All This And Heaven Too (1940)

A young governess (Bette Davis) finds a position in the home of an aristocratic family. When she and the nobleman (Charles Boyer) are drawn to each other, his neurotic wife (Barbara O'Neil in an Oscar nominated performance) erupts in fury ..... and meets a bloody fate. Based on the best selling fact based novel by Rachel Field and directed by Anatole Litvak (THE SNAKE PIT). The film was well received by both critics and audiences but I don't think it holds up well today. Two and a half hours are too long (though apparently the film leaves a lot of the book out) for a stuffy melodrama of unrequited love. I disliked the maudlin framing of the story (told in flashback) and there's a decided lack of chemistry between Davis and Boyer. The movie looks authentic with its 1846 Paris setting with art direction by Carl Jules Weyl and costumes by Orry Kelly and it's a Davis performance worth watching. The forgettable underscore is by Max Steiner. With June Lockhart, Jeffrey Lynn, Virginia Weidler, Henry Daniell, George Coulouris and Harry Davenport.