What Was in Jewel Mayhews Letter in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

"Chop, chop, sugariness Charlotte
Chop, chop 'til he's dead
Chop, chop, sugariness Charlotte
Chop off his paw and head..."

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 thriller motion-picture show directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, and Joseph Cotten.

In 1927, Charlotte Hollis (Davis), teenage daughter of Louisiana plantation owner Sam Hollis, is on the verge of running away with a married human being, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern). Her begetter is warned, all the same, and in an ugly confrontation browbeats John into giving upwardly Charlotte. John dumps Charlotte at a party hosted by Sam that night, a heartbroken Charlotte runs away sobbing, and it'due south all very deplorable... until John is brutally murdered by useen attacker wielding a meat cleaver.

Skip forward to 1964. Charlotte is a weird old lady living in the same old dilapidated Hollis mansion, her only visitor being her maid/attendant Velma (Agnes Moorehead). No charges were ever brought along in the Mayhew murder, but everyone assumes Charlotte did it. She is facing imminent eviction, all the same, as the state of Louisiana has made an eminent domain merits and is nigh to bulldoze her house to build a bridge. Her cousin Miriam Deering (de Havilland), Charlotte'southward concluding living relative, flies in from Europe to help Charlotte pack upward her house, and unproblematic country medico Drew (Cotten) is on hand to calm downwards a perpetually jittery Charlotte. Merely strange things starting time happening in the Hollis mansion, the ghost of John Mayhew starts to announced, and Charlotte's grip on sanity grows increasingly shaky.

This movie boasted an All-Star Cast that included all the actors listed above, too as Mary Astor (in her last picture show role) as John's widow, Jewel Mayhew, and a immature George Kennedy as a structure foreman. It was a Spiritual Successor to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, an Aldrich-directed film that also starred Davis, simply with de Havilland in identify of Joan Crawford—see below. De Havilland plays a role that is very very different from the goody-goody heroines that she played in the 1930s and 1940s. Meanwhile, the title song afforded 1950s pop superstar Patti Folio (of "Tennessee Waltz" and "Doggie in the Window" fame) her last large hit record, correct in the heart of the British Invasion.

The Troubled Production was dramatized in the 2017 series Feud.

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Tropes:

