Jack Clayton's 1961 film, The Innocents, brings Henry James's 1898 novella, The Turn of the Screw, to the screen in a way that preserves the unnerving ambiguity of the original prose while enhancing the story for the visual medium by way of screenplay alterations from Truman Capote and innovative flourishes from cinematographer Freddie Francis. Thanks to fascinating lensing choices and multiple screen dissolves, one does not watch this movie so much as one floats through it. Deborah Kerr's Miss Giddens, who is given the responsibility of being a governess to two children at an expansive country estate, appears in almost every frame of the film, and, in a way unique to horror cinema, her reaction shots precede frightening visuals instead of the other way around. As she helpfully explains during an interview with the uncle of the children, Miss Giddens possesses an active imagination, and her subsequent predicaments are shrouded in mystery as to whether she is really seeing ghosts or simply experiencing a breakdown of her mental facilities as a result of the estate environment on her sexually repressed upbringing.
The film's title is a stroke of genius, because it accentuates the themes in the Henry James story about the corruption of youth while also casting an uncertain light on the relevant cast of characters. Many of the greatest horror films exploit the notion that children are seemingly innocent, but that their unpredictable mannerisms can sometimes seem to have a sinister edge, because they may perceive more truths about the world around them than adults can imagine. An observation, "Miles is coming home.", from Flora, the young girl who is played by first-time actor Pamela Franklin, could be mere wishful thinking, but the peripheral interpretations of the dialogue create ripples that may cause contemporary viewers to think of Danny and his imaginary friend in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. What are Miles, brilliantly played by Martin Stephens, and Flora laughing about at the top of the stairway? What are they whispering to each other about as Miss Giddens watches with visible apprehension? The Gothic landscapes of the Bly estate, namely the decaying statues and frail autumn plants, signify the disintegration of fragile things, and could be alluding to the corruption of children by wicked adults or to the dissolution of a woman's sanity. The Innocents works as a haunted house story on multiple levels, and the strength of the movie lies in its vagueness about whether the house is inhabited by demonic spirits or inhabited by people whose minds are haunted. Several genuinely terrifying visuals put my hair up on end whenever I revisit this film, but the context of these visuals can be construed in a variety of ways.
This
Criterion Blu-ray of The Innocents is a remarkable high definition presentation of a black-and-white CinemaScope feature, and the detailed images are uncannily tangible, most notably during sequences where Miss Giddens is standing in a bright garden of white roses and where she is taking a harrowing candlelit stroll through the house later in the story. The disc is also blessed with a crystal clear audio presentation that makes the most of quiet singing, reverb effects, and creaking footsteps.
Scholar Christopher Frayling provides the most informative supplementary material, with his excellent audio commentary and his extended introduction, which I personally believe should be viewed after the film itself. Supplementary interviews with cinematographer John Bailey, cinematographer Freddie Francis, and others shed additional light on the visual touches that make The Innocents one of the most eerie films ever made.
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