REVIEW: The Innocents

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow. But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree. Singing ‘Oh willow waly’ by that tree that weeps with me. Singing ‘Oh willow waly’ ’till my lover return to me. We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow. A broken heart have I. Oh willow I die, oh willow I die.

Peter as Peter Quint

The Story

‘The Turn of the Screw’ is one of the great ghost stories in world literature, Henry James’ 1898 novella, It has been adapted countless times for the stage, television, cinema and even as a ballet, an opera (by Benjamin Britten in 1954) and a graphic novel (by Guido Crepax in 1989). Among the many film versions, however, most agree that The Innocents (1961), directed by Jack Clayton, is the most elegant, evocative and frightening of them all.

Below left: Original costume design for Peter Quint

The screenplay by Truman Capote was actually based on the 1950 stage adaptation by William Archibald and may be one reason Henry James purists find fault with the 1961 film version. The story of a governess, Miss Giddens, who is entrusted with the care of two small children, Flora and Miles, by their uncle at a remote country estate, James’ novella creates a mood of dread and menace through the increasing anxiety of Miss Giddens who suspects that the children may be influenced and corrupted by the malevolent spirits of the deceased former governess, Miss Jessel, and caretaker Peter Quint of Bly House. The beauty of The Turn of the Screw is that you are never sure whether Miss Giddens is imaging the supernatural occurrences or whether they are actually happening. In The Innocents, there is never any doubt that Bly House is haunted – you see the ghosts. Yet a sense of mystery and ambivalence still exists regarding the children. Are they conduits for the evil spirits or truly innocent? Miss Giddens’ obsession with discovering the truth brings a feverish intensity to the proceedings which are almost as chilling as the phantoms she seeks to exorcise.

In Conversations with Capote, conducted by Lawrence Grobel, the author recalled his involvement on The Innocents: “When it was offered to me to do it as a film, I said yes instantly, without rereading it…Then I let several weeks go by before I reread it and then I got the shock of my life. Because Henry James had pulled a fantastic trick in this book: it doesn’t stand up anywhere. It has no plot! He’s just pretending this and this and that. It was like the little Dutch boy with his fingers trying to keep the water from flooding out – I kept building up more plot, more characters, more scenes. In the entire book there were only two scenes performable.”

Regardless of Capote’s comments about Henry James’ novella, he based the screenplay structure on the Archibald stage adaptation and added the Freudian subtext of Miss Giddens’ repressed sexuality which surfaces in scenes of a disturbing erotic nature such as an uncomfortably long goodnight kiss between Miles and his governess. Playwright and screenwriter John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey) is also credited with adding additional scenes and dialogue for The Innocents.

In the biography Deborah Kerr by Eric Braun, director Jack Clayton recalled how The Innocents and the casting of Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens came about. “Deborah had one film to do for Twentieth Century [Fox], and so did I: that was the one we both wanted to do and which we had discussed when we met the previous year. I had admired her work in two films with that very underrated actor, Robert Mitchum – Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison [1957], which showed her at her best without makeup, and The Sundowners [1960], in which her freckles were so attractively in evidence.”

Kerr remarked in the same biography on her performance: “I played it as if she were perfectly sane – whatever Jack wanted was fine; in my own mind, and following Henry James’ writing in the original story, she was completely sane, but, because in my case the woman was younger and physically attractive – Flora Robson had played her wonderfully on the stage – it was quite possible that she was deeply frustrated, and it added another dimension that the whole thing could have been nurtured in her own imagination.”

Filmed on Locations in East Sussex, England and Shepperton Studios in Surrey, The Innocents proved to be a physically challenging role for Kerr. Clayton said, “To achieve what we wanted in the monochrome photography the arcs had to be of considerable intensity, and the atmosphere on the set, with fifteen “brutes” burning away, often stifling. During a long schedule, imprisoned in those voluminous Victorian dresses, she never complained, never showed a trace of the discomfort she had been feeling.” She also had to do a scene that required numerous retakes where she had to carry Martin Stephens (who was cast as Miles) in her arms. She later revealed to the director that she had felt quite ill and feverish during that day of filming but never acknowledged it at the time.

Clayton discovered prior to production on The Innocents that the film needed to be shot in Cinemascope, a screen format he did not want to use. Luckily, he had one of the best cinematographers in the business working for him – Freddie Francis; they had previously collaborated on Room at the Top (1959). In The Horror People by John Brosnan, the cameraman recalled that, “…I had quite a lot of freedom, and I was able to influence the style of The Innocents. We worked out all sorts of things before the picture started, including special filters. I still think it was the best photography I’ve ever done – as much as I like Sons and Lovers [1960] I think The Innocents was better, but you rarely get an Academy Award for a film that isn’t successful no matter how good your work on it.”