• Affably Evil: While Miriam is then cold and steely that it hardly comes equally a surprise when she's revealed as a villain, it is a surprise when Dr. Drew is revealed as beingness her partner in law-breaking. He couldn't exist more courtly and charming, fifty-fifty while driving an quondam lady mad.
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: Charlotte still sometimes wears her old debutante dress.
• Anachronism Stew: Despite the opening political party taking place in The Roaring '20s, all the hairstyles are conspicuously 1960s vintage. There's not a single '20s Bob Haircut in sight.
• And Starring: Mary Astor got an "also starring" credit.
• Artistic Licence - Geography: Many times Miriam and Charlotte talk about "the county commissioner". Louisiana is one of only ii states in America (the other being Alaska) that is not divided into counties.
• Artistic License – Police force: The plot hinges on Charlotte having to leave her business firm because it's going to exist bulldozed for the building of a new bridge. Charlotte owns the property and then she tin't exist evicted. But while she can exist forced to leave because the bridge is necessary to exist built, she mentions having nowhere else to go. Legally she should be given some compensation to find a new home. Of course it's possible she's actively refusing this compensation out of stubbornness, or else Miriam is handling all of it behind her back, using Drew's help to prove Charlotte isn't fit to - therefore negotiating even more money for themselves.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Miriam, who is pretending to help Charlotte move out and is really trying to drive her mad. Jewel Mayhew too counts, given that she murdered her husband.
  • Charlotte is an inversion. She appears to be a nasty former axe-murderer, but she's really just sad and lone.
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Information technology isn't a wedding dress, actually, but the white apparel that Charlotte wears to the fatal 1927 party gets soaked in John's blood.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In that location are 2 big concrete planters sitting on the second-floor balcony of the mansion. And they aren't fixtures, as an angry Charlotte pitches one off the balcony when arguing with the construction foreman. This sets up the climax, when Charlotte pitches the other planter off the balcony and onto the heads of Miriam and Drew.
  • Invoked with the gun Miriam keeps on her bedside table. Information technology's left for Charlotte to seemingly shoot Drew, though viewers might question why information technology was conveniently lying at that place. Of form Miriam planted it and didn't put existent bullets in.
• Expressionless Man Writing: Jewel Mayhew leaves Willis the reporter with a letter of the alphabet to be opened after her expiry. Precious stone has a stroke and dies after hearing virtually Miriam and Drew, whereupon Willis opens the alphabetic character and finds out that Jewel killed her husband, Miriam saw it, and Miriam's been blackmailing Jewel for years.
• Expressionless Person Chat: Belatedly in the film, Charlotte has a conversation with her father's portrait - Calling the One-time Homo Out for having John murdered (she believes her father to be the killer).
• Expiry past Irony: While Miriam and Drew engage in a piffling Evil Gloating about their program to have Charlotte institutionalized, Drew states that she'll "permit out a scream so loud, they'll never let her out!" Then Miriam lets out a claret-curdling scream as they are killed by a falling urn that Charlotte has pushed.
• Death Glare: Miriam gets some epic ones at Charlotte when they are hauling away Drew'south "corpse".
• Dies Broad Open up: Velma later she tumbles down the stairs, Miriam after she'due south crushed by the planter.
• Distant Prologue: The opening scenes are gear up in 1927 with the murder of John Mayhew, before the moving picture jumps to the main narrative in 1964.
• Driven to Madness: Attempted semi-successfully with i part Gaslighting, i part drugs, and 1 part Faking the Dead with a Staged Shooting.
• Face Framed in Shadow: Charlotte in her meeting with John, besides equally being shot from a altitude, because Bette Davis couldn't pass for xix.
• Genre Savvy: When Velma hides in Charlotte'south room as Miriam is drugging her. Miriam suspects that someone may exist hiding, and walks slowly out of the room. Velma remains subconscious - and Miriam comes back in at once.
• Gaslighting: What Miriam and Drew are actually doing to Charlotte.
• Gossipy Hens: A crowd of these appear outside Charlotte'southward house afterward the climax.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Velma accuses Miriam of being jealous that she always favoured Charlotte over her.
• Pilus-Contrast Duo: Competent career woman Miriam has sleek, brusque hair. Deranged spinster Charlotte has unkempt long hair.
• High-Form Gloves: Miriam is wearing these when she arrives, helping to underline how she's been living the life of an urban sophisticate.
• I'll Impale You!: Charlotte screams "I could kill you!" after John dumps her. Naturally, he's chopped up a few minutes after.
• I Never Said Information technology Was Poison: Velma denies slashing Miriam'south dress, whereupon Miriam says she never told anybody about the slashed apparel.
• Impoverished Patrician: Gem Mayhew has a k house and servant, but no money left due to Miriam blackmailing her for it all these years. Averted with Charlotte yet, who is said to still have all her money.
• Ironic Nursery Rhyme: The page quote is of i that gets played over the opening credits - showing that the local children have made it up near Charlotte.
• Irony: Precious stone murdered her husband for his plan to elope with Charlotte. She murders him merely after he'due south been forced to break it off with Charlotte.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: Drew dresses up equally John Mayhew, and so later appears as himself, resurrected, dripping wet and covered in mud.
• Large Ham:
  • Information technology's a grand-guignol style Gothic horror film, with severed easily and heads rolling around. Why shouldn't Bette Davis cut loose?

