Flora, who appears to be a sweet little girl. Soon after her arrival, Miles arrives, having been expelled from boarding school. Seems he corrupted the other boys. Nothing more is said. The housekeeper, kindly old Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins), can't believe it. She maintains that Miles and Flora are innocents. Miss Giddens isn't so sure. She becomes obsessed with the former governess, Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop). There's some dark secret surrounding her. Miss Giddens pries it out of Mrs. Grose. Seems there was a valet who ran the estate. Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde) was a cruel and domineering man. Miss Jessel was devoted to him. Turns out, so was Miles. Quint treated Miss Jessel like his slave. Used her for whatever he wanted. Wherever he wanted. No matter who was watching. Right in front of Miles and Flora. They got an early education in things they should never have known. Then Quint died in an accident. Miles was distraught. So was Miss Jessel. After pining away for several months she drowned herself in the lake. Trouble is, as in all good Gothic horror stories, the dead don't stay in their graves. Quint's and Miss Jessel's hunger and desire drive their spirits to use Flora and Miles to fulfill their beastly desires. Miss Giddens is determined to stop this, to save the children, at any cost. The price turns out to be higher than she imagined.
The Innocents is not just another ghost story though. It deals with some subjects that were simply not dealt with in movies in 1961. Sexual perversion. Domination and submission. Child abuse. These things aren't talked about outright. You couldn't do that in 1961. Instead, they're hinted at. Alluded to. Suggested. It's not hard to miss the implications and allusions. These children were enthralled to a man who abused them, who abused their governess, who still cannot let them go. His hold on their young minds extends beyond the grave. But is it a real ghost? Or is it all in the mind of Miss Giddens. Mrs. Grose claims she doesn't see the ghosts, even when Miss Giddens is looking straight
at them. Flora and Miles deny the presence of ghosts too, but they would. This calls into question Miss Giddens' sanity. Has she taken the stories told to her by Mrs. Grose and created in her own mind something that did not exist? Has she summoned up the ghosts from her own self-conscience? Does her insistence that the children face their demons cause them more damage by forcing them to relive again the horrors they endured while Quint and Miss Jessel were alive and rampaging through the house? None of these questions are answered in the film. The audience is left to draw their own conclusions. Three possibilities exist: 1) the children were abused and there are ghosts trying to possess them; 2) the children were abused and Miss Giddins thinks the Quint's and Miss Jessel's influence over the children are ghosts trying to possess them; 3) the cheese done slipped off Miss Giddins' cracker. In any case, it all makes for one mighty good story, with a few hair raising moments.
The Innocents was adapted from William Archibald's 1950 Broadway play of the same title, which was in turn adapted from Henry James' novella, "The Turn of the Screw." The movie is filmed in starkly contrasted black and white, with plenty of deep, deep shadows where anything could be lurking. The country estate house is expansive, and the film is shot in wide screen, but Clayton fills the scenes with darkness, crowding the actors, hemming them in and creating that
wonderfully claustrophobic atmosphere that every good horror movie needs. Interestingly, most of the images of the "ghosts" appear not at night in darkened hallways, but in broad daylight, standing atop a tower, standing in the middle of a lake, sitting at a school desk. The juxtaposition of the dead under the bright sunlight lends a creepiness that would not exist had they appeared out of the shadows. Quint's ghost also appears at night in the window, leering, smirking, laughing, mocking Miss Giddens' attempts to pry the children out of his grasp. Then there are the voices and the laughing that Miss Giddens hears at night. Or does she hear them? No one else seems to. Not even Mrs. Grose. All of this combines to create a wonderful ghost story or a great psychological thriller, or both. It's hard to say. But I'll guarantee that it'll send a chill or two up your spine.
The Innocents is unrated, but I'd rate it PG on account of mature subject matter and disturbing scenes.
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