"The Nanny" probably just started out as an attempt to cash in on the immense success of lead actress Bette Davis (who starred in "Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" the previous years) and – who knows - maybe even the profitable concept of "Mary Poppins", since that classic also revolved on the nanny/children relationship; albeit a much happier and cheerful one. By no means, however, this means that "The Nanny" is an inferior thriller production. Quite the contrary, this is a hugely atmospheric and very suspenseful pot-boiler and perhaps even one of Hammer's most underrated efforts ever. The legendary British horror studio is mainly known for its grueling takes on classic monster stories ("Dracula", "Frankenstein"…) and stupendous Sci-Fi movies (the "Quatermass" trilogy),but they were also responsible for several gore-free but spirited and story-driven psychological thrillers with a film-noir type of atmosphere, and "The Nanny" is unquestionably one of the highlights in this often overlooked sub category alongside "Hysteria" and "Paranoiac".

Our lead actress, with her uniquely creepy charisma and eyes that were sung about specifically (Bette Davis Eyes – Bette Davis' Eyes),stars as an exaggeratedly polite and overly dedicated nanny in a household full of neurotic outcasts. Mommy is an emotional wreck since the death of her cherubic daughter; daddy is a senseless prick who's never there when needed and ten-year-old son Joey just left a mental institution because he's suspected of drowning his sister. Joey hates Nanny with a passion, claims she killed little Suzy and now openly accuses her of wanting to do the same to him. No matter how patient and loving she tries to be, Joey's behavior grows increasingly aggressive and uncontrollable. Admittedly no one, not even the most inexperienced and/or unintelligent horror viewer, will have much trouble figuring out what's really going on quite early in the film already, but Hammer veterans Seth Holt ("Taste of Fear") and Jimmy Sangster ("Fear in the Night") nevertheless maintain the tension level high and the delivers the chills on a very regular basis. It's a slow-paced but non-stop ominous film, with the photography in good old black & white – which always adds to the atmosphere – and a truly depressing depiction of certain uptight British social classes. It's praiseworthy how, even though the denouement is transparent from the beginning, Holt and Sangster still manage to occasionally make you wonder who speaks the truth: the little boy who acts like Dennis The Menace on acid and simply asks for a thorough spanking … or the stoically cold but unimpeachable nanny? Davis is sublime, but young actor William Dix definitely doesn't have to yield to her persona as he gives away a marvelous performance. It even is truly incomprehensible and unfortunate that he just appeared in only one more movie after this.

Frankly, this movie surprised me. That's because apart from Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Davis' career was definitely in the dumps by the 1960s and never really extricated itself from 2nd (or 3rd)-rate status. She obviously loved acting and reportedly needed the money, so Ms. Davis appeared in a dreadful string of movies that were frankly beneath her abilities. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this little movie was as good as it was--with excellent acting and writing throughout--and a generous helping of creepiness thrown in to boot. As I said, this is a "little" film as its only real star is Davis and it just shows that a small budget does not mean the movie is second-rate.

The story involves a nanny who had worked in a home with two kids. Tragedy struck when one of the children accidentally drowns. The story begins some time after, when the surviving child is now terrified of being around the nanny alone.

Although she did have other and good roles in her last three decades, it seems that after Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Bette Davis was forever trapped in the horror/fright genre where all good actresses of the studio era seemed to gravitate. No one gravitated more than Bette Davis.

Hammer Film, British horror specialists signed Davis for The Nanny. It's the day of the arrival home of William Dix the young son of James Villiers and Wendy Craig. It seems as though a few years back young Dix drowned his sister in a bathtub. He swears that it was The Nanny who did it. But everyone took Davis's word over a child. I'm also not understanding why if one kid was dead and one was in a psychiatric facility there was a need to keep a Nanny employed.

Why Dix was let out is a mystery to me since he was completely incorrigible in his incarceration. Maybe they needed bed space. When he gets home Dix really acts out hostility toward Davis.

What did happen to the little sister? There are as Catholic doctrine tells us sins of omission and sins of commission. Davis was guilty of a sin of omission but the results were fatal.

The fright part of this is that you never know until the end what really happened and just how to parse out the guilt. The Nanny is an all right piece of fright work from Hammer. It will never be rated as a top Bette Davis film.