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DVD The Innocents
The definitive screen adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, the 1961 production of The Innocents remains one of the most effective ghost stories ever filmed. Originally promoted as the first truly "adult" chiller of the big screen (a marginally valid claim considering the release of Psycho a year earlier), the film arrived at a time when the thematic depth of James's story could finally be addressed without the compromise of reductive discretion. And while the Freudian anxiety that fuels the story may seem tame by today's standards, the psychological horrors that comprise the story's "dark secret" are given full expression in a film that brilliantly clouds the boundary between tragic reality and frightful imagination.
In one of her finest performances, Deborah Kerr stars as Miss Giddons, a devout and somewhat repressed spinster who happily accepts the position of governess for two orphaned children whose uncle (Michael Redgrave) readily admits to having no interest in being tied down by two "brats." So Miss Giddons is dispatched to Bly House, the lavish, shadowy estate where young Flora (Pamela Franklin) and her brother Miles (Martin Stephens, so memorable in 1960's Village of the Damned) live with a good-natured housekeeper (Megs Jenkins). At first, life at Bly House seems splendidly idyllic, but as Miss Giddons learns the horrible truth about the estate's now-deceased groundskeeper and previous governess, she begins to suspect that her young charges are ensnared in a devious plot from beyond the grave.
Ghostly images are revealed in only the most fleeting glimpses, and the outstanding Cinemascope photography by Freddie Francis (who used special filters to subtly darken the edges of the screen) turns Bly House into a welcoming mansion by day, a maze of mystery and terror by night. Sound effects and music are used to bone-chilling effect, and director Jack Clayton, blessed with a script by William Archibald and Truman Capote, maintains a deliberate pace to emphasize the ambiguity of James's timeless novella. The result is a masterful film--comparable to the 1963 classic The Haunting--that uses subtlety and suggestion to reach the pinnacle of fear. --Jeff Shannon
This movie. Of course is classic because made 1961 ..Doesn't mean is good & great classic movie, because is old!!. Like that cheesy over rated movie call "THE HAUNTING"(1963) with cheesy lame story and special effects, but the innocents, a bit better seen then "the haunting".! I guess is ok for rental and one time seen,If u like old movies. But not definitely to buy for sure. just have a little old chessy/suspense, that's all about it!
Wonderful classic entertainment...
I order so many of these classic films that I believe my wife may leave me if just one more silent film graces my dvd player. On that note, a sarcastic one at that, I would say that this film was highly entertaining. The acting is superb and the storyline is well written. I will agree that the pace may or may not allow younger viewers to become engulfed with the story, but I am only 31 and was "locked in" from the first scene. A true winner for classic horror fans. Also seek out Village of the Damned which was released in the same time period. Great Stuff!!!!
The Innocents Revisited
An interesting adaption of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw." A new governess Miss Giddens moves to an enormous house in the English countryside to oversee the care of two precocious children Miles and Flora. Soon hints are being dropped by the aging housekeeper Mrs. Grose of the earlier darker influence of a caretaker and a governess both not too long ago dead of unnatural causes. Soon Miss Giddens is seeing their ghosts, standing in the tower or in the garden or moving through darkened hallways while she hears more about what might be their morbid influence on the two children whom Miss Giddens comes to believe are possessed. The film is shot in vibrant black and white by soon to be horror director Freddie Francis. The performances are all excellent and, though the film is very slow-moving by contemporary standards, there are a few jolts along the way including some of the old cheapies like bumping into a statue in a darkened hallway. I find the film less frightening then I did as a child. At that time, I felt sorry for the poor Miss Giddens, besieged by ghosts on all sides. Now my feelings towards the character are considerably different and the film suffers as a result. I kept wishing one of the children would pull a gun on her and lock her in a closet. The film is well-presented. The print looks good. For some reason, a full screen version of the film is presented on the A side of the disk. The B side contains the widescreen version for those who wish to see how much they've missed watching the A side. There is a laughably bad trailer for the film also included. I wonder if the English trailer might have been a little better. There is also an annoying ad complaining about stealing films by downloading. I must admit to resenting being forced to watch an ad suggesting I am stealing films after just purchasing the disk on which the ad resides.
This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, Youth Runs Wild and Mademoiselle Fifi.)
Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Boris Karloff DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Poor Charlotte Hollis. She's been shunned by the community for decades, ever since the fateful night in 1927 when her lover was hacked apart with an axe. Her antebellum southern mansion is slated for the bulldozer, as it stands in the way of highway construction. Charlotte's only hope lies in her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), coming down from up north to help settle things. Miriam, however, has other designs. Together with her boyfriend Drew (Joseph Cotten), she embarks on a scheme to systematically drive Charlotte out of her mind (not a great leap) and get her mitts on the family fortune. From there, things only get more complicated. Charlotte puts the "gothic" in southern gothic, as a great showcase for completely bizarre, overwrought, and out-of-control performances from... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bette Davis - Olivia de Havilland - Joseph Cotten Director(s): Robert Aldrich DVD Release Date: Released the 09 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.
To his lasting credit, Tyrone Power--20th Century Fox's extraordinarily handsome but not terribly interesting star of the '30s and '40s--begged for the chance to play Stan Carlisle, the predatory charmer who snakes his way through this bracingly unwholesome story. A spieler for--and lover of--carnival mind reader Zeena (Joan Blondell), he displays uncanny skill at "reading" the susceptible rubes, including a tough sheriff who turns to jelly after Stan psychs him out. Once Stan's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tyrone Power - Joan Blondell - Coleen Gray Director(s): Edmund Goulding DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Part mystery, part wartime polemic, Lifeboat finds director Alfred Hitchcock tackling a cinematic challenge that foreshadows the self-imposed handicaps of Rope and Rear Window. As with those subsequent features, Hitchcock confines his action and characters to a single set, in this instance the lone surviving lifeboat from an Allied freighter sunk by a German U-boat in the North Atlantic. A less confident, ingenious filmmaker might have opened up John Steinbeck's dialogue-driven character study beyond the battered boat and its cargo of survivors, but Hitchcock instead revels in his predicament to exploit the enforced intimacy between his characters.
