Alice And The Maid

Alice recounts the torrid tales of the harsh treatment she received at the cruel hands of her uncle and his wicked housekeeper, Mrs Bainbridge. As she tells her story, the film flows from sepia, to black and white and then full colour again, as the tale travels the ages. Alice, a young lady of breeding but recently orphaned, is sent to live with her strict uncle. She soon realises the household is not all it seems. The housekeeper, Bainbridge, is formidable and then there is the nervous, scurrying chambermaid. The chambermaid, it seems, has every reason to be scared, for Alice witnesses her uncle beating her with his birch for the most minor of misdemeanours. She also sees Bainbridge doing the same with a leather strap. Alice knows she isn’t supposed to consort with the servants, but she feels sorry for the girl and befriends her. Whenever the maid is punished, Alice goes to see and comfort her and to inspect her poor, thrashed, red and sore bottom. Unknown to Alice and the maid, Bainbridge has been watching them and when the housekeeper sees Alice applying lotion to the maid’s bottom, she informs her master of what she has witnessed. Uncle calls Alice to his study, under the guise of testing her on her education. When she is unable to answer his questions he becomes angry. More so, he discovers Alice has been wasting her time cavorting with a local boy he banned her from seeing. He decides there is no choice but to punish her. Alice receives the strap, all the while being watched by Bainbridge and the maid – who help. Alice complains about her humiliating treatment, but this just infuriates her uncle even more and he follows the strapping with a generous lick of the birch. Finally dismissed, Alice runs off to bed to nurse her sore bottom. This time, it is the turn of the maid to visit Alice. Just as the girls are comforting each other on the bed, in their cotton nightdresses, Bainbridge bursts in and catches them. The maid is hauled off to uncle’s study for a caning over his desk, her nightdress lifted over her waist to expose her rump. Alice is told she must wait for the morning to receive her own caning. All night Alice tosses and turns, dreading what’s to come at dawn. Finally, it is time and the poor girl reports to her uncle. She is given a choice – be sent to a convent school, or receive a caning she will never forget. Raising her nightdress and bending over a small stepladder, Alice receives her fate.