Product Details

• Actors: Bette Davis, Sheila Hancock, Jack Hedley, James Cossins, Christian Roberts
• Directors: Roy Ward Baker
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: April 4, 2006
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EBGF86
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,485 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Anniversary" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

The legendary Bette Davis stars as Mrs. Taggart, a venomous one-eyed matriarch who — despite her husband being long dead — demands her three grown sons gather for her 40th anniversary. Eldest Henry is a mild-mannered cross-dresser; middle child Terry is a henpecked weakling; and carefree youngest son Thomas arrives with his pregnant fiancée. But this bumpy night has only just begun, as family secrets will be revealed, cruel insults hurled, and frilly underwear stolen. Even if the siblings can survive the festivities unscathed, does the biggest mother of them all have a shocking final surprise for everyone? Christian Roberts (TO SIR, WITH LOVE) and Sheila Hancock co-star in this deranged black comedy written and produced by Jimmy Sangster (THE NANNY, WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?) and directed by Roy Ward Baker (DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER) that Bette Davis fans still call one of her most outrageous performances ever!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MOMMY DEAREST...SHE LOVES THEM...SHE LOVES THEM NOT..., January 20, 2002

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Anniversary [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a surprisingly deft black comedy with Bette Davis at her most wicked. The screenplay by Jimmy Sancster, which is adapted from a play written by Bill MacIlwraith, retains the flavor of a stage play.

Bette Davis plays the role of Mrs. Taggart, the wealthy, flamboyant, one eyed, matriarchal head of a family of three grown sons, all of whom kowtow to her every whim. She knows all their weak points and uses her knowledge to check mate them and head them off at the pass, should they get any ideas about getting out from under her thumb.

Though her despised husband has been dead for ten years, she still celibrates her wedding anniversary by having her three sons home for a celebration, and a motley crew they are, indeed. When they show up this year for the anniversary celebration, however, they decide to shake up old mom by making a break for freedom from her rule. Trust me, this will cost them dearly.

Bette Davis is outrageous and lights up the screen, as she hams it up delightedly. The dialogue is rapier sharp and brilliantly witty, allowing Ms. Davis to dazzle as she chews up the scenery. Looking every inch the fabulous doyenne that she is, she wears an eye patch color coordinated to match every one of her colorful outfits.

This is an entertaining black comedy that all Bette Davis fans will, undoubtedly, enjoy.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate camp classic., February 2, 2000

By 

Matthew McWilliams - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anniversary [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you want to see Bette at her most outrageous and flamboyant, you've come to the right place! Here she plays the diabolical Mrs Taggart who, hands down, would win the "Most Dominating & Manipulative Mother" award. She has three sons, one a transvestite, one a coward, and one (a little harder to control) with a new fiance to whom Davis requests: "Would you mind sitting elsewhere? Body odour offends me". Davis looks like she has a field day playing the part, as most viewers will have watching the film. The film is chock full of good lines. Eg: To the cross-dressing Henry: "Wouldn't you like to get help, to stop being a pervert?" to which he replies "I like being one". The film is a full-scale opera of black humour, devious cunning, manipulation and aggression. What more could you want?

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Entertaining Black Comedy With Bette Davis At Her Monstrous Best, June 15, 2006

By 

Simon Davis (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anniversary (DVD)

Hammer Studios are definately best known for their Gothic horror efforts usually starring horror icons Peter Cushing and Chrsitopher Lee, however on occasion they did stray from their usual product with often very pleasing results. "The Anniversary", has always been one of my great favourites among the body of work of both Hammer Studios and the legendary Bette Davis. Having already appeared in Hammer's dark drama "The Nanny", in 1965 Bette Davis took on a very different type of role for her second Hammer engagement playing a wonderfully over the top "mother from hell", who manipulates and controls her three weak willed sons in a macabre game of cat and mouse. Rarely in her later years did Davis have such a meaty role as in "The Anniversary", and she has the time of her life totally upstaging everyone and everything to unforgettable effect here. Her castrating and caustic mother makes "Mommie Dearest", look like a sunday school teacher and audiences are guaranteed a grand old time watching one of Hollywood's greatest acting legends dominating the screen from beginning to end and showing all and sundry what larger than life acting on screen is all about.