Halloween Countdown 2015 Continues with Patti Page and Bette Davis!

Today, Patti Page croons the title tune from the film Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) on our Halloween Countdown. The movie starred Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland, who is 99 this year.

Only two more days till Halloween! Enjoy!










Of course, Bette had her own version of the song:

Video Beaverhausen: Down in the Snake Pit with Olivia DeHavilland

Olivis De Havilland was nominated and should have won, in my opinion, for her role in the 1948 The Snake Pit. She convincingly portrays a schizophrenic who is institutionalized with all the horrors one could confront at the time. I'm not sure conditions are any better today, and perhaps even worse.

Celeset Holmes co-stars along with Leo Genn, Mark Stevens, Natalie Shafer, Beulah Bondi and Glenn Langan -- before he was reduced to portray The Amazing Colossal Man.

The film begins, set in the asylum, and is told in flashback. The title takes its name from Olivia's moment, looking down from aboveat the other inmates and seeing them as snakes.

This is still a sturdy drama with convincing performances and excellent storyline. I feel DeHavilland is somewhat underrated as an actress. Though a representational actress, she always had a pre-Method approach to her performances. Even in Lady in a Cage, she was able to hold her own against James Caan's Actors Studio technique.

Women in prison, or in any way incarcerated and segregated from the rest of society, are usually fascinating film subjects I believe. This is no exception; in fact, it might be one of the best examples.

Directed by the great Anatole Litvak (Sorry, Wrong Number). Don't miss this classic drama.

Video Beaverhausen: Sixties Exploitation in Focus Part 1 Featuring Lady in a Cage

In today's world (today being 1964), nobody gives a damn, and we're all going to hell in a hand basket. One of the first images we see is that of a young black girl running her roller skate over a dead drunk's leg. Then there's that dog lying out in traffic. It's set on the 4th of July, so you may consider it a film for your holiday celebration next year.

Olivia's handsome, young gay son decides to leave his smothering mother that day. Then a series of unlikely coincidences create a power failure that traps Olivia (an oxymoronic wealthy poetess) in her elevator, 12 feet off the ground floor.

Ms De H gives a tour de force performance as she goes from calm to upset to terrified to hysterical. Her alarm bell, it seems, only brings in street trash. First, Jeff Corey and Ann Southern (who nearly steals the film), then violent punks including a very hot-looking James Caan in his screen debut, throwing Method acting all over the place as if trying to be the new Brando. He makes eating an apple sexier than any other man on Earth possibly could!

But Olivia gives a performance that would be Oscar worthy if she wasn't in such tripe. If only they had cell phones back in the day. By the way, why didn't she need to use the rest room during all that caged time! I'd definitely have soiled myself, especially considering what was going on in that house.

Joan Crawford was originally to star in this but thankfully it went to Olivia who, as much as I adore Joan, can deliver a more naturalistic performance in this sort of venture. Can you imagine Caan belching in Crawford's face? SLAP!

By the time Caan gets into the "cage" with De Havilland, its sets off a dramatic climax like few others. Caan's character gets to work out some Oedipal issues shall we say. On Olivia's breasts: "You must have kept [her son] sucking for years."

Quite a climax! Don't miss this perhaps underrated classic. Not for the squeamish.

Video Beaverhausen: Bette Davis & Olivia DeHavilland in In This Our Life

What a melodrama this is! Bette Davis is pure, full-throttle bitch opposite good sister Olivia De Havilland. Interesting that their character names are Stanley and Roy.

John Huston directed this 1942 film with such panache, you won't be able to take your eyes away from it.

Rosa Moline from Beyond the Forest, perhaps Bette's most famous evil character, actually pales  in comparison to Stanley Timberlake.

Screenplay by Howard Koch from a novel by Ellen Glasgow, music by Max Steiner, featuring Charles Coburn, Billie Burke, Dennis Morgan, George Brent and Hattie McDaniel, this is Warner Bros. in all its glory.

Bette steals sister Olivia's boyfriend, blames a drunk driving accident on a young black man studying to be a lawyer. (Of course the cops believe her because she's white and privileged. Still socially relevant, folks!) Bette's climactic scene with Coburn is dramatic fireworks, especially when she shouts at him, as he's dying, near the end:

All right, so you're going to die! But you're an old man, you've lived your life - I haven't lived mine! Mine's hardly begun! Think of me, uncle! Think of what'll happen to me if you don't get me out of this! You're not even listening! You don't care what happens to me any more than the others. You'd let me go to prison. All you're thinking of is your own miserable life. Well you can DIE for all I care! DIE!

Over the top? You bet! 

Now available on dvd. Not to be missed!