Left: A rare still taken during filming. Peter is seen standing on a platform to the far left.

As strange as it seems now, The Innocents didn’t receive any Oscar® nominations. It did garner international awards such as a Best British Film nod from the BAFTA and a Palme d’Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. Still, the film was not a box office success in the U.S. Francis said, “I’m sure Jack [Clayton] was terribly disappointed with the reaction that The Innocents received. He, unfortunately, gets terribly tied up in his films. Everybody, I’m sure, involved with it thought it was a great picture and I’m not completely sure what went wrong but I think it was because it was based on Henry James. When you read James you’ve got to think about it and make up your own mind…The film lacked this ambiguity and I think, basically, that was the reason it wasn’t a success…in the film all the suspicion fell on the children – whereas having read The Turn of the Screw one doesn’t know whether it is the governess who is a bit strange or the children.”

Deborah Kerr has her own theory about why The Innocents wasn’t a success at the time. In the Braun biography, she noted “The subtlety with which he [Clayton] and his team established the atmosphere of the two worlds – the everyday and the spirit world – was so evocative of decadence, in the most delicate manner, that it completely escaped the majority of the critics. Today, a new generation of young movie “buffs” realise how extraordinary were the effects he achieved. One instance is the way the edges of the screen were just slightly out of focus, as though seen through a glass, perhaps. Now it is acclaimed as a great work of art; then they didn’t push it because they didn’t know how to respond to something so genuinely spooky – so interwoven with reality that it could be real – and that’s something people didn’t like.”

Not all of the critics unfavourably compared The Innocents to Henry James’s original novella. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called the film “one of the most elegantly beautiful ghost movies ever made…The filmmakers concentrate on the virtuoso possibilities in the material, and the beauty of the images raises our terror to a higher plane than the simple fears of most ghost stories. There are great sequences (like one in a schoolroom) that work on the viewer’s imagination and remain teasingly ambiguous.” 

Besides Clayton’s superb direction, Francis’s stunning cinematography and Kerr’s masterful performance (possibly the best of her entire career), The Innocents is distinguished by an unforgettable supporting cast including Michael Redgrave in a brief opening cameo, Megs Jenkins as the fretful Mrs. Grose, Peter in a chilling, non-speaking role as Quint, Clytie Jessop, equally silent but haunting as Miss Jessel and two of the finest child actors of their generation – Martin Stephens as Miles and Pamela Franklin as Flora. Stephens had already made a strong impression as the blonde alien child leader in Village of the Damned (1960) but he would retire from acting in 1966 and pursue an education in architecture. Franklin would go on to star in other similar genre efforts such as The Nanny (1965), And Soon the Darkness (1970), Necromancy (1972), The Legend of Hell House (1973) and The Food of the Gods (1976).

Among the other notable adaptations of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw are numerous television productions including a 1959 version with Ingrid Bergman (directed by John Frankenheimer), one in 1974 with Lynn Redgrave (directed by Dan Curtis), one in 1995 entitled The Haunting of Helen Walker with Valerie Bertinelli, Michael Gough and Diana Rigg, and one in 1999 with Jodhi May and Colin Firth. Film versions of the novella include the 1985 Spanish film Otra vuelta de tuerca, directed by Eloy de la Iglesia (Cannibal Man, 1973), The Turn of the Screw (1992) with Patsy Kensit, Stephane Audran, and Julian Sands, Presence of Mind (1999) with Sadie Frost, In a Dark Place (2006) with Leelee Sobieski, and even a prequel to the events in the James story entitled The Nightcomers (1971), a kinky S&M portrayal of Quint and Miss Jessel played by Marlon Brando and Stephanie Beacham. None of them appear to have the fervent cult following of The Innocents which looks better and better with each passing year.

Focus on Peter Quint

Among the many memorable performances in The Innocents, it is noteworthy that Peter Wyngarde leaves such a powerful impression despite his limited screen time. Directed by Jack Clayton and adapted from Henry James’s classic novella The Turn of the Screw, the film is widely regarded as one of the finest psychological horror films ever produced. The plot follows Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), a governess who becomes convinced that the two children in her care are being influenced by the spirits of former servants, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. Peter portrays Quint, a malevolent presence whose influence looms over the entire narrative.

