• A Hammer film and a 1960s Bette Davis film so you might think it was going to be wild, with violence, darkness and over-the-top-ness from Bette Davis but it’s not—Davis is pretty reserved and the film spends the bulk of its running time building up the family dynamic
  • The boy fakes his suicide hanging like Harold in Harold and Maude six years later
  • The young boy is out of control, the mom a bag of tears, the father a jerk and absent— and Davis as the titular character, menacingly stoic, troubled, measured
  • Marry Poppins in the text (this is the year after)—certainly the anti-Mary Poppins
  • The 17th and final archiveable film for Davis at this point—what an incredible career. She would keep working but this is the latest archiveable film
  • It isn’t exactly William Wyler—but some nice depth of field shots here
  • Powerful flashback at 59 gives context and color to the preceding narrative- always interesting
  • A few sloppy close-ups
  • A recommend- not in the top 10-15 for sure in 1965