty four for Oscar consideration.

Then it came out Jan twenty sixty five for the rest of the country. But this is is this before wide releases? Still? Are we just touring it around first or are we releasing to a few hundred theaters throughout the country. Yeah, that's a good question.

I know. This movie again, more so in retrospect, I think is considered a failure compared to Baby Jane because it didn't make as much, but it did make a profit at the time. I think the bigger problem with how people saw it was the fact that it went way over budget because of the whole Joan Crawford fiasco where she started it and then she eventually was replaced and they had to reshoot a lot of stuff all over again. So I know that that added to, you know, considerably to the budget of this movie. But it did still make a profit when it came out, just not to the same extent that Baby Jane had.

That is always fascinating to me when you go back and reshoot a movie with a different actor or actress, or just have that kind of major change up, you know, like Kevin Spacey being replaced by Christopher Plumber, you know, and trying to match like where were these scenes? And they do it so flawlessly in this film, because you have to realize that they shot all the stuff in Louisiana with Joan Crawford. It wasn't until they got to la that they had to have land and they couldn't go back to Louisiana. So so many of these you know, like the porch set or the front yard, like those things. They're faking those things to bring in to Haveland inside of those moments.

It's wild that they were able to pull it off. It kind of reminds me while we were watching Feud, how they were talking about the last shot or one of the last shots, i should say, in whatever happened to Baby Jane, where they were complaining. Aldrich was complaining. And again I'm taking Feud with a huge grain of salt, but Aldrich is just like every time Joan leaves the set and she comes back, she looks five years younger, and she really needs to look like she's about to die on this beach scene. So Jack Warner insists we're gonna reshoot this, and they have to bring in a bunch of sand.

Thank goodness, it's not radioactive sand. But they bring in a whole bunch of sand and put it on the set and then shoot it from above, so it looks I mean, the cinematography and that one blends it perfectly. It literally looks like they're on the beach, but they were on a sound stage and this so much of this is completely seamless. There are a couple shots I think, where Joan Crawford is still in the movie, but it's from a distance, so you don't know that it's Crawford, Like she's in that cab, right, but you don't see her, And they just blend in to Haviland so perfectly that you would never know that she wasn't the original star of the film. It's kind of like the fake chef.

But I guess fake Joan or fake Olivia the case may be. Did I read that they built I assume it was mainly well, obviously they built the sets for inside as well, but like the front of that house on the sound stage for a couple hundred thousand dollars, which today I'm sure would be like two million or more. Yeah, so you say it really does? I mean, again, You're right, you can't tell you know what was shot when, and they knew what they were doing. I mean it comes off very well.

Whenever I think of someone being placed in the middle of a shoot and this it wasn't in the middle for this one, but it was. It was a rather controversial film of the time and that has Kissed Me stupid, directed by Billy Wilder, and the star of it is Ray Watson. But it wasn't supposed to be. It started with Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers had a heart attack while Megan and they had to replace him.

And as much as I love Ray Willston, he just wasn't right for this part. And whenever I see that movie now, it always bothers me because I think Peter Sellers would have made this a brilliant movie. It would have gone over much better. But that's I mean, yeah, that's hot. I mean just mentally, if depending on how much you've shot, to think that you have to start all over again, I mean, what that's got to do you to you as a director and as actors who have already done all these scenes and now you got to redo it again.

I mean that's I would think that that would take a lot of air out of the sales. Well. Fortunately for Victor presumably it didn't impact him since he's in scenes with either Joan or Olivia. No just fake Benny Davis. You know, you mentioned that this didn't make as much money, but it was successful because there were quite a few other whatever you want to call him, exploitation or you know, what was the term you.

Liked, Mike Grand d'am guignon. Yes, I prefer that much more, but like who slew Anti Rue, and there were you know, at least three or four others that followed been a short period of time, so presumably they were making money until they were no longer making money. That's the Hollywood way. By the way, I did watch for the first time Lady in a Cage, which I don't know if it's Grand Dame Jugnon or whatever you want to call it, but it's a very distasteful film with Olivia de Haviland, and which she made immediately before this film, so she had already been involved in something that it was rather different from her previous persona in film. Yeah, I would like to see that because I like Olivia de Halin a lot.

I kind of have a crush on her after I saw Strawberry Blonde. She is amazing in that movie. How about That's when I love that movie. It's so good. They showed that at the Nitrate last year, and I was just thrilled to see that on the big screen.

