One of my personal favourite pieces of casting trivia is that, during the process of deciding on someone to star as the titular Mary Poppins, Walt Disney actively pursued Bette Davis for the role, banking on her status as one of the most beloved and recognizable faces from the Golden Age of Hollywood that was still actively working in the industry and taking on interesting roles. Considering how iconic Dame Julie Andrews’ performance was in the role, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing her in quite the same way, even arguably the greatest actress to ever work in the medium. However, Davis would’ve been a fascinating choice, albeit one that wouldn’t have been particularly fitting for the avenue they eventually took (and if her oft-referenced performance of “I’ve Written a Letter to Daddy” is any indication, she’d not have been the most effective at belting out the songs written for the character). Yet, this doesn’t mean we were robbed of the opportunity to see the divine Davis play a similar role, since the very next year, she signed on to star as the titular character in The Nanny, a film that shares only the most superficial similarities with the Disney classic, insofar as they’re both films about nannies taking care of children who don’t immediately recognize their value. This is where the similarities tend to end, since The Nanny is about as far as one can get from Mary Poppins, serving as more of a demented distant relative than a film that exists in response to it (as some have suggested). Either way, The Nanny is a wonderful film – dark and twisted in the way that only the best psychological thrillers from that era tended to be, coated with layers of deceptive terror and haunting suspense that will unsettle even the most robust of viewers.

It should come as very little surprise that The Nanny was made by Hammer Film Productions, a studio that dominated British horror throughout the middle of the previous century. To helm this film, Seth Holt was hired – and as someone who had considerable experience in nearly every genre through two decades of working in various positions on a wide range of films, he found a home with Hammer, who made use of his unique perspective in a number of fascinating horror and thriller films. The Nanny is the work that he is most known for, not only because it was his most considerable success as a director (and one of the more profitable films put out by Hammer, undoubtedly a testament to its leading star, who could still bring audiences in later in her career), but because his work throughout it is so strong, he exceeds the boundaries of what a filmmaker working in the horror genre should be doing, which makes his death a few years later all the more tragic, since he had incredible potential as a director. This is a cheap psychological thriller that is rendered as an absolutely mesmerizing work of art through the directorial choices made by Holt, and his perpetual endeavour to uncover something meaningful with every scene, never telling us too much, but also not withholding information to the point where it becomes tedious. He strikes a perfect balance, and somehow manages to repurpose a tenuous genre from a studio that was slowly heading towards a gradual decline, into an unforgettable piece of filmmaking that is long overdue for another critical reassessment, not necessarily for the sake of correcting the negative reviews from the time (surprisingly, The Nanny was received quite positively), but rather to allow a new generation of audiences to encounter this strange and deranged work of fiction.

As compelling as many of its stars were, the Golden Age of Hollywood would not have existed without Bette Davis, at least not in the way we imagine it. Not only a gifted actress, but a philanthropist and activist long before it was vogue for a celebrity to use their image for good, Davis managed to do exceptional work on both sides of the camera. This likely led to her longevity in the industry, since she wasn’t someone who was content to settle into a niche – and even as she matured into an actress of a certain age (in a time where the industry was driven by impossibly high standards of beauty), she continued to push herself as a performer, taking on roles that showed that she still had the same raw brilliance of her younger years. At the time of the production of The Nanny, Davis was basking in the afterglow of her incredible performance in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with her portrayal of the titular faded child star becoming a cultural touchstone for over half a century of actors taking bold risks in how they portray characters. Her ability to lose all inhibitions and surrender to a truly deranged character was inspiring, and if it wasn’t the first entry into the iconic “psycho-biddy” genre, it certainly was the most notable. In many ways, The Nanny feels like many of the same concepts are being used in Davis’ performance – once again, she’s playing a deranged older woman who hides many secrets and has a penchant for violence against those who she feels intimidated by. However, Davis isn’t treading exactly the same territory at all. For one, her performance here is more measured and understated, and we don’t quite know if she’s a villain until the very end (at which point it is still left quite vague). It’s such a detailed exploration of an unhinged character, with Davis giving everything to the performance, even when the temptation to simply use her status as a film icon was right there and would’ve been excusable, considering the nature of the story.

Part of the brilliance of The Nanny is that it is a psychological thriller in the truest sense of the word. There is a tendency for films such as this to conflate feelings of mystery and dread with the more visceral reaction that comes from truly having our minds manipulated. Holt and his cohorts are actively toying with our psyches, throwing us into the depths of despair and relishing in their refusal to aid us in any way. This is a risky decision, but one that works incredibly well in the context of the film, since we never know where we stand in terms of understanding the reality behind a situation, and which of these characters is actually the villain. Part of the story is derived from feelings of childhood fear – the protagonist of the film is a young boy who is terrified of his nanny, who is by all accounts a delightful and dedicated woman who would not dream of harming another person, especially not the cherished child of the employer she is so dedicated to serving. Yet, as the film progresses, we see it isn’t such a clear case of one side going against the other – Holt is positioning the two major characters across from each other in such a way that we don’t ever really know their true intentions, and right until the final climactic scene, we are oscillating between them as the true villain of the film, which only makes The Nanny all the more riveting, since it is so thoroughly unpredictable. Everything in this film seems so well-calibrated, it’s bewildering how it hasn’t amassed a reputation as a classic of the genre, since its ability to keep us on edge throughout the entire story, never becoming dull or unnecessarily convoluted, is enough reason to qualify it as something well worth the time of curious viewers.

Ultimately, The Nanny is a very strong effort from a director with enough talent to tackle such a story, and the vision to take a taut genre and transform it into something that keeps us engaged, even when treading through familiar narrative territory. Whether you are watching this because you’re a devotee of the sublime Bette Davis (who may not be hitting her usual heights with this more subdued role, but is still doing impeccable work that is worth watching it for), or you’re a fan of this sub-genre of psychological thrillers that take the comforting image of an older woman and render it as absolutely terrifying, The Nanny is worth every minute. It’s not a perfect film, but it is one that knows exactly what it wants to be, and it never deviates too far from its central thesis statement. Holt keeps everything relatively simple, only venturing out of the confines of the genre when it is absolutely necessary, and it enriches the premise and lends it more credibility than the lesser efforts that attempted to capitalize on the brief moment where audiences responded strongly to such stories. Traditional in the way that psychological thrillers from this era tended to be, but layered with additional themes that make for a truly compelling story, The Nanny is a masterful and entertaining film that is perhaps better than most would give it credit for based on the premise – and if anything, the idea of seeing one of the greatest actresses to ever work in the medium going head-to-head with a mischievous child as they try and outsmart one another should be reason enough to give this wonderfully deranged film a shot, with the chance of disappointment being very low once the viewer realizes how interesting a story like this can be when executed well and with the devil-may-care brilliance of a gifted filmmaker.