Quotes

[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] There were problems with the script. Bob Aldrich [Robert Aldrich] had originally hired Henry Farrell to write the story and script of Charlotte. They had a disagreement over protocol. Aldrich had kept Farrell waiting, and he walked out. I was called in to rework the script. Aldrich was a great director, but story was not his strongest point. He wanted a bit of Diabolique (1955), a bit of this, a bit of that. We didn't have the time we had on Baby Jane [What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)], which was reworked over a period of six months.

[remembering Joan Crawford during a rehearsal of Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] She would query lines with absolutely no concept of the emotional or dramatic content - but purely on the grammatical or logical element. She argued for hours, being very literal in her interpretation, and always putting it in this beautiful, modulated voice. She was giving a performance. She wanted to establish her authority on the picture and everyone had to go along with her.