The Innocents (1961)

[Scott]

THE INNOCENTS (1961) - This is a great English Horror film that played on AMC today. Great atmosphere and creepiness in b/w. A woman is hired to care for two children in a mansion. It's like a ghost story with alot of creepy images and keeps you guessing all the way through. This psychological shocker is beautifully shot with penetrating film moments. Check it out next time it comes on TV.

[peter johnson]

One of the best damn horror pictures/ghost story movies -- Susan!  Are you listening??!! -- ever made.  Really good ghosts -- the weeping woman in the nursery that appears in the swamp presages scenes in later films.
You really need to see it on the big screen, if you can.  I took my wife to see it for her first time at our local library -- a 16mm print on a pretty big screen -- and it really impressed her.
Deborah Kerr gives the performance of a lifetime as the woman losing(?) her mind.
Just an all-time classy/classic favorite --  Gotta love them dark shadows!
peter johnson/denny crane

[Scott]

Your right ! This is one of the better ghost stories out there. Some of the images were creeping and it seems that films like THE RING and other have borrowed some of those haunting ideas. Well done film. The ending kept me wondering though.



Post Edited (09-10-04 14:45)

[BoyScoutKevin]

Probably the best version of Henry James' "Turn of the Screw" ever made. The ending is suppose to keep one guessing. If one is familiar with the original novel, that is even more ambiguous as to whether there are actually ghosts, or is she just imaging them? I am glad everyone has enjoyed the film.

[Susan]

I can't be sure if i've seen this one. Back when i used to have cable i'd stay up watching movies on TCM and AMC without ever finding out what the name of it was. But I don't think i've seen it - i'll check if my library carries it. Sounds good.

Peter...."ever made"? That's a bold statement!

[peter johnson]

Oh, I know extremes like "ever made" are a bit much.  I haven't, for instance, exhausted the catalog of Hong Kong or Japanese ghost-story movies.
I even watched an excellent color Icelandic(!) film once, in Reykjavik, that had a breathtaking sequence of the ghost of a suicidal maiden bathing in a coastal waterfall --
However, as far as English-language ghost films that I've seen go, this is in my top 3 -- even though I don't keep a "list" as such . . .
"Diabolique" -- the real French one, not the damn American remake -- and Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" and "The Magician" qualify as great foreign ghost movies -- though the ghosts aren't really central to what's going on.  Ghosts, or the possibility of ghosts, tend to pop up pretty matter-of-factly in Bergman movies.
I wish more people would give Bergman films a chance.  I think they get put-off by the "art-film" rep. the guy has, but there's usually lots of supernatural weirdness going on in even his "serious" dramas.  Check out  "The Virgin Spring".
peter johnson/denny crane

[Susan]

something about the premise of this movie is bringing to mind what  is an entirely different movie, but nevertheless i have to figure out what is picking my brain. It can't be the Bad Seed as i remember that film. I can't remember if this is a british film or not. Anyways, It seems like the boy is kinda rotten, so in the beginning you aren't really sure if it's the nanny who's bad or the child. But it seems like one of the other children died in some bathtub incident..tho i can't recall if it was on purpose or an accident by the nanny who has since seemed to have lost her mind. Seems like the boy is afraid the nanny is going to poison him or something but nobody believes him. What movie is this? Argh!



Post Edited (09-12-04 11:47)

[peter johnson]

Oh, I hate that!
You've told me just enough so it's now tickling my brain as well, but I can't for the life of me pull up a title, or even an actor --
Shoot!  I think I've seen this too -- Yes similar themes . . .
Oh, crap, I'm going to have to stop thinking about it until it comes to me . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[Susan]

I found it. I was thinking it had someone like Joan Crawford in it but a search turned up nothing. Then I thought Betty Davis (i must have been connecting the two through baby jane). It was british, it was also b&w (the cover on imdb shows color)

The Nanny

As I remember a pretty suspenseful movie, davis was truly creepy. I remember the whole ending got pretty twisted. Ok i can sleep now, sorry to disrupt the thread ;-)

[JohnL]

>something about the premise of this movie is bringing to mind what is an entirely
>different movie

The same story has been filmed a couple of times. I seem to recall a TV movie, and also one starring Patsy Kensit.

>The Nanny

I keep picturing Fran Drescher... :)

[Ozzymandias]

Peter Wyndgarde ( I may have spelled that wrong) is one of the ghost. He was later Klytus in Flash Gordon ("The planet is called UUUHHH-TH, you hienous.")

I wish A&E would put out Wyndgarde's 70's detective series "Department S" on DVD. It was sort of like X-Files with Austin Powers. Wyndgarde's character, Jason King, wore Carnaby Street duds and said "groovy' and "smashing" a lot.

He was also the model for a villian called Jason Wyndgarde in the X-Men comics. There was also a character in a DC comic modeled after him.