The Innocents (1961)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1961
Running Times: 100 mins
Length:
Format: 35mm/CinemaScope
Colour Format: black and white
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound:

DIRECTION

Directed by: Jack Clayton

PRODUCTION
Copyright: © MCMLXI [1961] Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Production Companies: Twentieth Century-Fox presents a CinemaScope picture
Released by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Executive Producer: Albert Fennell
Produced by: Jack Clayton
Production Manager: James Ware

SCRIPT
Screenplay by: William Archibald and Truman Capote
Additional Scenes & Dialogue by: John Mortimer
Based on the story "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James
Script Editor: Jeanie Sims

DIRECTION
Assistant Director: Michael Birkett
Continuity: Pamela Mann

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Freddie Francis
Camera Operator: Ronald Taylor
Focus Puller: Bernard Ford [uncredited]
Supervising Floor Electrician: Maurice Gillett
Camera Grip: Ray Jones
Lenses: Bausch & Lomb

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: James Clark
Assistant Editor: Mary Kessel

MUSIC
Music Composed by: Georges Auric
Conducted by: W. Lambert Williamson

SONGS AND ADDITIONAL MUSIC
Lyric: "O Willow Waly" by Paul Dehn

SOUND
Sound Recordists: A.G. Ambler, John Cox
Boom Operator: Ken Ritchie
Dubbing Editor: Peter Musgrave
Westrex Recording System

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Costumes Designed by: Motley
Make-up: Harold Fletcher
Hairdresser: Gordon Bond

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Wilfred Shingleton
Set Dresser: Peter James

LOCATIONS
Locations: Sheffield Park Garden, East Sussex, England, UK [uncredited]
Made at: Shepperton Studios, England
Unit Manager: Claude Watson

CAST

Deborah Kerr (Miss Giddens)

co-starring
Peter Wyngarde (Peter Quint)
Megs Jenkins (Mrs Grose)

with
Michael Redgrave as the uncle

and
Martin Stephens (Miles)
Pamela Franklin (Flora)
Clytie Jessop (Miss Jessel)
Isla Cameron (Anna)

UNCREDITED CAST

Eric Woodburn (the coachman)

PLOT SUMMARY

A governess takes up a new position looking after a young boy and girl in a remote mansion house. Initially disturbed by the brother's strange behaviour, she is soon being terrified by eerie visions as the children start to behave increasingly erratically. She learns that her predecessor had entered into an affair with the family's former manservant Peter Quint and that the malignant spirits of the two lovers are trying to pervert the innocence of the children.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Laserdisc Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video

Finland
Rating: K-16

France
Rating: U

Sweden
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: unrated

1961
National Board of Review, USA
Best Director (Jack Clayton) - winner

1962
BAFTA Awards, UK
Best British Film - nominated
Best Film from any Source - nominated

Edgar Allan Poe Awards, UK
Best Motion Picture (Truman Capote, William Archibald) - winner

Writers Guild of America, USA
Best Written American Drama (William Archibald, Truman Capote) - nominated

1962
February
19: Sweden – theatrical release

May
25: West Germany – theatrical release

August
10: Finland – theatrical release

October
2: Denmark – theatrical release

1963
June
Day Unknown: Austria – theatrical release

1995
October
4: USA - laserdisc release (Twentieth Century Fox Home Video)

2002
November
13: France - theatrical re-release

Apparitions? Evils? Corruptions?

A strange new experience in shock.

Les innocents - French title
Kauhujen linna - Finnish title
De oskyldiga – Swedish title
Schloß des Schreckens - West German title
Suspense - Italian / Spanish title
De uskyldige – Danish title

REMAKE OF
The Others (1957) (TV)
The Turn of the Screw (1959)

REMAKES
Le tour d'écrou (1974)
The Turn of the Screw (1974)
The Turn of the Screw (1982)
Otra vuelta de tuerca (1985)
The Turn of the Screw (1990a)
The Turn of the Screw (1990b)
The Turn of the Screw (1992)
The Haunting of Helen Walker (1995)
Presence of Mind (1999)
The Turn of the Screw (1999)

SEE ALSO
Believe (2000)
The Nightcomers (1972)
The Others (2001)
Quella villa accanto al cimitero (1981)
Rorret (1988)

NEWSPAPERS

Diário de Notícias 9 February 1999 p.54 (Portugal)
review

BOOKS

Horror Film Handbook by Alan Frank pp.79-80
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

films based on books, children, ghosts, governesses, haunted houses, mansions, possession, the supernatural

Last Updated: 5 November, 2009