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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 4, No. 1 March 12, 1941

[Introduction]

At first glance "All This and Heaven Too" might seem interesting chiefly as showing how the really fine acting of Charles Boyer and Bette Davis can save from tediousness, the spectacle of the due de Praslin, his governess and his insanely jealous wife being frustrated over some 13,000 feet of film.

But the theme and its handling are really profoundly significant—just how significant we can realize only when we remember that the film is the work of Warner Bros, who have in the past achieved a well-deserved reputation for the progressive and socially relevant character of their productions. For throughout this film the attitude of the two principal characters becomes increasingly one of hopelessness and surrender in the face of feudal conventions. Finally Praslin breaks under the strain and in a spasm of blind violence murders his wife. Subsequent to which the two lovers leave France—Praslin for Heaven with strychnine, the governess for the United States with a Yankee parson.