The Nanny (1965)

Ten-year-old Joey Fane returns to his London home, two years after being sent to an institution following his younger sister's death, for which he was blamed. He refuses to get on with Nanny, however, whom he believes killed his sister and may try to poison him. Tensions come to a head when Joey is left in Nanny's care overnight. Who are we to trust - the nanny or the boy?


This has been a lifelong favourite for me, and it was exciting to view it in its original widescreen for the first time. In the Hammer horror canon, it tends to be underrated, or at best liked, but rarely discussed in detail. This is a shame, since it is one of the Studio's most refined and delicately crafted of the sixties. Seth Holt, a one-time editor who counted Ealing's The Ladykillers and Karel Riesz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning among his credits, directed his second psychological thriller for Hammer, the first being A Taste of Fear in 1961. Holt was to direct only once again for the company: 1971's Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, which he failed to complete due to his unexpected death (Studio chief Michael Carreras finished the film in his place).



The source for Jimmy Sangster's screenplay was the novel of the same name by Evelyn Piper, who also penned Bunny Lake Went Missing, adapted for the screen by Otto Preminger in the same year. Bette Davis was imported to take the title role, and although Holt apparently thought she overacted, in fact she delivers a remarkably restrained and suitably sinister performance. She could very easily have mimicked her outrageously camp performance from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), the film which undoubtedly made her prime fodder for studios like Hammer, but she is subtle in the role at the right times. On this viewing, I even felt a good deal of sympathy for her.


There's solid support from James Villiers and Wendy Craig as Joey's parents, and Jill Bennett is likeable as the droll Aunt Penny, even if she is the most guilty of overacting. Top honours must go to the young William Dix, seen two years later alongside Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle, whose age does not seem to hinder his ability to give a relatively understated performance.


Between Holt and cinematographer Harry Waxman, the film is striking visually. The apartment setting is filmed from all kinds of angles, progressively unconventional as the film goes on. There's a definite noir element to the low-angle photography.

The Nanny is now available on R2 DVD from Optimum, priced £9.99 on average. It comes with a commentary featuring Hammer stalwart Jimmy Sangster, continuity girl Renee Glynne and Hammer authority Marcus Hearn.

My rating? 8/10