A Hammer film and a 1960’s 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
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