  Charlotte: How can yous TOUCH that piece of FILTH? (when presented with an unflattering tabloid)

  Charlotte: You're a VILE sorry Bowwow! (when told past Miriam that they'll accept to vacate the house)

  • Agnes Moorehead supplies a fair amount of pork herself.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Played disturbingly, as Charlotte's hair is only down whenever she's having a peculiarly delusional moment.
• The Lost Lenore: Charlotte is still mourning John 37 years later, calling for him at night, holding the music box he gave her and crying. Her character growth is underlined in the final scene when she leaves the music box behind in the firm.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Jewel murdered her hubby after discovering he was planning to leave her for Charlotte.
• Old Retainer: Velma the maid, who is securely attached to Charlotte, is suspicious of Miriam and accuses her of being jealous that she ever favoured Charlotte.
• The Ane That Got Abroad: Drew refers to Miriam as such.
• The Ophelia: Charlotte definitely gets shades of this as she's slowly driven mad. In some scenes she runs around in her nightgown with her long hair flapping backside her.
• Power Hair: Miriam has this hairstyle to show how she's a sophisticated PR adult female.
• Rapunzel Pilus: Charlotte's hair is well downwards to her waist and a fiddling unkempt, further showing how she has let herself go.
• Red Herring: Ii cases. It's suspected by Charlotte that her father was the 1 who murdered John, and in one case The Reveal happens Miriam becomes a doubtable besides. It turns out it was Precious stone, and Miriam was blackmailing her.
• The Reveal: About two/three of the way through the pic reveals that Miriam and Dr. Drew are in cahoots, and are deliberately driving Charlotte insane in society to gain possession of her vast fortune.
• Spiral Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Charlotte may simply be tardily fifties, but she is crotchety to everyone.
• Smug Serpent: Miriam and Drew'southward eventual undoing. After it seems their plan has gone off without a hitch and they've driven Charlotte insane, rather than lock her upwardly they serve drinks in the garden, bragging about their scheme. Charlotte overhears and pushes a planter downward on them, killing them both.
• Southern Gothic: 1 of the near famous examples. The setting is a in one case-grand plantation firm that's now fallen into disrepair - and a murder happened decades agone. Charlotte begins to hallucinate that the identify is being haunted past John's ghost.
• Spanner in the Works: Subverted. Although Velma goes to Willis well-nigh her suspicions of Miriam, he ultimately doesn't foil the plot. Charlotte saves herself on her ain.
• Spiritual Successor: As noted above, to What Ever Happened to Infant Jane?, a similar chilling horror film also directed by Aldrich and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. This one was based on a short story past Henry Farrell, who'd written the original Baby Jane novel, with Farrell collaborating on the screenplay with Babe Jane screenwriter Lukas Heller. Crawford was originally going to re-squad with Davis, but they fought so much that Crawford left the product after ii weeks, faking an illness. Olivia de Havilland was brought in to play her role.
• Staged Shooting: Miriam and Drew flim-flam Charlotte into shooting Drew, with a gun loaded with blanks. When Charlotte is confronted with the mud-spattered "ghost" of Drew, she finally snaps completely.
• Championship Drop: In addition to the below, Miriam says the title line to Charlotte afterward she thinks she's seen Drew's corpse walking upstairs.
• Title Theme Melody: Performed as "Chop, Chop, Sweetness Charlotte" by a chorus of children over the opening credits, and then once again (with less grisly lyrics) during the closing credits. Written by Frank De Vol and Mack David, it won an Academy Award for All-time Original Song. It as well became a huge hit for Patti Page when she covered it the following yr.
• Likewise Dumb to Live: Velma. When she finds proof that Miriam has been drugging Charlotte, she takes the time to tell the former about how she's going to inform the police most what happened. While standing at the acme of the stairs.
• Tragic Emblem: Charlotte has a music box that John gave her, with the vocal he wrote for her.
• Triumphant Reprise: The titular song was written for Charlotte by John, and information technology pops upwards at various points to be used for horror. At the terminate when Miriam and Drew have been stopped, and Charlotte proven innocent information technology plays in its original course - as a tender beloved song from John to Charlotte.
• The Un-Favourite: Miriam was treated this way when she was adopted by Charlotte'south father.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte

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