The Nanny

1965

1h 33m

Horror

List

85%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

77%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Nanny (Bette Davis), a London family's live-in maid, brings morbid 10-year-old Joey (William Dix) back from the psychiatric ward he's been in for two years, since the death of his younger sister. Joey refuses to eat any food Nanny's prepared or take a bath with her in the room. He also demands to sleep in a room with a lock. Joey's parents -- workaholic Bill (James Villiers) and neurotic Virgie (Wendy Craig) -- are sure Joey is disturbed, but he may have good reason to be terrified of Nanny.

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Steve D

Should be ridiculous but Davis knocks it out of the park.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/15/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Somehow i felt something was wrong with the nanny but not even one idea of how things happened! To commit a crime without even knowing or wanting, that must be worst then possible, worst then killing a man in a car accident. Splendid movie, splendid! Love Bette Davis, and here she s perfect for the job. You guys must see all her other movies!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Presumably, made up to look older than her years suggest, a droll and roboticized Bette Davis (a Davis she had started perfecting in the 1950s) haunts the days and nights of her employers and their children, due to her mental instability. She has an uncanny knack for fooling adults but is not so lucky with children. Her clipped speech is the same she used in her 1958 movie with Ernest Borgnine; it must have made her feel impervious to everything, because her acting skills are all eyes and mouth. This is not the Bette Davis of former decades who could suggest or convey through body language. All she had left was her mouth and words. Some say this is a sign of a great actor. Others say this is the height of laziness. The roboticized Davis works for this film until the end. Many people want the ending to be different and consider this ending weak. This should have definitely been made in color. Black and white in 1965 was beyond unforgivable.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

cleverly done film, nice old black and white with old english language. interesting plot some how humorous how it develops.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

What a cracking film to start my 31 Days of Halloween with. This is a British film which stars Bette Davis as a nanny for a family living in London in which a young boy has been sent away for supposedly killing his sister. The boy is due to be released after two years and return to his family home and under Ms Davis' supervision. The boy vehemently protests his innocence and insists that instead it was the nanny who committed the terrible deed. Is he right? Or is the nanny indeed guilty? Theres already the almost unspeakable taboo of a child killing another child within this film which gives it a grittiness right from the get go. The household in question is steeped in gothic tension even though it is in fact light and airy. No Baby Jane mansion here. Theres also the stifling formality of English life at this time. There are so many manners and formalities at play that are overwhelmingly suffocating and claustrophobic. Within the film there is also a delicious generation gap which underlines this and presents a tangible 'Old vs new' scenario. The boy in question, Joey forges a friendship with a 14 year old girl who lives in the same building. She dresses like a hip 60s girl, all white lipstick and black eyeliner. When we see within her bedroom Joey gazes up at a Beatles mobile she has hanging from the ceiling and at one point we see her reclining on her bed reading a copy of the girls magazine Jackie which has a pin up of Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones on its back cover. Beautifully acted (especially Ms Davis of course whose character has a pair of the ugliest eyebrows ever captured on film) and elegantly directed, this is one of Hammer's finest films. Of course this would only have been made with Ms Davis if Hollywood wasn't casting the very best stars of yesteryear anymore. Every cloud has a silver lining. What was Hollywood's loss was very much Hammer's gain.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

So so good. That is all.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Seth Holt

Director

Bette Davis

Nanny

Wendy Craig

Virginia "Virgie" Fane

Jill Bennett

Aunt Pen

James Villiers

Bill Fane

William Dix

Joey Fane

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Dan Callahan

Slant Magazine

A rather quiet, cautious thriller that gives Davis more room for characterization than most of her later films.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 31, 2008

Full Review

Almar Haflidason

BBC.com

Rated: 4/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Pauline Kael

Vogue

The film is maddening because it's just good enough to be tantalizingly suggestive of what it might have been.

Feb 27, 2020

Full Review

MFB Critics

Monthly Film Bulletin

The keynote of the film is the Davis performance -- the quietest and most restrained since Baby Jane started this cycle.

Feb 7, 2018

Full Review

Jeremy Heilman

MovieMartyr.com

The Nanny is not especially ambitious, so one must settle for the small pleasures and chills that it offers.

Rated: 54/100

Jun 24, 2009

Full Review

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

... The Nanny holds up considerably well today as a slight, but unsettling, thriller.

Apr 15, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

Nanny (Bette Davis), a London family's live-in maid, brings morbid 10-year-old Joey (William Dix) back from the psychiatric ward he's been in for two years, since the death of his younger sister. Joey refuses to eat any food Nanny's prepared or take a bath with her in the room. He also demands to sleep in a room with a lock. Joey's parents -- workaholic Bill (James Villiers) and neurotic Virgie (Wendy Craig) -- are sure Joey is disturbed, but he may have good reason to be terrified of Nanny.

Director: Seth Holt
Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster
Production Co: Associated British, Seven Arts Productions, Hammer Film Productions Limited
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (DVD): Apr 8, 2008
Runtime: 1h 33m