The Innocents (1961)

15A99 min

Widely considered to be among the best gothic horror films ever made, 1961s The Innocents boasts an extraordinary pedigree. Directed by Jack Clayton, whose previous film Room at the Top (1959) had launched the British New Wave, this version of Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw has a screenplay by Truman Capote derived from the stage adaptation by William Archibald, as well as a career-defining performance by Deborah Kerr. Kerr plays Miss Giddens, who takes her first job as a Governess looking after two children, Flora and Miles, in the imposing Bly Manor. Troubled by the children’s strange behaviour and plagued by ghostly visions, Miss Giddens comes to believe that the children are possessed by the spirits of the deceased former governess and her lover. A key element that Clayton, Capote and Kerr brought to James’ story was a strong sense of ambiguity, downplaying the supernatural and instead injecting the possibility that Miss Giddens’ visions and suspicions are rooted in her own psyche. The result is a richly textured gothic psycho-drama with a fearsome central performance from Kerr, shot in glorious black and white Cinemascope by Freddie Francis, one of Britain’s finest cinematographers. A genuine cinematic masterpiece, The Innocents sits alongside Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963) as a landmark of gothic cinema.