The Nanny (1965)

Director: Seth Holt

Starring: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett, James Villiers, William Dix

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Would you trust the nanny . . . or the boy?

Plot: Bette Davis is an English nanny whose charge is 10-year-old Joey, just released from a home for disturbed children where he'd spent two years undergoing treatment for drowning his little sister in the bath. Shortly after his arrival home, suspicion arouses again when his mother is poisoned. But Joey continues to insist Nanny is responsible, just as she was with the death of his little sister, with only a neighboring friend believing the young boy.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? It's certainly good enough but there's so many movies that I haven't seen and that I would re-visit before this one.

#27 on Hammer Horror (1957-1976)


DO NOT read anything or listen to anything that would spoil this movie or its ending! It's not that it's a twist or a shocker but how it's maturely handled. Bette Davis IS...THE...WOMAN! What a performance! How about all these exclamations!!! Anyway, she's terrific as is the rest of the cast. The young actor that plays Joey does a surprisingly good job (considering most child actors can't act). Without it (or Davis') the film would just sit there.

Here's our introduction to the young charge...


And the girl who plays his younger sister is just a darling.


THE NANNY is an outstanding thriller from Hammer, the "House of Horror". The performances are solid, it's well-written and directed, features a very good score by Richard Rodney Bennett and has a final act which will satisfy you in ways you didn't think possible. There are so many reasons why this works so well. Don't pass it by.