The Anniversary

* out of ****

There is a lot to admire about The Anniversary. The cast is superb (particularly Bette Davis and James Cossins), the dialogue is witty and intelligent, and the film itself is often very humorous. But it is also mean-spirited, pessimistic, and ultimately tries to develop its biggest laughs at the expense of human misery. All this would be fine if it was actually about something—if it had used this nearly unbearable unpleasantness to make some type of point. After all, life sucks and then you die; why not go down chuckling at the irony of it all? But there is a significant difference between chuckling at life’s hardships and chuckling at someone’s hardships at their expense. The Anniversary is ultimately about cruelty, about sorrow, about making light comedy out of humans controlling one another. The film was produced by Hammer Studios, that famous British company that specialized in horror films, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a Hammer horror film with a meaner spirit than this movie.

Bette Davis plays Mrs. Taggert, a widow with three sons who she relishes in controlling and keeping close to her at all times. Davis, of course, is famous for her terrifying role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, another film about her obsessive control over family members. She plays Mrs. Taggert as a variation of Jane—perhaps what she would have been like if she had never been a child actress and still led a bitter, aristocratic life. Sporting a shiny eye-patch and a bite that would make Groucho Marx break down in tears, she obsesses over her late husband and demands that her sons and their families come every year to celebrate their anniversary. Her sons, who all work for a contracting business founded by their mother, are quick to verbally assault her when she is not around, but are submissive, shy, and terrified of her when they stand in her frail but glaring presence.

These sons are interesting case studies themselves. The eldest is Henry (James Cossins), a soft-spoken chap who never got married, still lives at home, and likes to wear women’s underwear. Terry (Jack Hedley) is the middle child, a soft-spoke man who doesn’t much like conflict. He is married to the more outspoken Karen (Sheila Hancock), who despises her mother-in-law and is trying to convince her husband to move away from Canada to escape Mrs. Taggert’s grasp. The youngest son is Tom (Christian Roberts). He is an untamed, rebellious chap who has brought his pregnant fiancé Shirley (Elaine Taylor) to his mother’s house. Shirley finds Tom’s zest for life wildly attractive, until she sees the knee-knocking fear that Mrs. Taggert instills in him, and tries to instill in her.

These characters are all introduced in some cleverly-written scenes (Shirley finds Henry in a closet trying on her underwear, and he compliments her choice in knickers). They soon are all waiting in the lobby of Mrs. Taggert’s house, who is first seen descending down a long flight of stairs a la Sunset Boulevard. As soon as she enters the scene, the film turns into a battle of wits between the three women as they combat for power over the three sons.

At first, we are charmed at Mrs. Taggert’s biting wit and sarcasm and the women’s attempts to bite her back, because we are amused at the intelligence contained in these characters. We recognize Shirley and Karen as the protagonists, engaging in a fierce verbal war with the villain, the mother of their husbands. Meanwhile, the men stand in the background with their mouths open, not sure which party to be more terrified of. Of course, we want to see them all outfox Mrs. Taggert, and, when she outfoxes them back, to watch them double their efforts and make a comeback.

The entire film becomes an exercise in one-upmanship, with both parties constantly trying to outlast each other in their verbal attacks, each one trying to prove to be more intelligent than the other. We quickly come to learn, however, that no matter how much these characters hurl insults at one another, there will be no outfoxing Mrs. Taggert: She remains calm, collected, and always one step ahead of them. The film quickly becomes a screaming match in which Shirley and Karen attack Mrs. Taggert for being a bad mother, a controlling manipulator, etc., and she responds back by intimidation and hurting comments, making fun of the women’s sensitive and personal struggles and questioning their loyalty to her sons.

All this is cleverly written, but what is it saying? Is it really acceptable to make a movie about a bitter old woman terrorizing her sons and making their lives miserable by verbally assaulting their loved ones? Of course it is, if it is handled well and is actually about something. But this film is about nothing, except poking fun at people’s sad, pathetic lives. It’s like making a light comedy about the Holocaust, from the Hitler’s point of view. Could anything possibly be more offensive?

We must also ask: When we laugh at Mrs. Taggert’s witty comebacks to these women, aren’t we essentially no better than she is? At one point, pregnant Shirley is so distraught at Mrs. Taggert that she nearly has a miscarriage, and Mrs. Taggert’s biting sarcasm continues to abide, and we are supposed to laugh at it. Very funny, no? No.

The only scenes that conjure up any good, honest laughs are the ones with James Cossins dealing with his cross-dressing tendencies. I have always admired Cossins as a comedic actor; he is able to play a straight man against slapstick with a deadpan honesty that always rings completely true (see the episode “The Hotel Inspectors” of Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese). Here, he steals women’s underwear from clothespins in the night, and his exploits generate some sincere laughs, at least before Mrs. Taggert uses his fetish as a tool for intimidation later on. I’ve always thought that Cossins deserved an Oscar nomination for his work in The Anniversary, if for no other reason than his ability to stand his ground as an actor against the demonic Davis, despite his playing a quite, soft-spoken role. In the end, Cossins is the only pleasant element in a very depressing movie.

I don’t know. Perhaps I would have admired the film more if someone had stated the total obvious: Mrs. Taggert is a co-dependent leech who convinces her sons they need her to survive, when it is really the other way around—she needs them. The reason she intimidates them, makes them fear her, and tries to alienate them from their wives/fiancés is because she is completely helpless without Henry, Terry, and Tom around her. Intimidation and control are her defense mechanisms to keep them close to her at all times. If Karen and Shirley ever used this obvious fact as a psychological attack instead of constantly pointing out to Mrs. Taggert the wrongs of her methods, this could have been quite a movie. But The Anniversary is clearly on Mrs. Taggert’s side, and the women never see what is so apparent to the viewer. Thus, the movie is essentially one long, drawn out screaming match, and nothing is settled or resolved. In the end, Mrs. Taggert is still in control, and she still playing her intimidation game. She has not been affected or challenged at all, she has one-upped the others, and the movie has only been about watching her personal triumph through emotionally destroying her family. Ha ha.

Cast:
Bette Davis: Mrs. Taggert
James Cossins: Henry Taggert
Sheila Hancock: Karen Taggert
Jack Hedley: Terry Taggert
Christian Roberts: Tom Taggert
Elaine Taylor: Shirley Blair

20 th Century Fox presents a film by Hammer Studios and Seven Arts Production. Directed by Roy Ward Baker. Written by Jimmy Sangster, from the play by Bill MacIlwraith. No M.P.A.A.A rating, but around PG for brief sexuality and innuendoes (keep also in mind that children would probably find it boring and unpleasant). Running time: 95 minutes. Original United States theatrical release date: February 7, 1968.