And it was like the year of Alan Hale Senior, and he was just you know or no not Yeah. A. Senior going through so many of those films all the way from the you know, hilarious stuff that he was doing with that and The Good Fairy, even to something that's a lot more serious like Stella Dallas. I mean, he was just all over that festival last year and I was there for it. Olivia the Hamlin I always thought was really beautiful.

Yeah about Aled you or Senior Junior was good too. But Senior just had something magical about him that I liked so much. And he could just play a real shithead or play somebody hilarious and you could buy either way. He was great. Well, I want to give a spoiler alert about Lady in a Cage.

Well, you haven't seen it, Mike. I have not, but I think it's not going to be ruined for me. I would only say there is a continuity with that movie and the two previous ones, The Strangler and whatever Happened to Baby Jane, because you have a mother who is very overbearing, and the implication is this is what makes the Sun a homosexual and that must have been a theme of some sorts and so those movies all made around the same time, and it doesn't play well these days. To put it mildly, was that a Freudian theory or someone else? Well, that sounds Freudian.

I would be interested to see Lady in the Cage just to compare it against The Collector, the one with terren Cee. Yeah, because I didn't realize that The Collector was sixty five, and I think Lady in the Cage was what sixty three. Or yeah, or sixty four? There were sixty four, I think, yeah, yeah. Well the Collector is, in my view, a much better film and a much eerier film.

I was joking with Otto Lady in a Cage, getting back to our previous discussion, I said, if Rod Steiger was on the set, he would have told the cat keep, you know, play it a little less grandiose. Other than Olivia. I mean, she's she's fine. I think in it but most of the other actors are just so over the top that it's hard to suspend one's disbelief even though they do some very reprehensible things. Maybe that was deliberate to take some of the sting out of it, but it's like, wow, calm down, people.

The acting in this movie is I don't know why to say it's helped by, but it's definitely emphasized by that score I mentioned that before, and just it is as garish or grandiose as Betty Davis is, and also turns on a dime just like her. And then you get some of the weird instrument instrumentation. I don't think there's a theremin in here, but there might as well be, because it is just really playing it up and you know, showing it's just how weird this whole thing is. And you get into that that dream sequence, the whole dancing with Daddy sequence, Man oh man, it's really just layered so thick on top of it. You know.

That's why I said at the very beginning, For me, I found this movie much creepier because that dance sequence is like a nightmare, you know, with the with the peopeople dancing around without faces, you know, and then she turns, you know, when she I forgot what the circumstances that she looks up and it's the father without the hand in the head and all that stuff. And that was really creepy. But again it's like you say, I mean, for me, at least, it's heavy handed, but it works. It worked for me. Well, we give a shout out talking about associates and Aldrich to the great Frank of all previously, I just remember him as happy kind on Frienwood tonight, and I didn't know at the time, you know, all the great music he had done, and he worked quite a few times with Aldrich.

Yeah, he was very loyal to his folks, which I highly applaud. I'm so glad when people worked together after so many years and just have that rhythm together, they're able to, you know, just know what they're thinking before they even have to say it. It's going to make productions so much simpler. And Aldrich had been born like fifty years earlier, he probably would have been a total pariah to his family because his family was I mean, they were like I mean, he had ambassadors, he had senators, congresspeople, bankers, Nelson Rockefeller his cousin I think. So he came from quite an established clan and to go into I guess he went to school and he was going to become a banker, and right before like he'd never graduated.

He went four years, but he didn't graduate because before he could get his diploma, he worked I think on a play or something on campus and decided, oh, I want to go into show business, and through one of his family's contacts I guess was somebody was working ATO and that's how he got his first job at RKO is essentially a production assistant, a gopher more or less, and that's how his career started. From what I understand, he was for f for the army, which was a real blessing in disguise because he became one of the most used assistant directors during that whole war period. And what was it. I read He worked with Max Ofols, he worked with Genre Noir, He worked with all of these heavy hitters. I mean, imagine you're assistant director working with these incredible talents that are coming over, but both Hollywood talents but also outsider talents, European talents that are coming over during this time and working with these people as well.

Yeah, he worked with Chaplain, although I think he said that Chaplain while a great artist. I think he said at one point that he was like the least talented director in a way because he didn't know how to tell people how to help people do things. He only knew how to show them how to do something, So I guess he wasn't able to put into words how someone should do something on a set. I thought that was interesting that he said as great as an artist as he was, he was definitely not the greatest director that he worked for. I think he gave a lot of credit.

