Hush Hush... Sweet Widow
Greetings Ghost Fans,
Coming from the departmental drawer of speculation, I bring you this: In 1964, 20th Century Fox came out with a film entitled: Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte. The film featured an old woman in a Mansion to herself. She refused to leave the house on the basis of fear that if the Mansion was destroyed, the axe-murder of her husband would be discovered.
Now... with a plot like that, it sounds quite similar to our favorite axe-wielding widow, Constance. But, now the plot thickens. For you see, Marc Davis painted the Stretch Portraits in early 1965. The movie started releasing press photos in 1964. One early press photo features Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in a graveyard, both sitting atop tombstones, but what is most interesting is how Ms. Crawford is sitting atop hers.
Again, just speculation on my part, but I'll let you be the judge as to wether Marc Davis may have used this as partial inspiration for his Widow on the Tombstone.
posted by Ghost Relations Dept. at 7:58 AM
5 Comments:
WOW, too cool, as always GRD! Curiouser and Curiouser!
Wow, I had no idea! Cool discovery. Marc Davis...what a hack...kidding, kidding! =D It's fascinating to track creative influences like these.
By the way, I dunno if you've seen it already, but I have indeed gotten a fair amount of that Hardy Boys Haunted Mansion finished in my model. Thanks very much for the suggestion! More to come later.
Why is Constance so evil and so fascinating? I have yet to see the refurb, but I'm gobbling up all her information and speculation. Thanks for some more.
The connection is too obvious to ignore. The bulging doors in the HM's hallway also seem derivative -- almost a direct steal from Robert Wise's "The Haunting."
The name on the tombstone is 'George'. Isn't that the name of one of Constance's victims/husbands? If so, could the old woman sitting on the tombstone be an elderly Constance?
I can't find anything on who the husbands are/were, but I know I've read about them somewhere.
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