When Bette arrives for the first time, Pierre tells her she'll be sorry if she takes the job and that bad things have been happening.
Are we to assume that the Duc has been carrying on with previous employees and that the wife was justified in being jealous?
I can't claim to speak on the behalf of the screenwriters but I don't think that was the intention. In real life (according to historical publications) the Duchesse de Praslin was indeed a bit of demented mess as portrayed in the movie, but contrary to the neat and well-dressed character we see on the screen, was unkempt and dishevelled when not presented to the public.
I can only speculate too but I think Pierre's warning related to the fact that any governess would have her hands full caring for four kids (in reality there were ten kids!) in a house void of love and full of distrust.
Previous governesses probably didn't last long.
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Sorry, "a house void of love" is perhaps an simplification - the duchesse adored her husband in real life, but her behaviour - whatever the cause - alienated him and her children. There was love, just not the healthy, sustainable kind of love. His coldness towards her in later years probably sent her over the edge.
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Thank you for your posts.
I have another question: The Duc seemed uncomfortable/embarrassed when he introduced his son, mentioning pointedly that the boy was so much younger than his sisters. What are we to infer from that? Was the Duc perhaps not the father? Or maybe, since there were really ten children, it didn't mean anything.
Yes, that was a very odd remark, and I really don't know what to make of that. The youngest daughter didn't look much older than young Reynald, and I don't have a trained eye for this but the kids all appeared like they were born about 2 to 3 years apart. I'm sure the producers wanted that line in the script for a good reason, but I'm not sure why. Hopefully someone else will pick up on this thread and answer properly - I'm also curious now!
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Yes, it was confusing since there wasn't a noticeable age difference between the boy and his next sister. But wasn't Charles Boyer great?!
shareYep, he was. These kind of movies are quite risky to produce, I think, because the success hinges much on the lead actors' performances. In this case, I tip my hat to what Boyer & Davis managed to do, for sure!
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I thought the comment about "some years later" suggested that the Duc and Duchesse had not been sexually active with each other (to hint to the viewer that they were not as in love (at least from the Duc's perspective) as they had been. "Some years later" as someone else pointed out, seems to almost indicate the Duc (although he obviously loves his son dearly) had a lapse in judgement that led to the conception of the child, and it could be that the conception of Reynald was the LAST time the Duc and Duchesse were intimate. Perhaps even the only reason the Duc engaged in the act at all with the woman is possibly because he wanted a son?
Either that or the comment is to point out that the Duchesse took several years to concieve with Reynald as she is no longer as 'young' or 'fertile' as the once was (for artistic reasons, probably explaining why there are only four children in the house, not the nine or ten they apparently did have). Apparently the Duchesse was 40 at the time of her death. This would serve to make the appeal of Henriette (much younger, considered more beautiful, and probably much more fertile) all the more appealing maybe.
Who knows. I think it's just a comment as to how reluctant he'd been to having carnal relationships with the woman who was evidently madder than a bag of badgers.
Also Pierre's warning seemed to suggest that the two had a very volatile marriage anyway and that perhaps the Duc did have a 'wandering eye'.
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We've become a race of peeping toms.
A clue would be in a conversation between the Duke and Henriette where he mentions "cold embers". That indicated to me a momentary lapse in judgment, i.e. general horniness.
This makes me more regretful that the director's original version of the film doesn't exist somewhere in somebody's long-forgotten archives. Perhaps a clear explanation is there. I wish directors would have saved a copy of their films before studio heads got their way with them. How much richer our American film legacy would be!
I'm watching on TCM on demand for the second time. I enjoyed it so much, and am not Bette fan, that I'm watching a second time because I have habit of looking here while watching, which distracts key scenes. For a large amount of time the words have been coming out of actors' mouths both before or after lips move.
I've never seen this happen so often on anything on TCM, either watching as its on or on demand.
I think it was in reference to the fact that Fanny was insanely jealous and had made horrible scenes with the previous governesses.
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