It was only the wind, my dear.

The Innocents

(1961)

Jack Clayton's adaptation of The Turn of the Screw masterfully grips the viewer in achieving an "is it real or imagined" ambiguity to the ghost story. While such a reading of the novella has certainly been suggested by some critics, it is central to the film version (co-scripted by Truman Capote).

Governess Deborah Kerr becomes convinced that the two children she looks after have been possessed by the spirits of the former governess and the valet and attempts to make them face the truth as she sees it. Kerr's performance is rivetting, and as she moves from naive reserve to crazed conviction our trust in her senses waivers accordingly.

The child actors acquit themselves well, in particular Martin Stephens as the unsettling and preternaturally adult Miles (certain scenes between him and Kerr that are still enormously creepy 50 years on, and you can understand why 20th Century Fox began to get cold feet about the production). Despite being shot in cinemascope, with stunning black and white photography from Freddie Francis, this a claustrophobic, interior affair playing as it does off the subjective reactions of Kerr's character. Peter Wyngarde appears in a small but pivotal role.

*****

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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