All This, and Heaven Too [1940]

Based upon Rachel Field's wonderful novel of the same name, this film is a triumph. It is a fictionalized account of a notorious true crime that shocked Paris to its core in the mid nineteenth century.

A governess, Henriette Deluzy, magnificently played by Bette Davis, returns to France, having accepted a position to teach the four children of the Duc and Duchesse De Praslin. The Duc, played with intense, restrained passion by the debonair Charles Boyer, is unhappily married to a self absorbed harpy who cares not a whit for her children, but is obsessed with her husband. Her obsession is such, that she appears to be mentally unbalanced.

When Ms. Deluzy joins the household, the Duchesse resents her children's growing fondness of her, as well as her husband's attentions to the children and the governess. Though clearly falling in love, the Duc and the governess maintain a completely platonic relationship at all times. Yet, the obsession of the Duchesse is such that she imagines the worst sort of affair is taking place right under her very nose. She is consumed by jealously and loses no time in making all in that household miserable.

Many months after Ms. Deluzy is forced to leave the household, the Duchesse is found murdered, and suspicion falls upon the Duc and the former governess. What happens to them will keep the viewer riveted to the screen. This is a beautifully acted film.

Bette Davis, the great doyenne of film and theatre, plays the governess in an uncharacteristally restrained fashion, using those famous orbs of hers to convey all the emotion that she feels but cannot express. She succeeds, brilliantly. Charles Boyer is a superb casting choice for the handsome, angst ridden Duc, saddled with a histrionic wife bent on making the entire family miserable. Barbara O'Neil, as the Duchesse, gives an over the top, but effective, performance that is a good counterfoil to that of Ms. Davis. The supporting cast is likewise excellent and contributes to the success of this marvelous screen gem.

This tragic story is brought to life under the very able direction of Anatole Litvak and rightly earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. It is a true film classic that should be seen by all who love a great movie.

Bette's on her best behaviour here as Henriette, humble little governess to the four children of a noble family in 19th-century France. The household is strained to say the least because the Duke and Duchess aren't a couple anymore and the Duchess (Barbara O'Neil)is increasingly irked because Henriette's getting all the affection she herself is unable to offer. (Like Soames Forsyte she's her own worst enemy.) The Duke(Charles Boyer)only plays house because of the kids, the youngest of whom, a boy, is significantly removed in age from his three sisters. Things come to a head when wife suspects hubby and the servant of carrying-on. They haven't been but rumours in society at the highest level lead Henriette to quit her post after the Duchess has promised to send her a letter of recommendation. It never arrives and the Duke, in a rage when he finds Henriette destitute, bludgeons his wife to death. As a peer of the realm he's immune from police-arrest but elects to take poison rather than confirm guilt or innocence. Henriette, suspected of complicity, is put on trial but released for lack of evidence and makes a new life as a schoolteacher in America. The case became a major scandal said to have precipitated the Revolution of 1840 and the novel on which the film is based was written by Henriette's eventual great-niece Rachel Field.
The film does go on a bit - rather like the children at times - in the way of "photographed bestsellers" that can't bear to leave anything out though in fact it ends with the marriage proposal that will bring her into the Field fold. It's told in flashback with Bette telling her story to her first class of pupils after they've been nasty to her. There's a lot to get through and director Litvak keeps things at a fair clip with not much time for subtlety. We get the picture with the Duchess straight away, an absolute compendium of hatefulness - she's spoilt, petulant, insensitive, neurotically jealous and finally vindictive - on top of which she's just downright DISAGREEABLE, which makes it worse. We can't even LIKE her a bit. Against this force-field of bad vibrations Bette, doubtless resisting the urge to slap her with a dead rat, stays cool, knows her place (in the story, that is), dispenses sweet reasonableness and lets O'Neil chew the scenery. She even sings to the children like Maria Von Trapp and in a touchingly-handled scene consoles the eldest one (June Lockhart) over her fears of puberty and all it will entail, anxieties the child could never broach with the Duchess. The killing of the old girl, after a hammy final close-up, is suggested rather than shown as if to imply some mystery though there doesn't seem to be any. The trial and the political aftermath are conveyed through newspaper headlines and we're back to the present with Bette's class in absolute meltdown (even horrid Emily Schuyler) and the flowery promise of Eternal Happiness from nice dull Jeffrey Lynn as Reverend Field. Pity she had to lose Boyer, they made a sympathetic team. But never mind, Bets, you've got Paul Henreid to look forward to. Oh alright then, Joan Crawford. Order up that dead rat.

This film is brilliant in all respect. Whenever there is nothing else to watch on TV, just get this film out and enjoy with popcorn as family and you'll never get bored of it. If you haven't got this film in your library then you are missing out on this film. It's a classic.