The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

A pregnant woman named Claire Bartel reports her gynecologist for misconduct during an examination. The doctor takes his own life, and his wife, also expecting, loses her baby. Blaming Claire, the widow takes a new identity and installs herself in the Bartel household as a nanny, winning the trust of Claire's husband and young daughter while quietly working to take Claire's place. What begins as an unsettling presence around the family's newborn becomes a campaign of manipulation aimed at the mother.

Curtis Hanson directed the film, the fifth of the thirteen features listed for him, arriving between Bad Influence and The River Wild. Amanda Silver wrote the screenplay, David Madden produced, and the cast includes Annabella Sciorra as Claire, Rebecca De Mornay as the nanny, Matt McCoy as Michael Bartel, Ernie Hudson as Solomon, Madeline Zima as Emma and Julianne Moore as Marlene Craven.

The film opened in January 1992 and cost about 12 million dollars to make, returning roughly 88 million worldwide, a strong multiple of its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 55,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 from about a thousand. A critics' score of 6.4 from 54 reviews places professional assessment below the audience ratings.