I know he worked with Milestone too, Lewis Milestone, he gave him a lot of credit. He said he learned a lot from him. Yeah, he worked with a lot of important directors. What was his film right after A Shah Sweet Charlotte. Was that Flight of the Phoenix feud.

As Mike was saying, I got to take it with the grain of salt. But one of the themes is that he wasn't sure if he was really going to be able to make it as a director, partly because the studio system was collapsing, and also because Jack Warner was kind of deriding him as you know, you're more like a TV director not a film director. But these two Betty Davis films were hits, and then, you know, although he had some duds subsequently, for the most part, he was just working steadily and did some you know, some classic movies. Well, he did some classic movies in the fit. Like again in the fifties, three in a row he did Vera Cruz, Kiss Me Deadly, and The Big Knife, which are all today seen as critically very good films.

And then he does Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Flight of the Phoenix, and The Dirty Dozen, all all in a row. Those are three in a row. That really set him on the pedestal. After the Dirty Doesn't the one that was probably I think that was supposed to be another great film and it was a huge, huge disappointment with the legend of Why LaClair with Kim Novak. Right right, which I want to see because it sounds so lurid.

Yes, I've never seen I've seen that, and it's a it's a bizarre it's a weird movie. It's a weird movie, and and yeah it is. I guess it was certainly lured for his time. But it's also one. It's been a it's been a while since I've seen it, but I think I when I remember watching it, I remember thinking it's a film that never quite gets off the ground.

I read some interview with Aldridge where he said, well, I was I was just about the guy. I forgot what they were talking about. He goes, well, I was just about to blame Kim Novak for the failure that he says. But it was really my failure, he says. I wasn't able to get out of her what I needed to get out of her, and so he took her.

You know, he took the blame for it. But and of course that that movie is important because it's got Ernie borgnine in it. Well, from what I understand the story of Legend of Lyla Clair having Kim Novak in there, it sounds a little bit like Vertigo as far as this actress and remaking another actress that looks like her. Is that right? Is that the.

Story of that one? I think it is. Yeah, it seems like I should have watched that for the Vertigo episode. Yeah, again, it's been so long, I just remember it's kind of like you said, lurid, but it's also just kind of depressing, and it just didn't It's too bad because again there's a lot of good people in that movie as well. I mean, Peter Finch is in that Borg nine, Milton Seltzer, who I always loved, Dick Dennis by the way, another guy who worked repeatedly with Aldridge, Dave Willock, shows up in Lila Clair.

Another Aldridge guy, Alan Corby, is in Lila Clare. You go it's gotta be good. Did he also do the Grisome Gang because that one's also supposed to be pretty out there as well. Yes he did, he did that. I've never seen the Grissome Gang.

That's another lurrid film that was like based on was it no Orchids for Miss Blandish or it's a it's a very disturbing story too. And then Aldrich produced, but he didn't direct another one of the Grand dam Ganyol films. Whatever happened to Alice? I mean, these titles are so fun, right, who's slew anti rou all these? You know?

I love these titles and then even the ones that aren't questions but like I Die my darling, some of those things. I love that and there's a great book from a Farland Books all about this, and I'll i'll definitely link that in the show notes because it's very very well written, very well researched, and has so many of these aka Psycho biddy type movies. It's really great to read and has helped out tremendously when it came to getting the backstory of this. But the one thing, and it was just funny. I was listening to one of the two commentary tracks that's a failable for this, and one of them I can't remember.

Roych was saying like, well, how did this movie get Fox? You know? The first one was Warner Brothers. Jack Warner was all over whatever happened to Baby Jane? This one's at Fox now again taking this with a grain of salt, but I love that scene in Feud where Aldridge pulls out of Warner and just goes, fuck you, this is my movie.

I'm taking it wherever I want to, takes it over to Fox and he talks about his big brass balls and he and Alfred Molina just leans over that desk and goes. I didn't come with you, cigars, Now, what'd you come here for? I came in to get my balls back. Yeah, I'm planking. I agree.

