“People droppin’ like flies every which way!”
After the unexpected runaway success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962, Hollywood got the band back together (in front of and behind the camera) in an attempt to capitalize and recapture the magic two years later for What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte? However, the delightfully bitter feud between stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford—resulting in antics from both of them in front of and behind the camera—led to Crawford being replaced by Davis’s pal Olivia de Havilland as the scheming Cousin Miriam. Davis also suggested a title change for the film to Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
Bloody murder, simmering resentments, closely-guarded secrets, terrific horror sequences, blackmail and trickery, and some of the most you gotta see it to believe it over-the-top-n-outsized performances ever captured on film make Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte the grandest epic in all of Grand Dame Guignol cinema, and a favorite film of mine.
Hollywood historian Boze Hadleigh is doing the gaylord’s work in the books Hollywood Lesbians (1994/2016) and Hollywood Gays (1996), wherein he interviews some of Tinsletown’s biggest names about all things gay—including, perhaps, their own orientations. (Also worth checking out is Hadleigh’s The Lavender Screen, a look at queer cinema from the 30s to the 90s.) While there have been doubts about the veracity of many of the interviews, they are fascinating regardless. Hadleigh will drop the bombs that every nosy person (like myself) wants to see dropped! In the midst of a genial chat about acting, he’ll just say, like, “Did you ever hear that So-and-So is gay? You were friends, does that mean you’re…?” Some actors and actresses are very forthright, others give confirmations or denials in a more circumspect manner, and still others clam up and walk out.
Hadleigh’s interview with Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte star Agnes Moorehead is not only relevant when one considers the relationship between Moorehead’s cartoonish Velma, overly dedicated caretaker of Davis’s titular Charlotte, it’s also a terrific read regardless. A masterclass in the ol’ closeted dodging and weaving? Or a no really, I’m super straight woman being polite? You decide! Read the entire interview here at Just Call Me Aggie, or check out this noteworthy exchange:
AM: I have loved women. Of course.
BH: More than your husbands?
AM: That's rather rude. But love and marriage don't always go together. Despite the song.
BH: So marriage is often a duty thing?
AM: Of course it is. But now I think you should....
BH: Just one more question. Numerous Hollywood actresses--Garbo, Gish, Dietrich, Jean Arthur, um Kay Francis, Stanwyck, Bankhead, Del Rio, Janet Gaynor, etc..etc..have enjoyed lesbian or bi relationships. Have you ever...?
AM: Yes, you'd love to put me in their excellent company! Even if I don't belong in the same category. (Smiles wryly)
BH: You don't?
AM: Those ladies were more beautiful than me.
BH: Off the record? I can turn off the tape recorder.
AM: Leave it on, leave it on. (Sighs) You apparently have your own informants.(Half smiles) I don't know what you've heard, and I don't want to hear, and some of it may even be true.
