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''Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte'' is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead, as well as Mary Astor in her final film. The movie was adapted for the screen by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, from Farrell's unpublished short story, "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?" It received seven Academy Award nominations. ==Plot summary== In 1927, young belle Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) and her married lover, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. However, after Charlotte's father intimidates him, telling him that John's wife had visited the day before and revealed the affair, John pretends he no longer loves Charlotte and tells her they must part. John is then brutally murdered and decapitated in the summerhouse with a cleaver, with one hand severed. Charlotte discovers the body. She returns traumatized to the party in a bloodied dress, leading most to presume that she is the murderer. The story jumps to 1964. Charlotte is now a wealthy spinster, still living on the Ascension Parish plantation that has been in her family for generations. Charlotte's father died the year after Mayhew's murder, believing his daughter guilty. Charlotte has believed all these years that her father killed Mayhew, but everyone else assumes that Charlotte, the crazy recluse, decapitated her long-dead lover. The Louisiana Highway Commission intends to demolish her house and build a new highway through the property. Charlotte is vehemently against this and ignores the eviction notice, refusing to leave. She keeps the foreman (George Kennedy), his demolition crew, and the bulldozer away by shooting at them with a rifle. They temporarily give up and leave. Charlotte is living with her housekeeper, Velma (Agnes Moorehead), in the Hollis mansion. Seeking help in her fight against the Highway Commission, she calls upon Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), a poor cousin who lived with the family as a girl. Miriam renews her relationship with Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten), a local doctor who jilted her after the murder. Charlotte's sanity deteriorates with Miriam's arrival, her nights haunted by a mysterious harpsichord playing the song Mayhew wrote for her and by the appearance of Mayhew's disembodied hand and head. Velma, suspecting that Miriam and Drew are after Charlotte's money, seeks help from Mr. Willis (Cecil Kellaway), an insurance investigator who is still interested in the Mayhew case and who has visited Mayhew's ailing widow, Jewel (Mary Astor). Miriam fires Velma, who later returns and discovers that Charlotte is being drugged. Miriam sees the housekeeper trying to take Charlotte out of the house. The two argue at the top of the stairs. Velma tries to escape, but knowing Velma has discovered the drugs, Miriam smashes a chair over her head. Velma falls down the stairs to her death. One night, a drugged Charlotte runs downstairs in the grip of a hallucination, believing John has returned to her. Miriam and Drew decide to trick Charlotte into shooting Drew with a gun loaded with blanks, after which Miriam helps dispose of the "body" in a swamp. Charlotte returns to the house and sees the supposedly dead Drew at the top of the stairs, reducing her to whimpering insanity. Now believing Charlotte completely mad and secure in her room, Miriam and Drew go into the garden to discuss their plan: to drive Charlotte insane in order to get her money. Miriam also tells Drew that back in 1927 she saw Jewel murder her husband. She's been using this knowledge to blackmail Jewel for all these years, while plotting to gain possession of Charlotte's wealth. Charlotte overhears all. She moves toward a huge stone urn on the ledge of the balcony, almost directly over the lovers' heads. Miriam embraces Drew, then the two look up and into Charlotte's knowing eyes. They are paralyzed by the sight as Charlotte tips the stone urn off the ledge, crushing both to death. The next morning, the authorities take Charlotte away, presumably to an an insane asylum. Many neighbors and locals gather at the Hollis home to watch the proceedings, believing that crazy Charlotte has murdered again. Willis hands her an envelope from the now-dead Jewel Mayhew, who has had a stroke after hearing of the incident the previous night. The note contains Jewel's confession to the murder of her husband. As the authorities drive Charlotte away, she looks back at her beloved plantation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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