That's one of the best scenes Whatever Happened or Whatever Happened movies. I mean, we don't you don't see these anymore. Maybe it's time to there's everything else is being revived. Yeah, and he announced that he was going to make another other Whatever Happened to movie called Whatever Happened To Dear Elva, based on the novel Goodbye to Elva by Elizabeth Fenwick, but that one never came about. So yeah, he was still thinking about those, uh, those movies all the way into the late sixties, which is pretty wild.

He made The Killing of Sister George, which is somewhat comparable. It's also pretty lurid film, which, Benny, how you look at it as sympathetic or not sympathetic to you know, the lesbian scene in London in the. Sixties, and it has Vincent Price's wife Coral Brown in it. Wait, Vincent Price is Brown? Yeah, yeah, to Carl Brown for okay, for many years?

Yes, checking, All right, what are you implying, my. I'm not insinuating anything other than he might have been very close with his mother. Here we go, Well, maybe Carl Brown is reminded. Well in speaking of I felt really bad because I didn't know until just a few minutes before we started recording this that there was another parody film version. It was called Hush Up, Sweet Charlotte from twenty fifteen, which started mink stole in there and a cast of tens of people that were sending this up.

And that same director, William Clift also did one that I should have watched for our whatever Happened to Baby Jane episode just called Baby Jane from twenty ten, and then this Hush Up movie was from twenty fifteen. So I did not get a chance to watch either one of those, but I really should have. So I have let the audience down. I'm very sorry, folks. You have come to help me.

You shot it. I've come to help with everything, just everything. Really I will. Mister Willis, Why would you be coming all the way from London, England? And that's again old.

Do you think she couldn't done it? Look you here, miss shot This house is coming down, no matter what. Telegram for Miss Charlotte. Dear Charlotte, stop on my way to help, immediately. Stop.

We'll take this to the highest court in the land. Stop. I don't know what you're up to. Miss. It is still my house.

Everything's going to be just fine. She seems to lose her grip on reality more. And things have gotten so crazy in my head. It's made me question everything and everybody. I really don't know anymore.

The town is Field. It's a dark, dirty little secrets. Got married a big, handsome, strapping man like you. How could we have known her? Think the bloody disgusting.

You in this? Do you think I'm a certifile, demented, lunatic unbalanced here? Well, well, you did share with us the Mad magazine parody of all of these various films, with drawn by the great More Drucker, And uh, it's kind of a mishmash. Yes, what was that called hack Hack Sweet has been? And in that same addition, there was a takeoff on Sinatra, a Sinatra movie.

I can't remember which one it was now, but that was in that same Mad issue. Great stuff. Man, You know, they just don't make them like they used to. They sure don't. Yeah, I missed those movie parodies that they used to do, and they were just so vicious sometimes and just the yeah, the whole idea of them blending fact with fiction and just you know, having some of the behind the scenes stuff as part of their story and making references to those things.

Yeah, because this one's got a lot. You know, we talked a little bit about the whole Joan Crawford thing. Well maybe more than a little bit, but yeah, you could just focus an entire episode just talking about her and how she kind of fucked over the production. But maybe she did, but maybe she didn't. Was she really sick?

Who knows? You know, was it you know, they say that Olivia de Havilin had a little bit of some breathing issue, some lung issues when she got into the set. Was it because of you know, because of that that Joan had to leave? You know? I don't know.

So, yeah, it's pretty wild that they had the whole thing and then having to bring in the insurance company. I mean we talked about, you know, what are those things the completion bonds all the time now, but I don't know how much they were exercised back in the day, back in nineteen sixty four when they were making this, And from what I understand too, they didn't even bring to Heblin onto the set until September of sixty four in the movie was released in December of sixty four. So when it comes to this feeling a little long in the tooth, I think I could have gone through at least one more edit. I shared with Mike a clip from the Gilbert Godfried An Amazing Colossal podcast interview with Bruce Dern in which he tells the story since he's I think the last living member of the cast.

The next day, we came back to the set and Betty was in her chair. I was in my little chair next to hers, and there was a lady in Miss Crawford's chair, And suddenly Miss Crawford comes on to the stage and she says, goes right up to Bob Walters's about I'm so sorry the way I behaved yesterday. I'll be more professional. I'll just have to put up with what I have to put up with with that. Didn't even collar her with that, So I'll just run acome through my hair.

You don't have to wait for me at all. I put my bank up on the car. And as she's saying that, she turns over and starts to walk toward where Miss Davis and I and this other lady are and she sees the lady in her chair and she says, why Livy Olivia de Haven, Why Livy, what are you doing here? And Betty Davis looks straight ahead and never looked at her cigarette, Like I said, right down to the nub, Why Livy, what are you doing here? She's playing your role hunt.

