Deborah Kerr stars as Miss Giddens, a young woman who is hired
as a governess for two small children who live at an estate in the English
countryside in the 19th century. They are presently under the car of their uncle
(Michael Redgrave), a bachelor who likes his life the way it is without any
complications that children may bring. And so not only is Miss Giddens being
hired to care for the children, but she is also expected to run the household,
with the other servants treating her as the boss. The interview for the job goes
very smoothly for Miss Giddens--until she learns that her predecessor, a woman
named Miss Jessel, had mysteriously died at the estate.
When she arrives at the estate, Miss Giddens gets along famously with young
Flora, who keeps telling her excitedly that her brother Miles will be home very
soon. But Miss Giddens chalks this up to wishful thinking on the girl's part,
since she knows that Miles is away at school, and he won't be home until the
holiday break, which will be a few months from now. However, the following day,
Miss Giddens gets a letter from the school forwarded to her by the uncle stating
that Miles has been expelled. How did little Flora know in advance that her
brother would be back so soon? This turns out to be the first in a series of
strange occurrences that Miss Giddens experiences at the estate. The other
incidents include hearing strange noises and the sighting of shadowy figures in
the distance. These moments crescendo to a frightening moment when Miss Giddens
sees a man standing outside the window, peering into the house. She later
discovers that the man she saw was Peter Quint, who worked as the valet, and who,
like Miss Jessel, is very much dead.
Released in 1961, The Innocents was produced and directed by Jack Clayton from a
screenplay by William Archibald and Truman Capote that was based on The Turn Of
The Screw, the novella by Henry James. Almost 45 years after its original
release, The Innocents still packs quite a punch. It gradually and masterfully
unveils its story of a young woman battling for the souls of her two charges
against the dark forces that lurk within the house and on the grounds of the
quaint old country estate. Deborah Kerr is superb as Miss Giddens, a woman who
tries hard to do the right thing, even at the dire times when her very faith and
sanity are being tested. Pamela Franklin and Martin Stephens are also excellent
as Flora and Miles, the two seemingly innocent children who are playing a morbid
game.
Director Clayton takes ordinary images--a man standing at a window, a woman
standing in a field--and manages to turn them into scary moments that send
chills up the spine. The intelligent script keeps the viewer guessing as to
whether all of this is real or not, and the ending is as frightening and as
intense as they come. If you've never seen this film, you might be tempted to
think that it's a stuffy Masterpiece Theater adaptation with period costumes and
pretty scenery but nothing to offer for a horror movie fan--and you would be dead
wrong. You owe it to yourself to either buy or rent this masterpiece and spend a
night with it in order to let it work its creepy charms. This film will give you
a spine-tingling good time even on the sunniest of days. Now if only they would
release the Nightcomers, the prequel to the Innocents, on DVD.
--SF