Peter’s contribution is particularly effective because Peter Quint remains a dominant force in the story even when physically absent. Long before his first appearance, the audience is introduced to him through the descriptions of Mrs. Grose, who characterises him as a deceased valet who wielded an inappropriate and unsettling influence over young Miles and the household. Consequently, by the time Quint materialises, the viewer has already conceptualised him as a dangerous and corrupting figure. Peter successfully meets this high level of anticipation, justifying the dread that precedes his arrival.

Peter’s debut in the film is one of the most iconic moments in British horror cinema. Positioned motionless atop a distant tower and dressed in black, Quint is presented not as a conventional ghost, but as a silent, watchful sentinel. The sequence is effective due to its simplicity; it avoids dramatic musical cues or theatrical special effects. Instead, Peter relies on a steady, unnerving gaze. This stillness signals to the audience that the figure does not belong among the living, shifting the film’s atmosphere from an unsettling mystery to a genuine nightmare.

A critical element of Peter’s success is his striking physical presence. His dark eyes, severe expression, and aristocratic bearing create a character who is simultaneously attractive and sinister. Because Peter Quint is not depicted as a decaying spectre or a grotesque monster, but rather as an intelligent and charismatic figure, his malevolence becomes more disturbing. In The Innocents, evil does not manifest in a monstrous form; rather, it appears elegant and seductive.

This ambiguity is central to the character’s role. Throughout the film, it remains unclear whether the ghosts are objective manifestations or products of Miss Giddens’ increasingly fragile psychological state. Because the film refuses to provide definitive answers, Peter’s performance must function on multiple levels, serving as both a literal ghost and a projection of fear and obsession. His restrained approach allows both interpretations to coexist.

Indeed, this restraint is the defining quality of the performance. While modern horror often favours overt menace, Peter adopts a minimalist approach. Quint rarely speaks and seldom moves more than necessary, deriving his power from suggestion. Every glance is loaded with hidden meaning, and every appearance creates a sense of profound wrongness without the need for explicit explanation.

The film benefits significantly from this economy of performance. By avoiding excess, Peter ensures that the audience remains fascinated by the mystery of Quint. Because the character is never fully understood or explained, he remains a source of enduring terror, existing – like the best ghosts in literature – partially beyond explanation.

The relationship between Peter Quint and young Miles is particularly troubling, as the film’s psychological complexity relies on the suggestion that Quint exercised an unhealthy influence over the boy. While the exact nature of this influence remains ambiguous, the implications are haunting. Peter portrays a figure capable of exerting a powerful attraction over others while simultaneously inspiring revulsion.

Ultimately, one of the most impressive aspects of Peter’s portrayal is his ability to dominate scenes even from a distance. Whether observed across a lake or from a window, these fleeting appearances are among the most memorable moments in the film. He generates an immense amount of tension while doing very little, a testament to his skill as a performer.

The effectiveness of the performance is significantly enhanced by the collaboration between Peter and cinematographer Freddie Francis. The film’s masterful black-and-white photography transforms Quint into a visual embodiment of darkness and corruption; deep shadows, stark contrasts, and carefully composed images ensure that every appearance feels uncanny and dreamlike. Peter’s features appear almost sculpted from light and shadow, further amplifying the character’s supernatural quality.

In retrospect, it is fascinating to observe how many qualities associated with Peter’s later career are already evident in Peter Quint. His charisma, confidence, and commanding presence are all apparent. However, unlike the flamboyant charm he would later exhibit in roles such as Jason King, these attributes are channelled into something darker and more disturbing. Quint is not merely a villain, but rather the personification of temptation, corruption, and obsession.

The enduring reputation of The Innocents rests upon its inherent ambiguity. The film never fully clarifies whether Miss Giddens is confronting genuine supernatural forces or descending into psychological instability. For this tension to be effective, the ghosts must be simultaneously convincing and inscrutable. Peter achieves this precise balance; his portrayal of Peter Quint is realistic enough to be terrifying, yet mysterious enough to invite endless interpretation.

While Deborah Kerr’s performance rightly occupies the centre of the drama, Peter provides its dark heart. Although Peter Quint appears only intermittently, his influence permeates every frame of the film. He embodies the corruption Miss Giddens fears, acting as the shadow hanging over Bly House and the figure around whom much of the story’s psychological tension revolves.