Which is a great story. It's not true, but I print the legend in feud. Aldrich goes to France, I believe, or wherever de Haavln was living, and has to, almost on his knees, beg her to come back to how and she says, look at I'm mostly retired. I'm enjoying the good life here. And I already did one of these lurid movies.

I really would prefer not to do another one. And again I don't know if that's the case or not, but she certainly was the ace in the hole because getting back to the earlier point, I think she's excellent in it because she, again, like Jacqueline Hyde, when she's good, she's very good, and when she's bad, she's horrid. I mean, she's really evil. Well that's the thing too, is I hear so many different versions of that story because I've also heard, Oh, Betty Davis called her in Sweden, which is the story I heard, and begged her to come. And then yeah, in feud it's Aldridge.

So it's like, well, which is it, you know? And then according to Duran, it's handled in a completely different way, which we all three of us know is bullshit. Aldridge had to go to Switzerland and it took him days to get to her because she was up on his mountains where she lived, and then it took him another two days. It took him like two days to get there, and then another two days of pleading with her before he got to her to agree. So yeah, they had to climb the mountain themselves, right, it was like peace Gloria from on her Majesty's Secret service was on the top to greet it out there.

He had a little burrow with all his u I have. To say, I was shock cock to hear a story on the Gilbert Godfred amazing colossal podcast that was not true. Actually, everything you heard on the Gospel Truth take it to the bank. It's yeah, everything that was said, as long as it wasn't said by Gilbert. Oh.

One thing I did watch for this just to see if there was any reference. I did watch nineteen sixty five's Run Run Sweet road Runner, which unfortunately has nothing to do with Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte, just a little nod. It was a non Chuck Jones Roadrunner short, and I'm not a big Roadrunner guy, but yeah it was. It was okay. But yeah, there were no axes.

There were no missing heads or hands. I'm sure that the coyote would have been very happy about that, but unfortunately it didn't happen. Well. Roadrunner makes me think of Acme Company, which makes me think in this movie. This is another thing I learned from television and film both.

I think when you become a film buff, you know enough that anytime you see a name on something in a film, it's probably not a coincidental name. It probably has a meaning. So when they're packing up the house and it's I think it's Sam Stargist Moving Company, I looked it up and Sam star just was the assistant director on this film. That's great, that's great, and work numerous times again with al of course. And then the thing that I didn't really notice but I was reading it today was in the scene where Olivia Dehlin first comes upon Jewel Mayhew outside of the courthouse or wherever it was.

Right before they come into the closer shot of them, a Coca Cola truck drives by, and I think Betty Davis had that done on purpose, because, as we know, Joan Crawford was a big Pepsi as she was on the board of directors of Pepsi. So that was a little one last little jam. Yeah. I was watching a one of those true Hollywood stories about the making of the film, and there are pictures from the set where it's Aldrich and Davis and all these people toasting with Coca Cola bottles. I was like, Okay, yeah, it's almost product placement in the movie that it's in there a few other times too.

I believe, well, I believe that Crawford would place Pepsi in films as often as she could in any projects that she was in because of her position. You think me Doctor Pepper or something like that set in the Deep South. You know. I just wanted to make one other point about our friend Victor Blono, going back to the earlier discussion about when you see him as Big Sam and it, you know, early in his career and yet knowing that he's not really going to have really other roles like that. Ever.

Again, he did some dramatic roles, but they're mostly made for TV movies that are almost forgotten. We'll talk about one of his comedy movies next time. But mostly seemed to do TV appearances. But I wondered about his stage career because he did begin as a stage actor, and he would have been maybe he was a great big daddy and cat on a hot tin roof, because when he appears as Big Sam, I kept thinking he was gonna say, I smell mendacity. It's one of those sad what ifs that didn't happen.

Because the fact that he did get a guest star billing and had been up for an Academy Award, there's a sense, you know, up until around this movie, that he could be going places. As we talked about before, Burl Lives had a pretty good film career. He did win an Academy Award. There were others who would be not so conventional as actors who nonetheless you know, did star in movies or at least you know, had had co star roles. But I don't know that he really had anything else of a dramatic nature on this film.

