THE HAUNTING
1963, MGM

Script: Nelson Giddings (based upon Shirley Jackson’s novel “The Haunting of Hill House”)

[Giddings cut his horror eyeteeth with Inner Sanctum episodes.]

Directed by Robert Wise

Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, Richard Johnson, Lois Maxwell

Forget Brando’s torturous bellowing in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – there are less bombastic examples of Stanislavski Method. Alongside Kim Stanley in SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON looms Julie Harris in THE HAUNTING. (Bloom has recollected that, reporting to the set each dawn, she’d find Harris already weeping quietly to herself. Poor Eleanor.) Is it possible that anyone doesn’t know this film? It’s the one about a group of psychics who stay at a haunted house to see if they can stir up a phenomenon or two. They can. In spades. The rest of the excellent cast prove compellingly mannered and nuanced, but Harris’ Eleanor – heartrending and disturbing – seems to inhabit a separate reality.

THE INNOCENTS

1961, TCF/Achiles
Script: Truman Capote and William Archibald (from “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James)
[The script won an Edgar Award. Though Capote isn’t known for his genre work, he often explored Southern Gothic terrain with his short stories, and IN COLD BLOOD is arguably one of the greatest horror novels of all time, even if it is nonfiction. Archibald had previously written the screenplay for Hitchcock’s I CONFESS.]

Directed by Jack Clayton
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave

Before leaving an indelible mark on the genre with THE HAUNTING, Julie Harris assayed the lead in a play based on perhaps the seminal psychological horror tale of modern literature. For this film version, Kerr assumed the role, supplying a persuasively neurotic performance. Even before the opening credits have rolled, her anguish hooks the viewer. Some cinematic moments never leave you. This film boasts one such frisson: the casual appearance of a phantom on a rainy afternoon ranks up there with the bending doors of THE HAUNTING. (Beware! A misbegotten prequel – THE NIGHT VISITORS with Marlon Brando – must be avoided at all costs. Truly. It may even be worse than the remake of THE HAUNTING.)

Note: The little girl in the film is Pamela Franklin who a few years later would be one of the doomed psychics in THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE. Quite a childhood.