More than sixty years after the film’s release, Peter Quint remains one of the most memorable ghosts in cinematic history. Much of this achievement is due to Peter Peter, whose controlled, intelligent, and deeply unsettling performance demonstrates that true screen presence does not require extensive dialogue or constant visibility. Through posture, expression, and atmosphere alone, he created a character who lingers in the imagination long after the final scene. His portrayal serves as a masterclass in the art of suggestion and remains one of the primary reasons The Innocents is regarded as a landmark of psychological horror.

The effectiveness of the performance is significantly enhanced by the collaboration between Peter and cinematographer Freddie Francis. The film’s masterful black-and-white photography transforms Quint into a visual embodiment of darkness and corruption; deep shadows, stark contrasts, and carefully composed images ensure that every appearance feels uncanny and dreamlike. Peter’s features appear almost sculpted from light and shadow, further amplifying the character’s supernatural quality.

In retrospect, it is fascinating to observe how many qualities associated with Peter’s later career are already evident in Peter Quint. His charisma, confidence, and commanding presence are all apparent. However, unlike the flamboyant charm he would later exhibit in roles such as Jason King, these attributes are channelled into something darker and more disturbing. Quint is not merely a villain, but rather the personification of temptation, corruption, and obsession.

The enduring reputation of The Innocents rests upon its inherent ambiguity. The film never fully clarifies whether Miss Giddens is confronting genuine supernatural forces or descending into psychological instability. For this tension to be effective, the ghosts must be simultaneously convincing and inscrutable. Peter achieves this precise balance; his portrayal of Peter Quint is realistic enough to be terrifying, yet mysterious enough to invite endless interpretation.

While Deborah Kerr’s performance rightly occupies the centre of the drama, Peter provides its dark heart. Although Peter Quint appears only intermittently, his influence permeates every frame of the film. He embodies the corruption Miss Giddens fears, acting as the shadow hanging over Bly House and the figure around whom much of the story’s psychological tension revolves.

More than sixty years after the film’s release, Peter Quint remains one of the most memorable ghosts in cinematic history. Much of this achievement is due to Peter, whose controlled, intelligent, and deeply unsettling performance demonstrates that true screen presence does not require extensive dialogue or constant visibility. Through posture, expression, and atmosphere alone, he created a character who lingers in the imagination long after the final scene. His portrayal serves as a masterclass in the art of suggestion and remains one of the primary reasons The Innocents is regarded as a landmark of psychological horror.

The Innocents: Forbidden Games By Maitland McDonagh – 2014 It is Quint’s ghost that shakes Miss Giddens’s optimism to the core, and casting Peter Wyngarde, a TV actor with a handful of minor movie credits, as the serpent in Bly’s tranquil garden was an underappreciated stroke of brilliance. Little-known in the U.S. but a familiar face on UK television, he was born to the part. Quint is never seen to do anything overtly indecent—in fact, he’s never seen to do anything more than peer in windows, walk along a rooftop, and allow himself to be glimpsed in a mirror. The spirit of his disgraced lover is merely sad, but his rudely sensual physicality—especially disturbing in a ghost—is palpably malignant, and it’s clear that Quint’s greatest offence was not just possessing but embracing the kind of coarsely potent maleness that drives the natural world but is abhorred by a particularly refined notion of civilization, one that defines and is defined by the story’s women.

Awards & Nominations

1961

• National Board of Review, USA
• Awarded (NBR Award): Best Director – Jack Clayton

1962

BAFTA

• Awarded: Best Film from any Source
• Nominated: Best British Film

Cannes Film Festival

• Nominated (Palme d’Or): Jack Clayton

Directors Guild of America

• Nominated: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
• Awarded (DGA Award): Jack Clayton

Edgar Allan Poe Awards

• Awarded: Best Motion Picture
• Best Script: Truman Capote and William Archbald

Writers Guild of America

• Nominated: Best Written American Drama: Truman Capote and William Archbald
• In 2014, The Innocents was voted ‘The Most Frightening British Horror Film Ever Made’ by the British Film Institute.

MILE’S LAMENT TO PETER QUINT

“What shall I sing to my lord from my window? What shall I sing, for my lord will not stay? What shall I sing, for my lord will not listen? Where shall I go, for my lord is away? Who shall I love when the moon is arisen? Gone is my lord, and the grave is his prison. What shall I say when my lord comes a calling? What shall I say when he knocks on my door? What shall I say when his feet enter softly, leaving the marks of his grave on my floor? Enter my lord, come from your prison. Come from your grave, for the moon has arisen!”

