Review #906: All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

Title: All This, and Heaven Too
Year: 1940
Director: Anatole Litvak
Country: US
Language: English

Adjusting for inflation, Victor Fleming's 1939 adaptation of Gone With the Wind is the highest grossing film of all time. So critically and commercially successful was it that a tremendous amount of imitators came out of the woods in subsequent years. One of these imitators was All This, and Heaven Too, a multi-million dollar Warner Bros. venture based on Rachel Field's popular epic romantic novel. 

When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy (Bette Davis) comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin (Charles Boyer), a royal subject to King Louis-Philippe and the husband of the volatile and obsessive Duchesse de Praslin (Barbara O'Neil), she instantly incurs the wrath of her mistress, who is insanely jealous of anyone who comes near her estranged husband.

Rachel Field's novel, and thus this film, is based on a true story. It was a real life scandal that brought down France's King Louis-Phillipe in 1848. Behind the scenes All This, and Heaven Too was also a tabloid field day, as Davis was reteamed with with director Anatole Litvak, a man she’d infamously had an affair with while he was married to Miriam Hopkins. 

The script is fairly unique for the time, because instead of lambasting the subject of divorce and marriages on the verge of collapse and making the characters out to be demonized, we simply see selfish people making decisions they presume to be for the best. It's a rather objective view on marriage that doesn't fall victim to the presumed morality of the Hays Code at the time. The film reminds me of Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives in the way it depicts crumbling relationships, albeit its grand costume and set design certainly make it a melodramatic epic. 

All This, and Heaven Too is a decent melodrama that should serve as an entertaining period piece. Everything is technically well made, and the acting by Davis is, well, pretty great. Filmed as a three hour epic, and then condensed to just over 2hours, the only negative thing I can say about this film is that it's a bit unevenly paced. The beginning and middle are slow and brooding, slowly bringing the plot to a nice boil, and the last 20 minutes feel sloppy and rushed. Much of the dialogue and shots at this point feel very out of place. Regardless it is worthy of a view.