HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE is one of those psychological thrillers that they did in the early 60's. It has an amazing cast. Bette Davis is Charlotte Hollis, wealthy southern spinster shunned by her community for a grizzly murder of her intended that took place some 40 years earlier.
The state wants to take her house and her land for a highway. Charlotte calls in her cousin Miriam played by Olivia de Havilland. She's a coniving bitch, so unlike her Melanie character in Gone With The Wind. Add to that cast Mary Astor, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Victor Buono, Bruce Dern and George Kennedy as the foreman who wants to tear down the Hollis plantation home that's been in the family since before the Civil War.
It was filmed on location at "The Sugar Palace" also known as The Houmas House just northwest of New Orleans right on the Mississippi. When I was little, this black and white film would play on late night television. I loved it because of Bette Davis. It will scare the bejeezus out of you!
In 2005 I was working on the MISS TEEN USA show in Baton Rouge, LA. The young ladies and Miss Universe Staff had been treated to a dinner at The Houmas House. Most evenings they serve dinner in what is the original plantation home built in the late 1700s. I decided that I wanted to drive my two favorite ladies from Miss Universe staff, Sandy and Gayle out to dinner one night. It was raining like crazy and I missed the road I was familiar with. Long story short I got us lost and we stopped to ask for directions from a gentlemen down by the levee. He told us to go "way on down the road, and when you get down to the bar you turn left, then when you get to the highway you turn right and then you hit the levee again and you make another right until you come up on the Houmas House." Then he cautioned us, now if you keep on going on down this road then you're going to end up in jeopardy." Now I didn't know if he meant a "town called Jeopardy" or if we would be in serious trouble. We finally found our way to the Houmas House around dusk that evening after the rainstorm had subsided and had a lovely dinner.
It is quite the plantation home and you just feel the history when you step on the property. They have reconstructed the "cemetery" set and which is a hoot!
If you're ever in Louisiana, treat yourself to dinner and a spooky tour!
GM
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