The Nanny is a 1965 British psychological horror thriller film directed by Seth Holt, and starring Bette Davis, Wendy Craig and Jill Bennett.

[2] It was written by Jimmy Sangster based on the novel of the same title by Evelyn Piper (a pseudonym for Merriam Modell) and was scored by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Joey spends two years at a school for emotionally disturbed children after being blamed for drowning his younger sister Susy.

The school's headmaster informs Joey's father, Bill, that his son harbours an intense dislike of middle-aged women.

Joey's rude behaviour upsets his neurotic mother, Virginia, who is prone to melancholy and crying spells, still grieving over the death of Susy.

Joey persuades Bobbie Medman, the 14 year old daughter of a doctor who is living in the flat above to witness a prank to frighten Nanny.

Nanny arrived back and sees Joey playing she enters the bathroom and absentmindedly turns on the taps by reaching through the closed shower curtain without looking inside.

Dr Medman visits Virginia's hospital room and explains that Nanny is mentally ill and will receive long-term care.

That, at least, is what one presumes is her fate at the conclusion of The Nanny; but the film ends on something of a dying fall, fading quietly away just as we expect to see Miss Davis in full maniac stride.

Perhaps everyone felt that enough was enough; and this Hammer Horror is in fact so muted that one feels there may have been a certain tentativeness about tackling a subject which plays with only two possibilities – monster child or trusted nanny as psychopathic case-histories.

Whether feeding ducks in the park, preparing goodies for the outrageous Joey to reject, or explaining patiently to the dying Aunt Pen that of course she can't possibly give her the medicine, Bette Davis maintains the sweetly-smiling confidence of someone who knows that she is the most rational member of the household.

... Seth Holt's direction works best when tensions are being established – the edgy opening, for instance, with husband and wife fighting behind half-closed doors, Joey discovered in appalling misdeeds at the school, and Nanny beamingly serving a dinner nobody eats.

The result is a mixture of non-horrific horror film and half-cock psychological exercise – watchable on both levels, not ape working on either, and with the confusions seeming to spring from the way the novel has been toned down in the script.

Apart from Miss Davis, there's a performance of remarkable surly aplomb by 10-year-old William Dix, who seems almost alarmingly in control of his situation.

Despite valiant work from Davis and director Seth Holt, the narrative weaknesses and the general unpleasantness of the piece spoil what could have been an interesting addition to the genre.

"[6] Leslie Halliwell said: "Muted Hammer experiment in psychopathology, with too much equivocation before the dénouement; the star's role allows few fireworks, and the plot is rather unpleasant.