Editing All This, and Heaven Too

{{short description|1940 film by Anatole Litvak}}
{{about|the film|the album by Andrew Gold|All This and Heaven Too (album)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = All This, and Heaven Too
| image          = All_this_heaven_movieposter.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Anatole Litvak]]
| producer       = [[Hal B. Wallis]]<br>(executive producer)<br>[[David Lewis (producer)|David Lewis]]<br>(associate producer)
| screenplay     = [[Casey Robinson]]
| based_on       = novel by [[Rachel Field]]
| starring       = [[Bette Davis]]<br>[[Charles Boyer]]<br>[[Jeffrey Lynn]]<br>[[Barbara O'Neil]]<br>[[Virginia Weidler]]<br>[[Henry Daniell]]<br>[[Walter Hampden]]<br>[[George Coulouris]]
| music          = [[Max Steiner]]
| cinematography = [[Ernie Haller]], [[A.S.C.]]
| editing        = [[Warren Low]]
| studio         = [[A Warner Bros. – First National Picture]]<br>[[An Anatole Litvak Production]]
| distributor    = [[Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.]]
| released       = {{Film date|1940|07|04}}
| runtime        = 141 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
}}

'''''All This, and Heaven Too''''' is a 1940 American drama film released by [[Warner Bros.]]-[[First National Pictures]], produced and directed by [[Anatole Litvak]] with [[Hal B. Wallis]] as executive producer. The screenplay was adapted by [[Casey Robinson]] from the 1938 novel by [[Rachel Field]]. The music was by [[Max Steiner]] and the cinematography by [[Ernie Haller]]. The film stars [[Bette Davis]] and [[Charles Boyer]] with [[Jeffrey Lynn]], [[Barbara O'Neil]], [[Virginia Weidler]], [[Helen Westley]], [[Walter Hampden]], [[Henry Daniell]], [[Harry Davenport (actor)|Harry Davenport]], [[George Coulouris]] and [[Montagu Love]].

Field's novel is based on the true story of her great-aunt [[Henriette Deluzy-Desportes]], a French governess who fell in love with the [[Duc de Praslin]], her employer. When [[Praslin's wife]] was murdered, Deluzy-Desportes was implicated. The scandal contributed to the political turmoil before the [[French Revolution of 1848]] that deposed [[King Louis Philippe I]].<ref>{{cite web |title=All This, and Heaven Too (1940) - Articles - TCM.com |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/574/all-this-and-heaven-too#articles-reviews |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609050440/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/574/All-This-and-Heaven-Too/articles.html |archive-date=2016-06-09 |access-date=December 3, 2015 |work=Turner Classic Movies }}</ref><ref>Alexis de Tocqueville, Souvenirs, édition réalisée par Luc Monnier, Paris, Gallimard, 1942</ref>

==Plot==
[[Image:All This and Heaven Too trailer.JPG|left|thumb|Screenshot of [[Charles Boyer]] and [[Bette Davis]] from the film's original trailer]]
Mademoiselle Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, a French woman, starts teaching at an American girls school. She is confronted by the tales and gossip about her that circulate among her pupils and, thus provoked, she decides to tell them her life story.<!-- it constitutes about what fraction of the film? -->

Deluzy-Desportes is governess to the four children of the Duc and Duchesse de Praslin in Paris during the last years of the [[Orleans monarchy]]. As a result of the Duchesse's constantly erratic and temperamental behavior, all that remains is an unhappy marriage, but the Duc remains with his wife for the sake of their children.

Deluzy-Desportes, with her warmth and kindness, wins the love and affection of the children and their father, but also the jealousy and hatred of their mother. She is forced to leave and the Duchess refuses to give her a letter of recommendation to future employers. The Duc confronts his wife and she invents alternative letters taking opposite attitudes, which in fact she has not written and does not intend to write. Her account enrages him and, at the breaking point, he kills her.

The Duc de Praslin is in a privileged position; as a peer his case can only be heard by other nobles. He refuses to confess his guilt or openly to admit his love for his employee, knowing that his fellow nobles wish to use such an admission to blame her for the murder by declaring that he was acting at her bidding. Ultimately the Duc takes poison to prevent himself from ever publicly proclaiming his love for Henriette, since he knows that would convict her; however, he lives long enough to reveal it to another of his servants, Pierre, a kindly old man who had warned the governess to leave the de Praslin household. With the Duc's death, the authorities accept that they have no evidence upon which to base a judgment that Henriette solicited the murder and she is released from the [[Conciergerie]].

