Every aspect of this film is sumptuously appointed and oozing with class. It winds up just a touch on the long side, but first time viewers probably won't mind as the story is involving and dramatic. Davis (in a gentle, timid, but thoughtful performance) plays a French teacher whose students discover some unseemly gossip about her. To diffuse their wrath, she tells them her story. She was previously a governess who found herself hired into a home laced with turmoil and despair. Boyer and O'Neil play the bitterly estranged couple who place Davis in charge of their four children. (These sweet, well-mannered and delightful kids make the Von Trapps look liked spoiled brats!) Soon, the children start to revere Davis, Boyer begins to turn to her for friendship and his mega-neurotic wife gets more and more jealous and unhinged until things start to get ugly. Davis is grand in what could have been a pretty colorless role. She commits herself to the type of behavior that would have been appropriate for a woman of this standing and does very well. Boyer's thick accent betrays how out of place most everyone else's is, but it hardly matters in a production this grand. He is his usual suave and smooth self. The aforementioned kids are all excellent, but special mention must go to the spectacularly adorable Nichols. This was a very special child actor and, thankfully, he was able to shine in a few other films as well. There are other sturdy character actors throughout to aid the film. However, the one who really spices things up is O'Neil. Nothing in her calm, level portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara's mother in "Gone With the Wind" the year before could prepare one for her gnashing, venomous, hysterical work here. She is completely over the top and utterly outrageous at times in her expression and delivery, but it's such a joy to watch and she injects such a fierce dose of vinegar into the story that it doesn't matter. With an elaborate array of gowns and hairstyles (and with eyelashes that seem to jut out from the screen in 3-D), she savors every moment of her screen time and turns every scene into a combination Kabuki act/German opera. Fans who come to the film hoping to see a fire-breathing Davis will surely discover a new icon to adore in O'Neil. Academy voters that year probably couldn't have lived with themselves if they had chosen her vitriolic work over noble Jane Darwell in "The Grapes of Wrath" (not to mention heavy hitter Judith Anderson, nominated for "Rebecca") so she had to settle for a nomination. Nothing in the austere cover art could prepare a person for this splendiferous chunk of camp artistry that lies within the film. The adaptation only portrays about half of the story found in the source novel, which continues Davis's character's life after her new start in America. O'Neil played another albatross of a wife opposite Boyer the year prior to this in "When Tomorrow Comes".
Review of All This, and Heaven Too
