The Nanny

If I were to use one word to describe this film, CREEPY would probably be it. But since this is one of my favorite psycho-thrillers, I'm gonna have to go slightly further than that. I will start off by stating that this is a masterpiece of horror filmmaking. It manages to thrill and entertain without the grotesque excesses of Bette Davis' other sixties shockers, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, or HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE. Don't get me wrong, these are also two very fine films, but let's face it, they go way over the top at times. THE NANNY, however, is one of Davis' most realistic chillers dealing with the popular servant problem. Davis' employers are convinced that she's Mary Poppins, but the child in her care knows much better. The little boy, fresh out of a children's asylum, has great difficulty convincing his stuffy parents that the nanny was responsible for his baby sister's death. But we in the audience knows who's telling the truth and who's not, right? Wrong!!!!! Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who wrote several scripts for these sixties psychological-horrors, has taken great care in manipulating the audience every which way he can that pretty soon it seems that no one or anything in the story is quite what they appear to be. This is one of Bette Davis' most memorable latter-day film roles, but the great supporting cast is worth mentioning too. William Dix is a standout as the disturbed little boy, Wendy Craig is genuinely affecting as the boy's infantile mother, Jill Bennett is simply magnificent as the level-headed aunt who, like her nephew, suspects that there's something not altogether right about the nanny. The most impressive performance, however, is given by the remarkable child actress Pamela Franklin who plays the pretty young girl upstairs that the boy confides in. For intriguing mystery and heart-pounding suspense, THE NANNY is highly recommended!!!!!

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the nut job is in "The Nanny". This is Bette Davis in post "Baby Jane/Sweet Charlotte" mode. She's nanny to disturbed little Joey, (an excellent William Dix), who may or may not have drowned his little sister in the bathtub. Joey is a sulky little sod given to rather extreme practical jokes, (little pretending to hang himself), but one look at Mary Poppins Davis and you might be inclined to run a mile. That fine and underrated director Seth Holt directed his excellent psychological chiller well adapted by producer Jimmy Sangster from Evelyn Piper's novel. Davis is superb but so too are Wendy Craig and Jill Bennett as Dix's mother and aunt. It has now built up something of a cult reputation.

"The Nanny" probably just started out as an attempt to cash in on the immense success of lead actress Bette Davis (who starred in "Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" the previous years) and – who knows - maybe even the profitable concept of "Mary Poppins", since that classic also revolved on the nanny/children relationship; albeit a much happier and cheerful one. By no means, however, this means that "The Nanny" is an inferior thriller production. Quite the contrary, this is a hugely atmospheric and very suspenseful pot-boiler and perhaps even one of Hammer's most underrated efforts ever. The legendary British horror studio is mainly known for its grueling takes on classic monster stories ("Dracula", "Frankenstein"…) and stupendous Sci-Fi movies (the "Quatermass" trilogy), but they were also responsible for several gore-free but spirited and story-driven psychological thrillers with a film-noir type of atmosphere, and "The Nanny" is unquestionably one of the highlights in this often overlooked sub category alongside "Hysteria" and "Paranoiac".

Our lead actress, with her uniquely creepy charisma and eyes that were sung about specifically (Bette Davis Eyes – Bette Davis' Eyes), stars as an exaggeratedly polite and overly dedicated nanny in a household full of neurotic outcasts. Mommy is an emotional wreck since the death of her cherubic daughter; daddy is a senseless prick who's never there when needed and ten-year-old son Joey just left a mental institution because he's suspected of drowning his sister. Joey hates Nanny with a passion, claims she killed little Suzy and now openly accuses her of wanting to do the same to him. No matter how patient and loving she tries to be, Joey's behavior grows increasingly aggressive and uncontrollable. Admittedly no one, not even the most inexperienced and/or unintelligent horror viewer, will have much trouble figuring out what's really going on quite early in the film already, but Hammer veterans Seth Holt ("Taste of Fear") and Jimmy Sangster ("Fear in the Night") nevertheless maintain the tension level high and the delivers the chills on a very regular basis. It's a slow-paced but non-stop ominous film, with the photography in good old black & white – which always adds to the atmosphere – and a truly depressing depiction of certain uptight British social classes. It's praiseworthy how, even though the denouement is transparent from the beginning, Holt and Sangster still manage to occasionally make you wonder who speaks the truth: the little boy who acts like Dennis The Menace on acid and simply asks for a thorough spanking … or the stoically cold but unimpeachable nanny? Davis is sublime, but young actor William Dix definitely doesn't have to yield to her persona as he gives away a marvelous performance. It even is truly incomprehensible and unfortunate that he just appeared in only one more movie after this.

Bette Davis (in thick eyebrows and speaking very precisely and condescendingly) plays a prim English governess who may or may not be responsible for the drowning death of a child left in her care. Oddly muffled, but absorbing, creepy and generally well-acted suspense-melodrama from Britain's Hammer Films. Crack screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, adapting Evelyn Piper's novel, includes a terrific role for precocious William Dix as the nanny's young nemesis, but the tools are not quite present in Piper's original material for Davis to let loose and make a grand show of it (she's "in character" throughout: tense, fake-polite and rather glum). Audiences in 1965 were probably hoping for a macabre camp-thriller, another entry in the "Baby Jane" subgenre of older actresses cast in psychological creep-outs, but the shocks are rather subdued. This restrained approach, however, works to the picture's advantage, as the scenario plays more effectively as a dark character portrait rather than as a screamer. Davis is backed by a solid supporting cast, including Pamela Franklin as an amusingly typical teenage girl who lives in the apartment upstairs, and many film-historians have now hailed the picture as one of the best Hammer productions from this era. *** from ****

This is a rather oddly presented story with the common theme of something awry with the nanny....or butler or....anyone who you think you can trust.

Suspense films like this are excellent in that one really can guess what is to happen next, and the characters and their behavior is quite mercurial.

Wendy Craig , (who later starred in comedies such as "Butterflies" on NY station PBS) is good here as the mother of young Joey Fane, a troubled child with whom no one seems to know what to do with. Or is that really the case?. There is a Hitchcockian element to this story in that the black and white cinematography is slightly foreboding, little Joey's butter cream cake (to welcome him home after the hospital) looks inviting, but is it poison?.

Jill Bennett who has been in other films of this genre as the narcissistic aunt Virgie, who feels she is up to the task of minding Joey until odd occurrences begin to shake her resolve.

Ms. Davis as the nanny has a secret past, which is not divulged other than when we see the squalor in which her own daughter had lived. Her expressions are sublime, then jaw dropping. She acts with expression, her movements and beats are the mark of her talent. She does not need to vocalize what is percolating internally. A gem here worth seeing for Davis alone. 9/10.