Deluzy-Desportes had been recommended for the teaching position "in the land of the free" by an American minister, Rev. Henry Field, to whom she had expressed a loss of faith while in prison. He proposes marriage, and it is implied that Henriette will accept.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
*[[Bette Davis]] as Henriette Deluzy-Desportes
*[[Charles Boyer]] as [[Duc de Praslin]]
*[[Jeffrey Lynn]] as Henry Martyn Field
*[[Barbara O'Neil]] as [[Duchesse de Praslin]]
*[[Virginia Weidler]] as Louise
*[[Helen Westley]] as Madame LeMaire
*[[Walter Hampden]] as Pasquier
*[[Henry Daniell]] as Broussais
*[[Harry Davenport (actor)|Harry Davenport]] as Pierre
*[[George Coulouris]] as Charpentier
*[[Montagu Love]] as [[Marechal Sebastiani]]
*[[Janet Beecher]] as Miss Haines
*[[June Lockhart]] as Isabelle
*[[Ann Todd (American actress)|Ann Todd]] as Berthe
*Richard Nichols as Raynald
*[[Fritz Leiber (actor)|Fritz Leiber]] as Abbe Gallard
*[[Ian Keith]] as [[DeLangle]]
*Sibyl Harris as Mlle. Maillard
*[[Edward Fielding]] as Dr. Louis
*[[Mary Anderson (actress, born 1918)|Mary Anderson]] as Rebecca Jay
*[[Ann Gillis]] as Emily Schuyler
*[[Peggy Stewart (actress)|Peggy Stewart]] as Helen Lexington
*[[Victor Kilian]] as Gendarme
*Mrs. Gardner Crane as Madame Gauthier
}}

==Reception==
The film was positively reviewed by critics. When the film premiered at [[Radio City Music Hall]], [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''The New York Times'' wrote that filmgoers willing to sit through the long running time "will find the film a source of much emotional satisfaction; others of less Spartan stamp will certainly protest that it wears out their patience in the telling of a comparatively uncomplicated tale. For the Warners are here handing out a tear-laden old-fashioned drama—and a very heavy one, too."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9903EEDA123EE432A25756C0A9619C946193D6CF|title=Movie Review - All This, and Heaven Too|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|author-link=Bosley Crowther|date=July 5, 1940|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=December 2, 2015}}</ref>

''Variety'' called it "film theatre at its best...Casey Robinson in the scripting captured the quaintness of the manners and customs of Paris, in 1848, and succeeded admirably in retaining both spirit and characters of the novel, despite the necessity for much deletion of material."<ref>{{cite magazine|date=June 12, 1940|title=All This, and Heaven Too|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|location=New York|publisher=Variety, Inc.|page=14}}</ref> ''[[Film Daily]]'''s headline announced: "Dramatically powerful, beautifully mounted and superbly cast; film should be one of year's strongest box-office attractions."<ref>{{cite journal|date=June 17, 1940|title=Reviews of the New Films|journal=[[Film Daily]]|location=New York|publisher=Wid's Films and Folk Folk, Inc.|page=13}}</ref> ''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' wrote: "A powerful drama, with a strong appeal for women. The production is lavish, and the direction and performances are of the highest order."<ref>{{cite journal|date=June 22, 1940|title=''All This, and Heaven Too'' with Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn and Barbara O'Neil|journal=[[Harrison's Reports]]|page=98}}</ref> [[John Mosher (writer)|John Mosher]] of ''The New Yorker'' wrote that Litvak had swung the viewer into the historical setting "with all the romantic, profuse gusto at his command. I think a few of the scenes of governess and children might have been elided, for, with the sinister doings in the background, we can't forever sustain a nursery mood. In general, though, the long picture seems short, which, of course, is something very much in its favor."<ref>{{cite magazine|date=July 6, 1940|title=The Current Cinema|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|location=New York|publisher=F-R Publishing Corp.|page=46}}</ref>

''All This, and Heaven Too'' placed fifth on ''Film Daily'''s year-end nationwide poll of 546 critics naming the best films of 1940.<ref>{{cite journal|date=January 14, 1941|title='Rebecca' wins Critics' Poll|journal=[[Film Daily]]|location=New York|publisher=Wid's Films and Folk Folk, Inc.|page=1}}</ref> The film is considered to be a successful but expensive costume drama.<ref>Glancy, H. Mark. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080217064844/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2584/is_n1_v15/ai_16922275/pg_8 "Warner Bros film grosses, 1921-51"], ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'' (March 1995); accessed December 16, 2015.</ref>

==Accolades==
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| rowspan="3"| [[13th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]
| [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Outstanding Production]]
| [[Jack L. Warner]], [[Hal B. Wallis]], and [[David Lewis (producer)|David Lewis]] (for [[Warner Bros.]])
| {{nom}}
| align="center" rowspan="3"| <ref name="Oscars1941">{{cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1941|title=The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners|access-date=June 19, 2013|publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|archive-date=March 3, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303110034/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/13th-winners.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]]
| [[Barbara O'Neil]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography – Black and White]]
| [[Ernest Haller]]
| {{nom}}
|}

==Home media==
On April 1, 2008, [[Warner Home Video]] released the film as part of the box set ''The Bette Davis Collection, Volume 3''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|All This, and Heaven Too (film)}}
* {{IMDb title|0032194|All This, and Heaven Too}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=574}}
* {{AFI film|id=5055|title=All This, and Heaven Too}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|all_this_and_heaven_too|All This, and Heaven Too}}

{{Anatole Litvak}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:All This, And Heaven Too}}
[[Category:1940 films]]
[[Category:1940 romantic drama films]]
[[Category:American romantic drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Max Steiner]]
[[Category:Films directed by Anatole Litvak]]
[[Category:Films set in Paris]]
[[Category:Films set in the United States]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1840s]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. films]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Drama films based on actual events]]
[[Category:Films produced by Hal B. Wallis]]
[[Category:1940s American films]]
[[Category:English-language romantic drama films]]