I saw this movie a long time ago - perhaps 50 years to be exact and that time I was not able to comment on it, except of course "I liked it" or not. But now I have just seen it I can say it's a dark picture but plenty of love. There are no kisses not even passionate words, but we feel love emerging from the scenes, not only between a man and a woman, but love for children and most of all love for life. And here, the contrast between hate and love, seems to be an allegory of evil(The Duchesse, a poisoned psycho woman) and good (The Duc and Henriette). Barbara O'Neil, as the Duchesse is wonderful and she deserved an Oscar nomination. Boyer is good in his role and so is Bette Davis. And the children? Well, children are children - always sublime. The movie runs in a very good pace and the only negative point is the anachronism fault, I mean the ball scene where we listen to "The Merry Widow". The year is 1846, but Franz Lehár, his composer was born in 1870, and the operetta premiere was in 1905.
Review of All This, and Heaven Too