Well, I know in the next movie is the greatest story ever told the I think that's The Jesus One with Max Vancito. Correct, And yeah, he plays a character named Sorak, who I believe was Spock's father. Yes, I was gonna say, is that that explains a lot. William Campbell might be in there too. I think undoubtedly the greatest roles of his last few years were Hugo Lovelace and Doctor Clove on The Odd Couple.

That was definitely the best stuff he did. Sadly, does anybody know what his last feature film was? Not? Off the top of my head? Now, was it The Man with Bogart's Face?

The Man with Bogart's face. Presently played the Sydney Street character. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. No, I had to watch that when we did Casablanca a few months ago, and it's not a good movie.

It's it's no good I saw that years and years ago, and I was frightfully disappointed. His character's name was Commodore Anatas, so I don't remember what he was in that movie. But yeah, it just felt so bad because he was doing so many of those smaller roles. I imagine his last really good role was probably playing the devil in the Evil, but I need to check that one out well. And on TV the Reverend Jim's dad in Taxi, that had one of his last roles, which was great.

I mean I think he would yeah, he was really good in that. And that's what I would say too, is because he had that character. It was very funny, but it also had some pathos and it showed again it's the kind of stuff he should have done. He should have been given more of in bigger projects too, that type of careara because it worked so well well. I presume if he was with us now, or his spirit was with us, he would say, not that I didn't want such role, but you got to take the roles that you're offered.

And unfortunately, typecasting then and now was always an issue. And once you start being known as somebody playing silly roles or what have you, it's hard to get out of that. And presumably at a mortgage and the other bills to pay. And he seemed, you know, f when we see him on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he talks about his travels to Italy and other places, so seemed to have led a good life but probably had to do a lot of roles, they said, Ligot, I know, these are not kind of things anyone who necessarily want in their resume, but it pays well. The other thing I think that those of us who are just fans don't really think about, but from some of the people I've spoken to in the last you know, ten to fifteen years, and I'm sure, Mike, I'm sure you can attest to this.

The thing that we don't think about or talk about is the other thing that matters is representation. I mean, if you have a really good agent or manager, it makes a difference because there's a lot of guys who, you know, sure took whatever they could get, but the reality is they got a lot of good things mixed in with the shlock they did, and sadly for Buono, it seems he got more shlock and he had good stuff mixed in there almost by accident. And you have to wonder who's representing him in these deals as well. So that's something I don't think anyone ever thinks about, but I think it makes a difference. Oh yeah, Well, after we talked about the Strangler last week.

I mean that was his follow up movie to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The guy Sitting on an oscar nomination. You have to parlay that into something better than and I like The Strangler, but you have to parlay that into something better than The Strangler. I mean, that was a pure exploitation movie. We talked so much about how it was capitalizing on the Boston case. And yeah, give him something better than that.

Give him freaking false staff, you know, give him something that's he is living up to rather than living down to. Well again, yeah, even though he's a character actor, as you say, he got an Academy Award nomination, So why are you putting him in a B movie? You know, it doesn't it doesn't make a lot of sense. So you don't know, you don't know what was going on behind the scenes. Well, thank goodness we have the roles that we do have.

We've been kind to Victor because there's some films on his resume that we choose not to mention that are even those of us who are completeds like, please spare me this one. Oh trust me. I did the audio commentary for Arnold. I've seen some of the dregs. Yeah, you've earned to your place and heavened for that.

I mean, I watched Arnold because of you. But I think that movie probably looks good compared to some of these that that Victor did. What was that when we were talking about. And by the way, I like the Mad Butcher it is. It's stupid as hell, but I loved it.

Oh up your teddy Bear, that's the which. It's not the Killed Teddy Bear. He was in a few spaghetti westerns that I would like to see, like The Wrath of God. He was in one. He was in a Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer movie.

I love those guys. So yeah, he spent spent some years over in Italy too, making some things. And then yeah, I'm still now I'm on the hunt for this big Daddy movie that he did in sixty nine, because that seems to be one of the few other movies where he had more of a starring role, at least according to that trailer. That's right, it's all we seemed to have. That's the one we couldn't find.

Victor Bono Month part two somewhere out on the line. I wonder if that movie was like Lost not lost physically, But well, I mean I do mean physically. I mean if it was damaged or just deteriorated and no one bothered to preserve it. It seems hard to believe. But it could be like the old Johnny Carson joke.

