Was It Really Murder?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Was It Really Murder? |
| Original title | The nanny |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Seth Holt |
| script | Jimmy Sangster |
| production | Jimmy Sangster |
| music | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| camera | Harry Waxman |
| cut | Tom Simpson |
| occupation | |
| |
Was It Really Murder? (Original title: The Nanny ) is a thriller by Seth Holt from 1965 . The film is based on the novel The Nanny by Evelyn Piper aka Merriam Modell . The film had its German premiere on June 25, 1966.
action
Little Joey is blamed for the death of his sister Susie and is admitted to a psychiatric facility for two years. The film begins when Joey returns home. His mother Virginia has not yet processed the past events and does not pick up her son. Only Joey's father and nanny drive to the facility. This is where Joey's dislike of his nanny becomes apparent for the first time when he doesn't want to sit next to her in the car.
Back home, Joey refuses to move into Nanny's newly decorated room; he also refuses to eat food cooked by Nanny, fearing that she will poison him. Before Joey goes into the bathroom, Nanny always has to swear not to enter it in the meantime. Joey fears that Nanny might drown him in the bathtub there. Joey's father has to go on a business trip in the meantime, leaving Virginia, Nanny and Joey alone in the house. When Nanny cooks again the next day, only Joey's mother eats of the food. She suffers food poisoning and has to go to the hospital. Medicines that have been stirred into the food are found under Joey's pillows. Due to these circumstances, Aunt Pen temporarily moves in with Joey and Nanny.
Meanwhile, Joey finds a listener at the neighbor's daughter Bobby, who believes that Nanny killed his sister and poisoned his mother. According to him, Nanny drowned her sister in the bathtub after falling in it while playing. Together with Bobby, he also plays a prank on Nanny by placing a doll that looks like his sister in the water-filled bathtub.
Joey's Aunt Pen has a weak heart. Pen wakes up at night and wants to go into the kitchen to make tea. She discovers Nanny standing in front of Joey's room with a pillow. She realizes that Nanny is actually trying to kill Joey. When she reveals her suspicions to Nanny, she has a heart attack . Nanny refuses to give her the medication. While Pen is dying, Nanny tells her the real story. On the day of Susi's death, Nanny was out because she had received a call from a doctor. Nanny's own daughter, whom she had never cared about, had died. When the two children are at home alone in the meantime, Susie falls into the bathtub while playing and hits her head. When Nanny comes back, she wants to bathe the children and lets water in the bathtub without noticing the motionless Susie. When the mentally confused nanny realizes the situation a short time later, it is too late and she decides to frame the crime on Joey.
After Pen dies, Nanny tries again to get into Joey's room with the pillow, but Joey has barricaded himself. She still manages to get in and get Joey into the bathroom; but she doesn't manage to drown him there, and Joey manages to escape.
In the final scene, a doctor tells Joey's mother that her son was right, and she gives her son a hug.
background
The film was produced by the British film studio Hammer Films . Greer Garson was originally intended to play the role of nanny . However, Garson feared that the film might not benefit her career and turned it down. This is how Bette Davis got the job.
criticism
"Psychological thriller, which is largely entertaining with its audience-effective and well-staged story."
"The Hammer film production comes along with subtle horror and an oppressively good Davis, behind whose gentleness there is an abysmal lurking."
“Although the psychological drawing of the characters is not entirely convincing, the well-groomed, albeit sometimes with nonsensical finesse, director knows how to create tension in places. Unfortunately the end failed. Suitable for friends of the crime film, provided they are at least 18 years old. "
Web links
- Was It Really Murder? in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chandler: Bette Davis - The personal biography. 2008, pp. 305-306.
- ↑ Was it really murder? In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ [1] Review of Was It Really Murder? in the TV feature film
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 238/1966