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All this ... And Bette Davis too!

A Customer from Stirling, 24th September, 2009

I absolutely love this movie! I first saw it about 20 years on terrestrial TV and found it a revelation - Bette Davis playing a nice woman! This CD version is great - very sharp and clear - a big improvement. The story is based on a true event and the film was a big hit in its day (the best-selling story having been written by Rachel Field only a couple of years previously). Bette Davis is, as always, marvellous (did she ever give a bad performance?) and Charles Boyer fully matches her (very rare for a male lead playing opposite the diva!). The music is by the peerless Max Steiner (of Gone with the Wind fame) and is just right for a story set in the mid-1800s. I can't recommend this movie highly enough!

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*** May contain spoilers ***

Incredible Film

GratuitousViolets from , 28th January, 2010

Based on the true story of one of France's most infamous unsolved murders, this is an incredibly capturing and stunning film that was made to rival the fame of 'Gone with the Wind'. Henriette Deluzy-Deportes, a plain but charming woman, takes the position of governess for the children of the Duc and Duchesse de Praslin. The family dynamic of the brood leave Henriette confused and protective of the children who are neglected by their mother. Henriette finds it harder to go on with her position in the Chateau as the Duchesse begins to increasingly grow jealous of the bond the children - and indeed, the husband she is besotted with - share with governess. Charles Boyer is utterly charming and smouldering in this role as the disillusioned and unhappy husband, and Bette Davis plays the plain, curt, and emotionally reserved governess so wonderfully here as if she were born for the part. Barbara O'Neill's portrayal of the Duchesse is so breath-takingly bitter and gripping that it takes your breath away. Any fan of black and white movies and period dramas should have this at the top of their lists; it doesn't rival 'Gone with the Wind', but it does, however, make a nice alternative.

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Watchable yet melodramatic

Cumulonimbus from , 16th October, 2009

Bette Davis is wonderful here of course - she's just so watchable and I love how she is 'accessible attractive', a character actress who is cast as the leading lady - this sort of thing happens less nowadays. But frankly this lovely, easy-watching film is a little ruined by being ridiculously melodramatic, and 'Enriette' is kinda implausibly and teeth-grindingly good - after a while you just can't cope with her endless small sufferings and saintliness; and the ridiculous pillorying of her in the trial (though probably this is truthful - women were treated badly in history). Did seem very long too.

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