Maybe it was on the few films that was transferred to nitrate stock. It was only sixty eight minutes long. It almost sounds like more of a TV pilot than a movie itself. I know, yeah, I know. Joan Blondell was doing a lot of TV at that stage.

Well so is he. Yeah, this is nineteen sixty nine. We'll have to keep searching, all right, guys, Let's go ahead and take a break and play a preview for next week's show right after these brief messages. Certified Fresh and what critics are calling the best movie of the year period twenty eight years Later, with refines Aaron Taylor Johnson and Jody Comer and directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle, is now available to watch on digital. But in Strongholds, millions are made here and not a single dollar has ever been lost until one day.

This bright young man makes an innocent mistake that erupts into unbelievable consequences. Fifty thousand dollars. Fifty thousand dollars. Turn yourself in, boy before someone asks who's minding them in. We're going through the sore at night.

Start up. The press is run off. The fifty thousand impossible. The plates are locked in the vault. So we get one more partner, somebody who can open safes.

A safe cracker ridiculous. Where do you find a safe cracker to open a safe? I got to hear it clicks. I need a hearing aide. A safe cracker who can't hear This one is a solid value blocked to a school teacher.

She used it only on weekends. You didn't mention who's going to get you into. The sewer system? Dem drains in that part. Of town are awful deep.

We need what. A boat? A boat to sail a seward. Wait a minute, no problem, I get just the guy to build U a boat. Oh no, not a captain of a kiddie park.

Next you'll get a blonde who also cuts money. In an operation like this, there are a few complications, like a close call with an electric eye, a nosy little dog who insists on getting into the act, a vanishing captain, genuine, beautiful, wonderful, real money and all tax free. Four and a half million dollars so far fore and a half? Can you make it go faster? Harry, make it go faster?

The most impossible cast of lawbreakers ever put together, Jim Huffy, Dorothy Provine. I didn't do this for money, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Bob Denver, Victor, Jack Gilbert, and Walter Brenham has pop. Oh were you said? Anybody? That's right.

We'll be back next week with a look at who's minding the mint as Buono Palooza concludes. Until then, I want to thank my co host for this month, Auto and Tim so Otto. What is keeping you busy lately? Just finished up working on the Italian American Baseball Players, which should be out with McFarland hopefully sometime this fall. And now I'm actually busy looking around for something else to write about.

And Tim Madigan will be getting suggestions that I have to see what he thinks. He's my go to guy. You know, I have the perfect suggestion. If not you, who the Victor Blono biography. We've been asking for it, we have been asking now when well, the nephew says that he wrote a book, but I can't find any proof that he has, and he won't get back to me on things.

So it's like, come on, you know where it? Well, there you go, that tells you everything you need. There's this Victor Buono book. Yeah, if not you, Otto who? And doctor Tim?

How about yourself? What are you up to lately? Well? I just want to put another plug in for my friend Steve Huff's Movable marquis. What do they call these things a substack?

As a substack? Yeah, newsletter, baby. Letter, but it's chock full of goodness. And uh, I'll put in a plug for a book I did a few years ago that I co wrote with my friend Tim Delaney called Lessons Learned from Popular Culture. I'm a professor of philosophy and he's a professor of sociology.

So we look at movies, TV, comic books and what have you and give our two cents on what lessons you could learn. Otto mentioned earlier that you know, even if you haven't gone to graduate school or college at all, you can still learn an awful lot through popular culture. Everything I know I learned from watching too much TV when I was a child. Well, thank you so much guys for being on the show. Thanks to everybody for listening.

If you want to hear more of me shooting off my mouth, check out some of the other shows that I work on. They are all available at weirdingmaymedia dot com. Thanks especially to our Patreon community. If you want to join the community, visit patreon dot com. Slash Projection Booth.

Every donation we get help some Projection booth take over the world. Rad USh, sweet child, you love beauty. He died. Oh hold him, Chilan, Please hold him tied and brush the tear from your art. You weed, because you had a dream last night, you dream that he said goodbye.

He held two roseses within his hand, two roses he. Gave to me. The red rose tends. You of his fashion, the white rose his love so true. Hush, sweet shoe.

Shoe, don't you cry? Hush, sneetchad. You love you, you die, And every night after he shall die, Yes, every night, when he's. Gone, the wind will say to you this lull above. Sweet Charlotte was loved by job.

Hush, sh shoe. Shot, don't you cry? Hush, sweet, shall let cula Be chi He