Relationships to one another of the Laniers

I first watched this film on late-night television at the age of fifteen in the autumn of 1970 and was very impressed (and scared!) by it, especially by Vanessa Whitlock's two malignant and malevolent appearances in the Lanier home! Having not seen the film on television for many years, I recently purchased it on DVD and am glad to find that, after an initial viewing, it seems to stand up well more than fifty years after its original release. I feel that a largely favourable set of user reviews which bring out many of the film's qualities bears testimony to this assertion. However, I wish to point out a way in which I feel the film could have been improved, and which I have not seen mentioned in any of the aforesaid user reviews. Representatives of THREE generations of Laniers are depicted in the film and I would assert that in the interests of taut and concise plotting and characterization, and without disruption to the logistics of the narrative, this could comfortably and profitably have been reduced to TWO. Malvina Lanier, who is depicted as Bill's and Todd's grandmother, could quite easily (given the actual ages of the three actors concerned) have become their mother and Helen Lanier (depicted as daughter of Malvina and aunt to Bill and Todd) could almost as easily have become an older, unmarried sister to the two sons. I would be interested to know what other viewers think about this.