The daughter of “Hush…Hush Sweet Charlotte” Director Robert Aldrich has dropped her lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. in which she sought nearly $55,000 she alleged she was owed in royalties from the 1964 film that starred Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland.
Attorneys for Adell Aldrich filed court papers on Sept. 2 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin asking that their client’s breach-of-contract lawsuit be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled. The court papers do not state if a settlement was reached or if Aldrich was not pursuing the case for other reasons.
In her case filed May 23, Aldrich sought at least $54,810 in damages, plus interest and attorneys’ fees.
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 82 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 stated.
“(Disney) has continued to derive revenue from `Hush…Hush , Sweet Charlotte’ without compensating (Adell Aldrich) as required by the agreement,” the suit alleged.