Rachel Field penned the novel All This and Heaven Too based on the true story of her great-aunt, Henriette Deluzy-Desportes. While this novel is not her most famous work, it is an important part of her overall bibliography and remains one of her most personal works. The novel was published in 1938, just a few years before her premature death from pneumonia after an operation. Her family history lives on in this wonderful book and the Oscar-nominated film that spawned from it. The scandal that came out of the events in her great-aunt’s life as described in the novel contributed to the political unrest before the French Revolution of 1948, a turmoil that resulted in deposing King Louis Philippe I. Very little of that part of the story makes it into the film, aside from an oddly featured political twist in the final half hour. Instead, the movie chooses primarily to focus on the relationship between Henriette (Bette Davis) and Duc de Praslin (Charles Boyer) and how much Henriette’s presence, through no fault of her own, affected an already strained household.
The film opens up after the events of the film proper. Henriette has been hired to teach in a school in America, but word has gotten to her students that she has spent some time in a French prison, and the gossip that ensues initially pushes her to want to quit her job. Instead, she decides to confront it head-on by telling her students the entire story about why she was in prison. This scene offers us a bit of intrigue on where this film may be going without outright spoiling it. This bit of structure, though, feels tacked on, lacking a scene at the end of the film to bookend it. Without that final scene, it feels more like this opening was filmed and added on later to increase early interest with audiences. In that way, it does its job because the beginning of this film, after the added on opening, meanders for quite some time. It’s never boring, but it does take far too long to get anywhere in the plot. This will ultimately be a problem for a large percentage of the film overall; it’s basically a ninety-minute story expanded to nearly two and a half hours.
The problems for Henrietta begin when she takes a job as governess for Duc de Praslin and his wife, the Duchesse (Barbara O’Neil). As Henrietta approaches the house to be interviewed for the position, she is warned away from even entering the house but dismisses those warnings. Her meeting with the Duc and Duchesse is cordial enough, but there is a tone of coldness that radiates from the Duchesse. This tone is not isolated to this first meeting, either. The Duchesse is erratic and temperamental, leaving her marriage to the Duc unhappy and strained; he stays with her for the sake of their four children, only.
The kids, Louise (Virginia Weilder), Isabelle (June Lockhart), Berthe (Ann Todd), and Raynald (Richard Nichols), have gotten used to the lack of affection from their mother, so when Henrietta comes to them with warmth and affection, showing genuine care for their well-being, they warm up to her immediately and strongly prefer her company to their mother’s. This leads to jealousy from the Duchesse, who begins to accuse Henrietta of trying to steal her family away from her. The toxic environment builds up the longer Henrietta works for them, and the Duchesse grows more and more venomous and spiteful. Eventually, Henrietta is dismissed by her and cannot find work elsewhere because the Duchesse refuses to provide a letter of recommendation. The Duc, who remains unaware of the level of spite his wife is showing, visits Henrietta with his children as often as he can, further incensing his wife.
The story here is rather thin for the amount of screen time it has been allotted. Yet much of the plot of the book has been excised to fit it into the format of a feature film. I have not read the book and don’t know what has been clipped out for the sake of the movie but feel that there are many drawn out scenes that could have been tightened up to allow for a more dense and interesting plot to be filmed. As it stands, while the movie is never dull, there are way too many moments where it lingers excessively, drawing out the runtime for far too long.
Making things even worse is that the story doesn’t have a satisfactory ending. True, this is based on a true story and thus is trying to stay true to the events as told in the novel. But that doesn’t mean it makes for a compelling conclusion on film. Henrietta spends some time in prison being badgered to confess to being involved in a serious crime. Meanwhile, the Duc is dying slowly by his own hand and refusing to exonerate Henrietta for the crime that he committed alone. Eventually, she is freed from her prison, not from some dramatic showdown in court or some surprising evidence discovered at the last minute. Instead, after all that time, she is simply let go for lack of evidence. It’s simply not cinematic, even if it is historically accurate.
This film was made around the time Bette Davis was pushing heavily for an Academy Award. She would be nominated in five consecutive years from 1938-1942. While she did get a nomination this year, it was not for All This, and Heaven Too. Instead, she was nominated for The Letter, a crime drama directed by William Wyler that was competing with this film for the best picture category. I haven’t seen that film yet and cannot comment on her performance there. In All This, and Heaven Too, she is just okay. She spends much of the film looking sad, concerned, or scared. It doesn’t showcase her range very well. She may have been swinging for the fences, hoping for another nomination, but in this case, it was a miss. The same goes for Charles Boyer, who just looks lost and ineffectual throughout the entire production. The only performer who truly nails their role is Barbara O’Neill, who is deliciously nasty in a scenery-chewing performance that simply must be seen.
All This, and Heaven Too is too slavishly devoted to the real events to make for much of a compelling story. I always say “Never learn history from the movies,” and there is a reason I say that. To make a compelling film, it usually requires quite a bit of embellishment to make it cinematic. That wasn’t done in this case, and because of that, the film is slow and lacks any real excitement. It’s not boring, but it’s not compelling, either. It takes far too long to get to anything exciting, and when it finally does, it’s over quickly and back to the meandering pacing. The best part of the film is the four children whose energy is sorely missing whenever they are off screen. I went into this one with high expectations based on my experience with other Bette Davis films, but this one didn’t quite live up to her usual standards at this point in her career. She has done other, better work around this time that is more worth checking out than this.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis, and David Lewis
Best Supporting Actress: Barbara O’Neil
Best Cinematography - Black-and-White: Ernest Haller
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Release Date: July 4, 1940
Running Time: 141 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn, Barbara O’Neil, Virginia Weidler, Henry Daniell, Walter Hampden, and George Coulouris
Directed By: Anatole Litvak
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