Review

Joey Fane is a disturbed young boy who may or may not have been involved in the accidental drowning of his younger sister. He has just been released from a two year stint at a home for disturbed children much to the terror of his mother. Things do not start off well with the family re-union as Joey appears focused on hating the long term Nanny.

The situation deteriorates further when Dad leaves on a business trip and Mom is poisoned. Joey is the natural suspect, and when Aunt Pen has a heart attack while watching over the family apartment we wonder if Nanny is the next on Joey's list of victims. Joey still insists that Nanny is responsible for the mounting death toll, and the only one who believes him is the chick upstairs. Let's do a bit of digging into a bit of upstairs downstairs shenanigans.

It's not every day we here at ScaryMinds get to review a movie with a Hollywood legend involved, so there was some excitement when Hammer Studio's The Nanny listed Bette Davis in the credits in a leading role. As expected Davis delivers one hell of a performance that raises The Nanny to a higher level of achievement than we would normally expect from an early Hammer movie. Davis throws on a threatening slightly deranged Nanny perfectly catching the nuances of psychological damage the character is suffering from. It's an eerily good performance that recalls Davis' work in the excellent Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

The basic premise of the movie is who is the antagonist, the terror tot Joey or the apparently serene Nanny who takes everything in her stride. Joey is convinced the Nanny is out to get him and takes extreme measures to avoid having anything to do with her calm approach to the situation. It's a scenario that intrigues with possibilities and keeps the Audience wondering if Joey is still disturbed from earlier events or is perhaps the victim of the situation. William Dix (Joey) is perfectly suited for the role and pretty much rings the alarm bells through the first block of the movie. The young Actor would go on to, well not much really, which just goes to show you can have a major role in a movie and then disappear back into the huddled masses very quickly.

There are of course a number of scenes that point to the movie having been made in a bygone age. Mom is treated pretty much like an infant and is prone to being all emotional, Nanny is treated as a member of the family but spends her time doing, and being expected to do, the common chores around the house, and Dad of course is like King Tut ruling over his family like some sort of benevolent tyrant. That's not to mention some of the dialogue that ranges from Elizabethan stage drama to plum in the mouth time. The only two modern characters are Aunty Pen, who provides a prototype for Joanna Lumley's Patsy in Ab Fab, and the chick upstairs Bobbie Medman, who without parental units inhibiting her thing is hitting the sixties chick thing solidly. Interesting that the more modern characters are both female, with the two male characters being pretty moribound in the past.

Like many 1960s movies The Nanny plays as a sort of stage show without modern multi camera views, effects, or outside locations. Primarily the movie operates inside the Fane family apartment without many other locations to change the viewpoint. This works well for a drama and is a rock solid approach for The Nanny. The strong performances from a solid cast more than keep the Audience attention without the need to cut to secondary locations. I'm wondering how well modern "A" list Boredwood Actors would stake up if confronted with a movie that actually requires them to, you know, act!

Bette Davis simply rocks the house down, repeat viewings will show just how great she is in this movie made in the twilight of her career

Needless to say the movie is in black and white with the budget not being on the high side of the ledger. You either are going to dial into the old movie format or be stuck in the present, with no doubt a refusal to watch sub titled movies either. For those able to handle the format you are going to be in for a highly charged psychological movie of well above average merit, the menace simply drips off the frames in this one. There's something to be said for early dark genre movies, they got the job done without the need for brain dead audience appeasing effects or indeed for plot developments that beggar belief.

I'm storming through the Hammer back catalogue at the moment and this one surprised me. The Brits doing very solid psycho outings isn't quite what I expected, and the movie kept me entertained as to where it might go and where the crumpet might fall. One wonders what Hitchcock could have done with a script that is well above average. Going to say it, this one deserves a remake to modernise it, though that will probably involve knifes and car chases unfortunately. If you dig your dark genre roots than have a bit of a look at this movie, solid enough outing for the period it was shoot in, and more importantly remaining entertaining.

Not sure if the movie is available as a DVD or BRD release, haven't spotted it anywhere, I got sent one of those Ultimate Hammer movie box set so it can be found in that collection, though be warned the set is R2, ensure your player is multi-region. Happy hunting folks, this movie is well worth ferreting out in my woefully inept opinion.