Director: Anatole Litvak
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Top Billed Actors: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 3 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.
Best Supporting Actress - Barbara O'Neil
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Ernest Haller
Plot: The governess to a Duc and Duchesse's children becomes too beloved by the kids and husband so the Duc and Duchesse fight until there is political upheaval. The Duc just couldn't resist those Bette Davis eyes.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Top Billed Actors: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 3 more:
Outstanding Production - Warner Bros.
Best Supporting Actress - Barbara O'Neil
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Ernest Haller
Plot: The governess to a Duc and Duchesse's children becomes too beloved by the kids and husband so the Duc and Duchesse fight until there is political upheaval. The Duc just couldn't resist those Bette Davis eyes.
The first of three Best Picture nominees directed by Anatole Litvak, All This, and Heaven Too (1940) is an adaptation of a novel based on true events. Bette Davis stars in a Best Picture nominee for the third year in a row, but she would pull double duty in that department in her following 1940 showing, The Letter (1940), which she was also nominated for Best Actress. Supposedly, the director and actress had an affair together while the director was still married to Miriam Hopkins. Life imitates art and vice versa. In an uncharacteristic move for Warner Bros., this film spared no expenses. The runaway success of M-G-M's Gone with the Wind (1939) from the year before emboldened WB to lavishly decorate their sets and their actors. If Costume Design was a category for 1940, this certainly would have been nominated. This was also Charles Boyer's first film back in America after returning from a stint in the French army during World War II.
I am struggling to come up with an aspect of the film that jumps out at me for high praise. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the movie or that anything is actively bad. This is simply a straight-up heavy-handed drama film that allows you to settle in on the niceties and affections of Davis' Mademoiselle character and the friction that creates with an overbearing and jealous Duchesse played by Barbara O'Neil. Although the runtime is notable, it certainly didn't feel 141 minutes long. The kids are extremely cute and Davis has a real way with them. I could have watched one of their musical lessons for five minutes longer, although a lot of these governess/children scenes didn't seem to add much to the overall story. The aforementioned sets and costumes do add to the story and I was happy to witness another period piece with Davis. She's a marvel and an icon and although this is one of her stiffer performances, she's still wonderful.
That's one of the biggest detractors for the long runtime. Things get really interesting in the last twenty minutes or so but it takes a long time to get there. If you don't hanging out with Davis (I mean, who wouldn't), then this isn't the end of the world, but the film does feel a bit bloated. Another aspect that feels off are the accents. Most every character is supposed to be French but we have Boyer as the only legitimate Frenchman speaking in his normal French accent and then everyone else sounding as American as possible. Davis has an English lilt due to her character coming from England but hearing Americans says "mademoiselle" a million times really took me out of the film. The clearest example of this is the youngest kid, Reynald. He can't quite pronounce the word "mademoiselle" so he says "mam'soille." It's one of the cutest things you'll hear, but he says a lot of other things like he's from the South, so I laughed at pretty much every line he speaks (aside from his heart-clenching bed scenes). I also didn't care for Barabara O'Neil's Duchesse character. Her acting isn't at fault but she is so one-dimensional. If the character was able to show us how the Duc fell in love with her at point, it would have been more intriguing to see the jealousy play out. Instead, the Duchesse is a villain through and through.
Overall, this hefty but bare-bones drama features elaborate sets and ornate costumes that make the film look costly and grand. Although nothing stands out as a defining trademark of the film aside from perhaps its excessive runtime, it is still enjoyable to watch Bette Davis care for these children.
My Score: 7/10
I am struggling to come up with an aspect of the film that jumps out at me for high praise. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the movie or that anything is actively bad. This is simply a straight-up heavy-handed drama film that allows you to settle in on the niceties and affections of Davis' Mademoiselle character and the friction that creates with an overbearing and jealous Duchesse played by Barbara O'Neil. Although the runtime is notable, it certainly didn't feel 141 minutes long. The kids are extremely cute and Davis has a real way with them. I could have watched one of their musical lessons for five minutes longer, although a lot of these governess/children scenes didn't seem to add much to the overall story. The aforementioned sets and costumes do add to the story and I was happy to witness another period piece with Davis. She's a marvel and an icon and although this is one of her stiffer performances, she's still wonderful.
That's one of the biggest detractors for the long runtime. Things get really interesting in the last twenty minutes or so but it takes a long time to get there. If you don't hanging out with Davis (I mean, who wouldn't), then this isn't the end of the world, but the film does feel a bit bloated. Another aspect that feels off are the accents. Most every character is supposed to be French but we have Boyer as the only legitimate Frenchman speaking in his normal French accent and then everyone else sounding as American as possible. Davis has an English lilt due to her character coming from England but hearing Americans says "mademoiselle" a million times really took me out of the film. The clearest example of this is the youngest kid, Reynald. He can't quite pronounce the word "mademoiselle" so he says "mam'soille." It's one of the cutest things you'll hear, but he says a lot of other things like he's from the South, so I laughed at pretty much every line he speaks (aside from his heart-clenching bed scenes). I also didn't care for Barabara O'Neil's Duchesse character. Her acting isn't at fault but she is so one-dimensional. If the character was able to show us how the Duc fell in love with her at point, it would have been more intriguing to see the jealousy play out. Instead, the Duchesse is a villain through and through.
Overall, this hefty but bare-bones drama features elaborate sets and ornate costumes that make the film look costly and grand. Although nothing stands out as a defining trademark of the film aside from perhaps its excessive runtime, it is still enjoyable to watch Bette Davis care for these children.
My Score: 7/10