Diary Of A Chambermaid (1946)

In late 19th century France, a young woman (Paulette Goddard) is hired as a chambermaid by an old conservative aristocratic family. The mistress of the house (Judith Anderson) grooms her as a paramour for her sickly son (Hurd Hatfield, PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY). Very loosely based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau, director Jean Renoir serves up a buffet of eccentric off balanced characters, both amusing and creepy, in this moderately entertaining effort. Goddard was never very interesting as an actress but Renoir uses her impudent sexiness to good advantage here. The film was produced by Goddard's then husband Burgess Meredith who plays the old lech neighbor and competes with Francis Lederer for the film's worst performance. Meredith wins by default as Lederer's performance is merely incompetent as opposed to Meredith's shameless ham. It's actually quite enjoyable despite my misgivings. Remade in 1964 by Luis Bunuel with much darker undertones. Also in the cast: Florence Bates, Reginald Owen and Irene Ryan (THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES).