Feeling dissed by co-star Bette Davis as HUSH . . . HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE /’64, their followup to the unexpected smash success of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?/’62, began filming, Joan Crawford feigned illness to ankle the film. Professionally, a fatal move which this fallback project did little to fix.* No doubt, Crawford knew it was a cheap exploitation pic, but as her previous completed film, STRAIT-JACKET/’64, was another crappy-shocker from schlockmeister William Castle, she must have felt she was running for cover. Perhaps even relieved her role was little more than a glorified cameo. She enters at 20 minutes/leaves at 50. (12" on screen?) Meanwhile, the real story focuses on a couple of bratty teen girlfriends (career stopping debuts from Andi Garrett & Sara Lane going on to a combined total of 8 credits) whose prank phone calls tell perfect strangers ‘I saw what you did!’ Naturally, one random number goes to John Ireland who’s just murdered his lover in a shower scene meant to recall Hitchcock’s PSYCHO/’60. (And good luck that!) At his best, Castle’s films were campy, amusingly awful and gimmicky. This one is only awful.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Sets, soundstage exteriors, acting, hair styling; everything third-rate without being fun. But the booby prize goes to Castle ‘house composer' Van Alexander. So off the mark, you wonder if he looked at the film before scoring.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Ryan Murphy’s 8-part mini: FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN/'17, gets a helluva lot right seven-eights of the way, only to collapse into misogynist fiction in the final episode. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/10/feud-bette-and-joan-2017.html
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