Classic film: "The Innocents" - deeply disturbing!!!

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 11:22am

I finally watched a film last night that I'd been wanting to see for a long while. It's "The Innocents" with Deborah Kerr.

I was TOTALLY creeped out by it. It's a disturbing ghost story, but with these horrible pedophile scenes in it!! They could never make this film today. It would cause riots. It's based on Henry James "The Turning of the Screw," which I've never read. Were these extremely controversial plot points in his work as well???

****SPOILERS GALORE AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT WANT TO SEE IT*******

It's (roughly) the 1860s, and Deborah Kerr goes to work as a nanny for two children at a huge country estate in England. She comes to find out that the children are each possessed by the ghostly spirits of two former adult servants from the estate that had both recently died. The really disturbing part starts when the boy kisses Deborah Kerr goodnight... PASSIONATELY, and for a long, held kiss. Remember, this is a little boy on screen, smooching 40-something Miss Kerr! And she likes it. You begin to realize that she is in LOVE (or at least lust) with the spirit of the man inside the boy. Or maybe it's the boy himself? She sends the young girl away with another servant to try to "exorcise" the man-spirit out of the boy, and then confronts the spirit inside of the boy. She wants him OUT. But ultimately... the boy dies in her arms... and she kisses this lifeless child goodbye passionately AGAIN! End of film.

Aside from this being a chilling ghost story, this movie is deeply disturbing on so many other levels. They bill it as a controversial "adult" film in the trailer. My jaw is still dropping from this story. Wow.

[fflagg]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 11:49am

And the actor who plays the girl is Pamela Franklin who was Sandy in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". A good actress who was reduced to British slasher films in the 1970s and doing US TV like "Fantasy Island" with Michele Lee!

Franklin gives comments on the DVD to "Brodie".

"The Innocents" also boasts a screenplay by Truman Capote.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 12:03pm

Love The Innocents, love Deborah Kerr, love Pamela Franklin, love Truman Capote, LOVE Michelle Lee.

Hate fflagg.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 12:15pm

Pamela was GREAT in "The Innocents" at such a young age, and so was the little boy. They were good at being "adults" trapped inside these children's bodies.

I always thought Pamela was robbed of an Oscar nom for supporting actress in Brodie. What a terrific performance and a she was a great foil for Maggie Smith.

[fflagg]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 12:18pm

Good. Then I shall always be memorable.

Pamela's comments are quite sad on the DVD in terms of Hollywood treated her like just another background actress.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 12:22pm

I have the Brodie disc, but haven't listened to Pamela's commentary. I should do that, but it'll probably get me angry now. That's a real shame.

[fflagg]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 12:44pm

I think she left the business to marry and raise a family.

It is also interesting how 'cautious' are some of the DVD comments when in re to Maggie Smith. I think she was trouble and the director and others were being tactful. Perhaps she was stressed as this was her first leading role in pictures and that her husband at the time was a co-star.

Cynthia Nixon is so miscast as Brodie.

Re "The Innocents" it is a fascinating film that was written about extensively in a past issue of "Film Comment" magazine. Is it still in print?

[Jon]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 7:33pm

There is another film based on "Turn of the Screw" in which the gardener and maid (seen only as ghosts in "The Innocents") are major characters. It shows the relationship they had with the children before their deaths. Marlon Brando plays Quint, the gardener.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 8:30pm

Interesting, I just rewatched BIRTH, the Nicole Kidman film that was wonderful for 2/3, and then sinks somewhat with the implausible explanations. But when it works, and for much of the way it is spellbinding, it conjures up INNOCENTS and TURN OF THE SCREW in a very haunting way.

[morosco]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 9:05pm

Benjamin Britten's chamber opera The Turn of the Screw was one of the first operas that I atteneded. It still haunts me. You might consider giving a recording of the opera a listen.

[cturtle]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 9:16pm

and then of course there was the DARK SHADOWS rip off of the characters.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/2/06 at 9:40pm

morosco---I will definitely do that. As soon as I can shake a few more of the "willies" off! I'll bet it's wonderful.

I kept thinking that "The Innocents" would make a magnificent dark musical, except who would go to see it on Broadway?... and watch some ten year old boy "make out" with his 40-something nanny? That's a surefire route to post a closing notice.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 1:05am

fflagg opines: "Cynthia Nixon is so miscast as Brodie.Cynthia Nixon is so miscast as Brodie."

I kind of thought so too...until you posted that. Now I can't WAIT to see her take on the role--and I hope she's BRILLIANT.

[broadway86]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 2:05am

This movie really creeped me out. It's only a matter of time before they remake it. Again.

The scariest scene was they were playing hide-and-seek, and the figure comes to the window. I almost pissed my pants.

[Andrew Lowe Watson]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 12:58am

I saw this film on TV when I was a kid. It has to be just about the scariest picture ever. Briliant high Gothic sets of this incredibly spooky old country house in England, and a fantastic use of sound-effects like humming and electronic tones to indicate the presence of the supernatural. The acting is good solid old-school British Stage and Screen ( there is a cameo from the wonderful Michael Redgrave as the irresponsible uncle of the children). Outstanding too for its exploration of the hypocrisy and sexual obsessions implied in the original source novella by Henry James.

The director was the under-recognised Jack Clayton, who also made THE GREAT GATSBY and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 10:58am

If you do an IMDb.com search on "The Turn of the Screw," it looks like this story has been made AND remade every 3-4 years or so for television! I had no idea it popped up that much.

I guess producers aren't shying away from the controversial themes as much as I thought they would. Either that or they're "soft-soaping" them in these various versions.

Not exactly the story I would pick for ten remakes! One with Valerie Bertinelli as the governess, no less! (If you make anything that many times, you're bound to run into Valerie. It's a given in the laws of television.)

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 10/25/06 at 10:55am

There's a version with Sadie Frost and Lauren Bacall called Presence of Mind that's supposed to be quite good. Masterpiece Theatre did a wonderful version of it with Jodhi May and Colin Firth, too.

The film with Brando that Jon was talking about is The Nightcomers. Stephanie Beacham co-stars in it. It's a prequel to the story. Kind of an interesting movie.

The Others with Nicole Kidman reminded me of the The Turn of the Screw a bit.