About the film
- Directed by
- Jack Clayton
- Released
- November 24, 1961
- US theatrical
- December 15, 1961
- Certification
- NR
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Starring
- Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave, Martin Stephens
More credits
- Language
- English
- Origin
- GB
- Studios
- Achilles, 20th Century Fox
- Written by
- William Archibald, Henry James, Truman Capote
- Produced by
- Albert Fennell, Jack Clayton
- Cinematography
- Freddie Francis
- Music
- Georges Auric
- Also starring
- Pamela Franklin, Clytie Jessop, Isla Cameron, Eric Woodburn
- Budget
- $430,000
- Box office
- $1,200,000
A governess arrives at a country estate to care for two orphaned children, and almost immediately begins to wonder whether the house is haunted, or whether she is the one coming apart.
THE INNOCENTS (1961) stars Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens, hired by a distant uncle, played by Michael Redgrave, who wants nothing to do with raising his niece and nephew. At Bly, she meets Flora and Miles, played by Pamela Franklin and Martin Stephens, two children whose politeness seems to hide something underneath. Soon she becomes convinced that the ghosts of a former valet and governess, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, are reaching through the children toward possession.
Jack Clayton directed from a script by William Archibald and Truman Capote, adapting Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Freddie Francis shot it in wide-screen black and white, filling the frame's edges with shadow and leaving the center exposed, so that every room at Bly feels watched from somewhere just out of sight.
The film has kept audiences unsettled for over sixty years, and what it shows at Bly still separates it from nearly every haunted house film that followed it.
Sources
- Collections Search | BFI collections-search.bfi.org.uk
- NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION NETWORK /視聽資料 - Record: Prev Next nbinet3.ncl.edu.tw
- The innocents - Catalog Search Results search.library.yale.edu
- BFI Screenonline: Innocents, The (1961) www.screenonline.org.uk
- Monthly Film Bulletin www.screenonline.org.uk
- SUSPENSE sede.mcu.gob.es
- The Innocents – Museum of the Moving Image movingimage.org
- The Innocents (1961) - Plot - IMDb - - A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds a s.media-imdb.com
- The Innocents (1961) - Jack Clayton | Synopsis, Movie Info, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie www.allmovie.com
- The Power of Imagination: The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961) - Search www.sensesofcinema.com
- DVD Savant Review: The Innocents - '); document www.dvdtalk.com
- DVD Review: Cynicism hasn't deadened 'The Innocents' - DVD Review: Cynicism hasn’t deadened ‘The Innocents’ www.latimes.com
How to see The Innocents (1961)
Streaming
United States
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Also available internationally
Source: JustWatch
Physical media
More editions
Movies they don’t want you to see
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Movies we wrote about
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75 commentsNight Tide (1961)
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137 commentsCarnival of Souls (1962)
Peeping Tom (1960)
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A great film.
One of the best
Based upon The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Both story and this film version (in particular) are terrifying.
Great film.
Great, haunting film.
Stylishly creepy….😎
Fabulous film. I watch it every year
Nothing chills the blood like this terrifying film…NOTHING.
My favorite movie.
amazing film !
The scene by the lake……..
Freddie Francis’ photography was some of the best I have seen. The movie is delicious to watch.
THIS is the best film adaptation, I think — but there is one ?? I have heard with Diana Rigg ?
Fabulous movie!
William Archibald & Truman Capote’s screenplay preserves the basics of Henry James’ great novel. Jack Clayton’s brilliant direction builds the tension, drawing from Ms. Kerr her finest performance ( and that’s saying a great deal ). It’s the only ghost story where the absence of ghosts is the real horror. It’s # 14 on my list of best movies of the 1960’s.
I didn’t know that Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, was one of the writers.
Great film. Even all these years later it holds its own
Melissa Dolores Samuel Juanita Moss-this is what you will be watching soon !