Rent The Nanny (1965)

Doing Absolutely Nothing, Terrifyingly - The Nanny review by griggs

Bette Davis spends most of The Nanny doing absolutely nothing, and it's terrifying.

No scenery-chewing, no big swings — she plays it quiet, folding herself into the background like she actually lives there, which somehow makes it worse. I kept waiting for a jump scare that never arrives. Seth Holt knows the stillness does the damage instead. The whole film is set in one London townhouse, and it starts to feel like a trap fairly quickly.

The cleverest move is making the kid (William Dix) the one nobody believes, with Wendy Craig's mother caught in the middle, oblivious. Hammer made this, but don't expect Dracula. It's closer to Les Diaboliques territory: tense, interior, nasty in a quiet way.

The back half loosens its grip once the plot has to start explaining itself, and the ending wraps things up a bit faster than the dread it spent an hour building.

Not flawless, but Davis alone earns the ninety minutes.

Bad Nanny (slight spoiler). - The Nanny review by Steve

Delicious late career performance from Bette Davis in an uncharacteristically muted production from Hammer studios. Bette isn't understated, but there is a contrast with her gothic horror roles of the sixties. She may be a dependable old school nanny unforgivably persecuted by a maladjusted ten year boy (William Dix) fresh out of rehab...

Or she could be the passive-aggressive psycho-nanny who drowned the little sister of this vulnerable youngster who now fears for his own life! Presumably everyone knows where this is headed but it is tempting to fear the worst for little Billy Dix, so convincing is his portrayal of a pouting, spoiled... little darling.

This is an eerie, dark thriller dominated by the Hollywood star. It's artfully directed by Seth Holt, mostly within the single space of an upmarket London apartment, and stylishly photographed in black and white. It's as close as Hammer ever got to a straight drama.

But Davis does still get to expose the faithful retainer's suppressed psychosis in the later scenes. The tone is playful without becoming comical. It's intriguing to contemplate if this may disturb the buried experiences of those who actually had a nanny! It is a curious British addition to the cult of Bette Davis.