Don't listen to the negative reviews

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I watched this after having read the short story that it is based on, "What Ever Happened to Charlotte?", by Henry Farrell. This is a decent adaptation of that tale, and Bette Davis in the title role works well! And Agnes Moorehead is awesome! Like the story, I enjoyed the ending quite a bit, but I did feel like the film dragged a bit at times, and may have overextended itself with a plus two hour running time.

Atmosphere but little real tension. Maybe the horror has dated. Overlong for such a slim plot.

Bette Davis is holding forth on an old mansion in the South. She is a sort of Miss Havisham, having faced the death of her fiancée years before. It was likely her father killed her lover, but over time people started to blame her--she was simply weird. The mansion becomes the obstruction in an eminent domain case which would put Bette on the street. She call for her cousin to help her (Olivia de Havilland) but she turns out to be an adversary with her own motivations. Soon awful things begin to happen at the house with a series of efforts to put the old lady over the edge. In addition to a wonderful score, this film works quite well. There are also performances by some terrific actors, including Agnes Moorehead. Quite fun with lots of surprises along the way.

Watched this again just now, as although I'd seen it some time ago I'd forgotten what it was like. I remember thinking it was bad. It certainly is bad. Incredibly slow, slow, slow, and boring. Every event, especially the penultimate climax, is signalled about ten minutes before it happens. And it's of no interest, anyway. I could not care less about anything that these characters did, and shuddered at what seemed to me their excruciatingly painful, but inconsistent, accents. The writing is dreadful, the acting is wooden beyond belief --- in scene after scene these actors speak their lines mechanically, without the slightest sensation. Except for a heavy dose of ham. The pacing is funereal. The trivia note says that Bette Davis was publicly derisive of Joan Crawford's extensive location wardrobe. Was Joan Crawford in this movie ? I'd better read the cast list again.