The daughter of “Hush.Hush Sweet Charlotte” Director Robert Aldrich is suing the Walt Disney Co. for nearly $55,000 she says she is owed in royalties from the 1964 film that starred Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland.
Adell Aldrich’s Los Angeles Superior Court breach-of-contract lawsuit seeks at least $54,810 in damages, plus interest and attorneys’ fees. A Disney representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Friday.
Robert Aldrich’s other film credits included the 1962 film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” and “The Dirty Dozen” in 1967. He died at age 65 of kidney failure in December 1983. According to his daughter’s suit, the royalties contract for sharing revenue from theater tickets and film rentals for “Hush” was created in 1964.
Disney assumed duties under the contract after it acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019 and Adell Aldrich, now 81 and herself a director, was paid royalties regularly until Disney made a change in its supplier management portal in November that has had signup issues and Disney also has requested some of her father’s corporate documents that the plaintiff has been unable to find, the suit states.
“(Disney) has continued to derive revenue from `Hush…Hush , Sweet Charlotte’ without compensating (Adell Aldrich) as required by the agreement,” the suit alleges.