Cinema: Dragon Ladies

Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a gruesome slice of shock therapy that, pointedly, is not a sequel to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The two films are blood relatives, as Producer-Director Robert Aldrich well knows, but Charlotte has a worse plot, more gore, and enough bitchery to fill several outrageous freak shows.

Choicest holdover from Jane is Bette Davis, unabashedly securing her claw-hold as Hollywood's grande-dame ghoul. As Miss Charlotte, Bette rummages through the psyche of a Southern belle who first appears, already acting a teeny bit strange, one memorable...

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