In the 60s, melodramatic horror movies provided a late career fillip for a number of ageing Hollywood actresses.

1964’s Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte was originally conceived as a follow up to the hit Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. The plan was to again pair Bette Davis with Joan Crawford, to capitalise on their legendary real-life hatred of each other.  Crawford eventually got replaced with Olivia de Havilland but the movie was another success, going onto to nab several Oscar nominations. Davis subsequently headed to England to star in horrors The Nanny and The Anniversary for Hammer.

This is the striking French ‘petit’ poster for the movie, with artwork by the prolific (and very collectible) poster artist Boris Grinsson, who designed over 2000 (!) French movie posters. I am selling it here, along with the below still of both the stars.

As an aside, here’s my (very tenuous) claim to old Hollywood fame: I once swam in Bette Davis swimming pool.

It was back in 1983 (I think). For reasons too long to explain here I was working part-time at a summer job in a construction gang in upstate New York. We handled various maintenance works for private individuals. Ms Davis kept a small remote cabin tucked away in the hills surrounded by forest and we had to do some minor repairs there. At the end of a hot day, we downed a few beers and larked about a bit in her pool, just for the hell of it. My foggy memory is that she had commissioned David Hockney to paint squiggly patterns in it, but that may just be wishful thinking. Not terribly professional, but there you go. Needless to say, she was not at home at the time!