The Innocents: 60 Years On
Still the best version of The Turn of the Screw on film.
Gothic mysteries are a particular passion of mine. I devour them onscreen, in print, and have even had a few of my own published. One of my absolute favourites is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, a spine-tingling novella revered in certain literary circles. It has been adapted several times for the screen, most memorably in director Jack Clayton’s 1961 monochrome gem The Innocents.
The film takes its name from a popular stage adaptation of the novella. William Archibald and John Mortimer’s screenplay was given an additional polish by none other than Truman Capote, which is all the more remarkable considering at the time he was embarked on the obsessive writing of his notorious masterpiece In Cold Blood.
The nameless Victorian governess of James’s novella is here called Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr). She is hired by a neglectful uncle (Michael Redgrave) to look after his niece and nephew. Mysterious rumours concerning the previous governess's sudden death do not put off Miss Giddens, who is then dispatched to Bly Manor to meet her new charges. She forms a friendship with Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins), the kind housekeeper, and at first, her relationship with the niece, Flora (Pamela Franklin), seems amicable.
