The Nanny (1965 film)
The Nanny is a 1965 British suspense film directed by Seth Holt, and starring Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, and Jill Bennett. Davis appears as a supposedly devoted nanny caring for a 10-year-old boy recently discharged from a home for disturbed children. It is based on the novel of the same title by Evelyn Piper (a pseudonym for Merriam Modell), and the film was scored by Richard Rodney Bennett. The film was made by Hammer Film Productions at Elstree Studios.
| The Nanny | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Seth Holt |
| Produced by | Jimmy Sangster |
| Written by | Jimmy Sangster |
| Starring | Bette Davis William Dix Wendy Craig Jill Bennett |
| Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner-Pathé Distributors (UK) 20th Century Fox (USA) |
Release date | 7 November 1965 (UK) 27 October 1965 (U.S.) |
Running time | 91 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,300,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $2 million (US/ Canada)[1] |
Synopsis
The film begins with Nanny, whose proper name we never know, returning from the bakery with a special cake. Young Master Joey is coming home today, after two years away at a special school - a school for boys who have done bad things because they are emotionally disturbed. We learn that Joey was sent to the school because he apparently drowned his little sister, Susy, presumably out of jealousy. On his last day at the school, Joey pretends to hang himself, seeming to confirm a penchant bad boy behaviour.
Joey is very suspcious of Nanny. He wants her to go but can't bring himself to tell Daddy and Mummy why - he has a secret he thinks they will not believe. So Nanny stays. And, besides, Nanny was Mummy's and Aunt Pen's nanny all those years ago, so she's part of the family, too. But Joey won't stay in the room she has prepared for him, instead moving to one that has a strong lock on it; and he won't eat anything she cooks, and otherwise generally defies her. Nanny takes it all in stride, or so it seems.
Joey is the son of the Fane family, Bill and Virginia. "Virgie" is a bit neurotic and her needs are generally seen to by Nanny, who was her own and her sister's nanny when they were girls. Bill is a Queen's Messenger, so he is frequently away on business. He is off to Beirut the very next day, and misses all of the excitement. Virgie's sister, Penelope - Pen - comes to visit and casually mentions her weak heart and how she could go "just like that" from any serious upset. One cay, he meets Bobie Medman, the 14-year-old daughter of a doctor living in the flat above them, on the fire escape. She goes there to smoke because her father doesn't like it.
Joey does something that appears to be an example of unruly behaviour but is actually a way of telling Nanny the he knows something. He places a doll face down in the bath, runs the water, and then gets Nanny to go in and find it. She is greatly shocked because it recalls to her the day she found little Susy drowned in the bath, supposedly by Joey. Later, Joey shows up at Bobbie's window dripping wet and claiming that Nanny tried to drown him. He then shares what he knows with her.
Two years ago, his little sister was playing with her dolly and took her into the bathroom. Nanny entered the bathroom, calling for little Susy because it was bath time. Opening the partition from the front of the bathtub, she reaches in without looking and turns on the tap. Nanny then goes off looking for Susy, calling her name. When she returns to the bathtub, she finds Susy floating face down in the water. Her mind snaps, and she starts to bathe the girl. Joey saw her doing it but she did not see him. But now, she knows that he knows what really happened that day.
Back in the present, Nanny has made steak and kidney pie - "Master Joey's favourite!" But he won't eat it, and rightly so because it has been poisoned. Virgie is in tears, so Nanny takes over, and spoon-feeds her the poisoned pie. This has the desired effect of getting Joey's mother out of the way by having her sent to hospital. But Joey will not stay with Nanny alone, so Aunt Pen comes to stay. Nanny fusses over her, which annoys Pen and makes her angry enough that she has a heart attack. Nanny gives her one of her pills, and suddenly Pen is a little girl again being comforted by Nanny. This, too, is designed to get "Miss Pen" out of the way so that Nanny can finish the job she started earlier.
Joey has barricaded himself in his room. Unexpectedly, Pen wakes about 1:30 and goes into the kitchen for a drink. She says Nanny standing outside Joey's door holding a pillow. She says she was going to give Master Joey an extra one, which prompts Pen to say she should leave it until the morning - now the boy is finally quiet; and then she goes back to bed. But suddenly she reappears. "You don't believe in pillows," she says to Nanny. "When we were children, you wouldn't let us have them. What was the word you used? 'Overlay!' Children might 'overlay' themselves." Pen then asks Nanny what really happened in the bathroom earlier that night, when Joey was all wet. Nanny resists, Pen gets over-excited, and this time the heart attack is fatal - as Nanny takes the bottle of pills just as Pen's fingers reach them.
Nanny then proceeds to tell what really happened two years ago, how she was called away from the house. We discover that Nanny had been a single mother, and has been called to the deathbed of her daughter, Janet, who has died from an illegal abortion. Already shaken when she arrived home, finding Susy's body tips her over the edge. Nanny tells Pen that she cannot let Master Joey live for fear that someone might one day believe his story, and put the whole of Nanny-dom at risk. "I'm not think of myself," she tells her. "I'm thinking of all the other nannies. People must trust us!" When she finishes her speech, Pen is dead and Nanny closes her eyes. One down, one to go.
Satisfied that Pen is now dead, Nanny tries to enter Joey's bedroom, but his alarm system wakes him and tries to escape out the window onto the fire escape. Nanny manages to grab him by the ankle, however, causing him to fall and hit his head on a trunk, knocking him unconscious. She then carries him into the bathroom, lays him in it, and fills it with water. But the memory of finding Susy's body comes back and Nanny suddenly seems to snap back to her senses, as she pulls him out of the water, calling, "Joey! Joey!" and saves him from drowning.
The film ends in Virgie's hospital room with Dr Medman explaining everything to her, and noting that Nanny is a very sick woman who will be in care for a very long time. When Virgie finds out Joey is at the hospital and would like to see her, she demands he be brought in. She gives him a loving hug, and says she knows all about it now. Joey is no longer a sullen little boy but is they way he used to be, and promises that he will help his mummy with everything, and even learn to cook so he can bring her breakfast in bed on a tray - with a flower.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Bette Davis | Nanny |
| William Dix | Joey Fane |
| Wendy Craig | Virginia "Virgie" Fane |
| Jill Bennett | Aunt Pen |
| James Villiers | Bill Fane |
| Pamela Franklin | Bobbie Medman |
| Jack Watling | Dr. Medman |
| Maurice Denham | Dr. Beamaster |
| Alfred Burke | Dr. Wills |
| Angharad Aubrey | Susy Fane |
| Harry Fowler | Milkman |
Reception
Critical
The Nanny has been well received by critics. It currently holds a 91% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on eleven reviews.[2]
AllMovie called it "one of Hammer Films' better non-supernatural outings of the 1960s".[3]
See also
References
- Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p230 Please note figures are rentals not total gross. See also "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966 p 36
- "The Nanny - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- Guarisco, Donald. "The Nanny (1965) - Review - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 324.
- Tom Johnson and Deborah Del Vecchio, Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography, McFarland, 1996 p.258