The Innocents

The Innocents (1961)

Oh willow I die, oh willow I die...

Based on Henry James' novel, The Turn Of The Screw, The Innocents is a thoroughly absorbing chiller that pot boils with almost unbearably knowing glee as to what it's doing to the viewer. Deborah Kerr stars as Miss Giddens, the lady hired by Michael Redgrave to act as governess to his young niece and nephew. We find ourselves in Victorian England, out on some country estate at Bly Mansion, where the children are angelic and enchanting in equal measure. Yet theres an eeriness hanging over this place and it starts to seemingly play tricks on Miss Giddens' mind, she thinks she sees and hears things. It's only when she talks to housekeeper Mrs Grose (Megs Jenkins), that s...

Low-key Gothic horror with Deborah Kerr

A new governess (Deborah Kerr) takes over as nanny of two orphaned siblings at a remote English manor at the turn of the century, but theres a secretive past to the situation and seemingly ghostly happenings. Pamela Franklin plays the girl.

"The Innocents (1961) is a cinematic version of Henry James 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, shot in B&W. Its technically well-made and has Gothic mood, but the story is intrinsically one-dimensional, resting on the shoulders of Kerr and essentially only involving three other actors.

Like the original tale, theres ambiguity: Is the governess hallucinating or is she really seeing what she claims? One thing that lends credence to the latter view ...