MovieChat Forums > Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965) Discussion > The note Harry gave Charlotte @ the very...

The note Harry gave Charlotte @ the very end...

posted 15 years ago by cattern
11 replies | jump to latest

...I saw this on AMC last night and loved the movie but I was confused about the ending.

A)What was written in the note Cecil Kellaway gave Bette Davis, as she was being driven away in a vehicle, at the very end?

B)I also didn't understand what Harry told the photographer from the scandal rag a couple of minutes before A) above. It appeared to be meant as some sort of denouement, but I didn't hear what he was saying. (I don't have a DVD of it YET or I'd watch those parts over again.)

thanks

[–] lastmidnite2 15 years ago

In the scene between Mary Astor and Cecil Kellaway, she hands him a sealed envelope and asks him not to open it until after her death. It is a confession. That's the note he has just read at the film's end, which he then hands to Charlotte. I'm constantly surprised at the number of people who apparently miss this excellent scene with Astor, which occurs about an hour into the film.

[–] cattern 15 years ago

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I stumbled upon a clear explanation of the denouement only about an hour ago, on Wikipedia. (The thought of checking there had not occurred to me, oddly enough.)

RE:
"I'm constantly surprised at the number of people who apparently miss this excellent scene with Astor, which occurs about an hour into the film."

I wonder if a scene between 2 low key players such as Mr. Kellaway and Ms. Astor sort of slips under the radar when it has to compete with Ms. Davis's scenery chewing.

Comparable in a way to listening to a song on low volume after hearing it on high volume.

[–] lastmidnite2 15 years ago

I think that many people choose this low key scene to go to the bathroom or get something to eat because they don't think it's that important.

[–] Regina_Giddens 15 years ago

Well I know I didn't pay much attention to that scene the first time I watched it, because I didn't think it was that important. Since nearly everything else is Charlotte/Drew/Miriam I just assumed it was an unimportant fill in scene. Actually, it probably indicates the opposite

Never, never, never, never, never

[–] bosnian_flatdog 14 years ago

The film rather drags on there for a while and the letter scene comes one hour into the film, it is about then that I was starting to loose my patience. I guess many people feel the same about that time into the film. Aldrich should have tightened it up a bit, 133 minutes is too much for an ordinary thriller. It's slick but it's still 133 minutes!

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Bob_Brooker 12 years ago

^This

The movie only gets momentum after we learn about Miriam's true intentions.

__________
Last movie watched: Russian Ark (5/10)

[–] arirod 14 years ago

In any great work of art or literature there are no gratuitous scenes. Every scene matters. When I saw the film for the first time in 1964, I knew that that the scene mattered. Remember Jewel's earlier confrontation with Miriam? Didn't that tell you that Jewell, the betrayed wife of the dead man, had some knowledge about the murder? Wasn't Charlotte always blaming Jewel for her misfortunes?
Seize this day

[–] lastmidnite2 14 years ago

Well, earlier in the film, we find out that Miriam told Jewel about the affair back in 1927. I think most first time viewers assume that's what the Miriam/Jewel confrontation scene is about because Jewel says that murder starts in the heart and it's first weapon is a vicious tongue.

[–] phillindholm 14 years ago

A ''Mood Piece''?. Oh, my God.

[–] 14 years ago

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