Critics Comments

There are few moments in cinema as primally scary as Peter Wyngarde’s gliding ghoul appearing at the window. The Guardian One of the most elegantly beautiful ghost movies ever made. The New Yorker A ravishing neo-romantic takedown of Victorian repression, spooky and scathing in equal measure. The AV Club The Innocents manipulates the viewer’s imagination as few films can, with Kerr and Redgrave doing a masterful job of creating a sense of repressed hysteria. TV Guide Magazine A perfectly balanced adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, with Deborah Kerr in her greatest performance. The Seattle Times The film thrives on unsettling images of overgrowth and rot, such as the dead flower that drops at Kerr’s touch, and the beetle that crawls obscenely out of the mouth of a cherub statue. The Telegraph One of the scariest films ever made. Deborah Kerr gives one of her greatest performances as a rather high-strung governess. The Los Angeles Times Catches an eerie, spine-chilling mood right at the start and never lets up on its grim, evil theme. Director Jack Clayton makes full use of camera angles, sharp cutting, shadows, ghost effects and a sinister soundtrack. Variety Director Jack (Room at the Top) Clayton, sensitively seconded by Cameraman Freddie Frances, has filled every coign and corridor with a dangerous, intelligent darkness. Moreover, the main performances are most capably carried off. Time

Sound of Cinema: Landmarks – The Innocents

A Landmark edition recorded in front of an audience at the British Film Institute as part of the Sound of Cinema season: Matthew Sweet is joined by the film’s stars Peter Wyngarde and Clytie Jessop, psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, writer and critic Christopher Frayling and stage and screenwriter Jeremy Dyson to examine the British horror classic The Innocents.

Images: (Above Left) – Matthew Sweet and Peter. (Below Right) – Peter, Susie Orbach, Clytie Jessop & Jeremy Dyson.

The Innocents is a supernatural horror film based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James starring Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens, the young governess who begins her first assignment caring for two orphaned children on a remote estate. She becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted – the film achieving its gothic effects through lighting, music and direction rather than conventional shocks, as we follow the increasingly erratic behaviour and visible deterioration of the ever-present governess. But are we watching a real ghost story or is this just the projection of the imagination of the repressed governess?

As part of Radio 3’s Sound of Cinema season, Matthew Sweet and guests are joined by an audience at the British Film Institute for a Landmark edition of Night Waves, to examine how the combination of cinematography, the script of William Archibald and Truman Capote and Georges Auric’s original music and the direction of Jack Clayton created a masterpiece that terrified even the critics.

Producer: Laura Thomas.

Credits

Presenter: Matthew Sweet

Guests: 

• Peter Wyngarde
• Susie Orbach
• Christopher Frayling
• Jeremy Dyson
• Clytie Jessop

Featured in…

• Landmarks A series from Free Thinking and Night Waves devoted to celebrating cultural landmarks.
• Sound of Cinema season Listen to highlights from the Sound of Cinema season on Radio 3.

The Innocents voted one of the Top 10 most scary films of all time by The Guardian

This is absolute classic British black-and-white horror, creepy and atmospheric despite – or perhaps because of – the elegance and gentility of its visuals. Adapted fairly freely from Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, via William Archibald’s play and Truman Capote’s dialogue, it was directed by Jack Clayton, who had just had a big hit with the kitchen-sink flagwaver, Room at the Top. The Innocents couldn’t be more different.

Essentially, it is a story of possession. Deborah Kerr plays Miss Giddens, a governess hired to look after little Flora and Miles by their uncle (Michael Redgrave). The pair initially seem sweet and fun but, as is the way with creepy horror-film kids, they soon turn demonic and troubled. The first intimation of this arrives when it transpires that Miles has been expelled from school, as a “bad influence”; this is compounded by the children’s odd behaviour, apparent secrets and reports of strange visions.

Miss Giddens eventually connects all this to two previous employees of the house, both dead: governess Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop), and valet Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde), who were locked in an abusive relationship. Are Jessel and Quint using the children as vehicles to continue it from beyond the grave?

With legendary cameraman Freddie Francis on board, supplying arguably his most spectacular visual accompaniment to the action, this is a film in which setting and atmosphere play a significant role in beefing up the Freudian subtexts. The final scene earned the film an X-certificate on its initial release, and an enduring reputation as a properly disturbing depiction of repressed sexuality.

Above Left: Peter as the ghost of Peter Quint atop ‘Bly House’ and, Right, the house at Sheffield Park, East Sussex, where the scene was shot.

Click below for more information on ‘The Innocents’…