AUTHOR - SCREENWRITER - HUMORIST - GRUMP
DAVID HINES
Double Feature #8: 'The Innocents'/'The Haunting'
Pairing these classic ghost stories isn't exactly brain surgery. Made two years apart, they're among the most frightening haunted house movies ever made, elevating the genre from Saturday matinee schlock aimed at children to sophisticated psychological tales designed to scare adults. (Though the schizophrenic ad campaign for The Innocents tries desperately to have it both ways.)
Based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents (Jack Clayton - 1961) tells the story of Miss Giddens, the repressed daughter of a country parson hired to be the governess of two orphaned children by their selfish-yet-charismatic uncle. As the uncle has no interest in young Miles and Flora, Miss Giddens is given complete control over their care. Arriving at the lush Victorian estate of Bly, Miss Giddens is at first smitten with the beauty and intelligence of Flora and Miles (who has been expelled from school for being a corrupting influence), but soon begins to suspect their behavior is influenced by the spirits of their former governess Miss Jessel and valet Peter Quint. As Miss Giddens' suspicions turn into obsession, she becomes convinced the ghosts of the dead are stalking the grounds, anxious to take control of the children in order to continue their abusive sexual relationship through them. But as no one else can see the spirits - and the children flatly deny their presence - the question of whether the haunting is real or the result of the repressed governess' own fears and sexual desires becomes unanswerable.
The Haunting (Robert Wise - 1963) details the experiences of a group of researchers investigating claims of the paranormal at Hill House - an estate with a tragic, twisted history and infamous reputation. Instead of fellow scientists, Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson) has recruited people with psychic abilities and experience with the supernatural to join him, hoping they'll add a unique perspective on the events within the cavernous, off-kilter manor - and perhaps even trigger a few. He more than gets his wish. From the moment she arrives, mousy, sheltered Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) feels an affinity for Hill House... a rapport the house seems to share. Soon things aren't just going bump in the night, they're going BANG! CRASH! BOOM! While Dr. Markway and the others struggle to determine what's causing all the activity, Eleanor and Hill House are engaged in a mutual seduction. The words running through Eleanor's head when she arrives at Hill House become prophetic as she leaves: "Journeys end in lovers meeting" - a quote from the Fool in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night that takes on a sinister meaning when applied to Eleanor and her new, and eternal, lover.
Despite taking place in different centuries, different countries and different social climates, The Innocents and The Haunting share many elements in common. They're both set in huge mansions that, despite their size, seem oppressive and claustrophobic. Both homes have a sinister and hidden past, possibly involving sexual perversions. And both films feature a main female character whose sexual repression may provide a trigger for the otherworldly events... if they really are otherworldly events. Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) is a sheltered woman who grew up in a strict religious household, never experiencing the wider world until hired as governess at Bly. Eleanor Lance has spent her life caring for her abusive invalid mother, her trip to Hill House representing her first solo foray into the world outside her mother's sickroom.
In James' book, Miss Giddens (whose name comes from William Archibald's stage play - from which the film also takes its title) is a young girl of 19 or 20. By casting the nearly 40-year-old Kerr, Clayton amps up the intensity of Miss Giddens' sexual repression, suggesting this is a pot that's been simmering for quite some time and is ready to boil over. Looking to be in her thirties, the same is true of Eleanor Lance. Though she dresses like a spinster she indulges in the fantasies and behaviors of a teenaged girl. In the case of both women, their naivete and (yes) innocence serves as catalyst for the terrifying events which overtake both houses.
All of which raises the question: Are these tales of genuine hauntings, or the fevered imaginings of minds ill-prepared for the intense, unsettling situations they find themselves in? The Haunting comes down much more
The images above demonstrate how deftly 'The Innocents' portrays its ghosts. Always distant, always separated from the living, always lurking, watching and influencing. And always, always terrifying.
Yes, Eleanor - whose hand WERE you holding?
firmly on the side of being a genuine ghost story. While Eleanor's psychic sensitivity and emotional frailty may attract the malevolent attention of the house and its inhabitants, she isn't the only witness to the supernatural occurences. Everyone in the house experiences ghostly encounters, including powerful physical manifestations (such as heavy wooden doors bending inward as something sniffs and searches the house for vulnerable prey). Indeed, it seems clear that The Haunting is, as its title suggests, intended as the story of an authentic haunting.
The Innocents, on the other hand, plays its cards close to the vest. Whereas Eleanor has the cold comfort of her fellow researchers sharing her experiences, Miss Giddens is the only admitted witness to the ghostly visitations at Bly. Director Jack Clayton handles this sleight-of-hand brilliantly, in that Miss Giddens always sees the spirits of Miss Jessel and Quint before the audience does. In this way we have no definitive proof of their existence, simply her perception that they exist. The only clue the spirits are genuine is the very real, very wet single tear left behind by the spirit of Miss Jessel in the childrens' classroom. This would seem to tip the balance to this being the story of a haunting - if screenwriter Truman Capote hadn't claimed that tear as his one great mistake in the script. He recognized its physicality provided evidence in favor of spirits rather than Miss Giddens' growing instability, which is an error in a film working so diligently to keep the audience guessing. Still, The Innocents is a wonderful Rorschach test, with some insisting the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Quint are absolutely real, while others feel the tragic events are entirely the result of Miss Giddens' overheated imagination and untapped libido.
I suggest there may be another interpretation. One I'd call 'The Exorcist Solution.' It becomes clear at the end of The Exorcist that the demon is real, and its primary target isn't little Regan MacNeil but the doubting priest Father Karras. Anyone and everyone else is collateral damage. Perhaps the spirits in The Innocents are real, but not primarily interested in Miles and Flora. Maybe the true target is Miss Giddens. Much like Hill House latches onto Eleanor because of her vulnerability, the perverse and cruel phantom of Peter Quint (known to have taken pleasure in the corruption of Miss Jessel in life) has fixed his attention on this new 'innocent.' Quint's appearances are always aggressive - watching the governess from a tower, staring at her through a window - while Miss Jessel is passive, always sad, distant, longing. Perhaps she knows Quint has set his sights on another and is mourning the loss of him in life and the afterlife. It would also explain why the ghosts don't appear to anyone but Miss Giddens - she is the one they mean to communicate with, she is their true goal.
Whatever their meanings and interpretations, these are both classic ghost stories because they're genuinely scary. The visualization of the ghosts in The Innocents is the best I've ever seen. Whether it's Miss Jessel standing among the reeds in the pouring rain or Peter Quint glaring through a fogged window, Clayton and cinematographer Freddie Francis always manage to make it feel like they're there... but also not. The Haunting takes the opposite approach, opting not to show the ghosts at all. The film makes brilliant use of camera angles, editing and sound design to make us feel we're surrounded by angry phantoms out to do us great harm, all while never showing us a thing. It's one of director Robert Wise's greatest achievements in a career filled with legendary work.
While there are many ghost stories, there are only a handful of great ones (The Uninvited, The Shining, The Changeling among them). The Innocents and The Haunting are, for my money, the greatest ever made. If you're looking for an evening filled with gleeful shivers and satisfying frights you can't do any better. One tip: It might not be a terrible idea to invest in a nightlight first.
THE INNOCENTS (1961)
Directed by: Jack Clayton
Written by: William Archibald and Truman Capote (with additional scenes and dialog by John Mortimer)
Based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Megs Jenkins, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Michael Redgrave, Peter Wyngarde, Clytie Jessop
THE HAUNTING (1963)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Written by: Nelson Gidding
Based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Lois Maxwell, Fay Compton, Rosalie Crutchley