The Anniversary

A black comedy set in one English house. Mrs Taggart owns a building firm. Her husband died years ago and she celebrates their wedding anniversary every year. She has three sons. All three have to come. She has one eye. She wears a glass one in the other socket and changes its colour to match her clothes. Dinner begins. From there the film consists of a single evening. A sitting room, a table, a few bedrooms. Henry steals underwear. His mother knows and tells the table. Terry has come with his wife and children. He wants to leave the family and go to Canada and is trying to say so. Tom has brought his fiancée. Shirley is pregnant and learns over the course of the evening that she should not have come. The woman takes each of them apart in turn. She knows their secrets, she knows the timing, and she picks the worst moment every time. What the narrative is interested in is not family but power: its idea is what love turns into once money and information are gathered in one person. Shirley is the only one who fights back. The real tension is built between the two of them. The source is Bill MacIlwraith's stage play and the structure hides it not at all: one location, long speeches, entrances and exits. Bette Davis plays the part broadly and the film uses that not as a fault but as its own register. The shoot began in conflict. The first director, Alvin Rakoff, was dismissed after a week at Davis's request; Roy Ward Baker took over on condition he could start from scratch. According to the producer Jimmy Sangster, a studio executive closed the matter in one sentence: it is a Bette Davis film. The production carries the Hammer name and is one of the studio's non-horror pictures. Bette Davis, Sheila Hancock, Jack Hedley, James Cossins and Elaine Taylor are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes black humour and stage adaptations set in one place. Who it is not for: anyone expecting subtlety; the narrative is pitched high and not one of the characters is likeable.