Country: GB
Technical: col 96m
Director: Michael Winner
Cast: Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beecham, Thora Hird, Harry Andrews, Verna Harvey
Synopsis:
The story of how the children in The Turn of the Screw became so disturbed, through their governess's passion for the groom, Peter Quint, and his tutorship regarding worldly matters.
Review:
What ought to have been a quite chilling journey to the end of the night, preparing us for the latent evil of its literary forbear, is almost doomed before it begins by accepting as fact the novel's ambiguous premise. These kids are eager students of Quint as well as Miss Jessel, and there is little frisson at their subsequent misdeeds. Furthermore, Winner lays on the sex with a shovel too soon, making it already a fait accompli and withdrawing credibility as to Miss Jessel's infatuation. Meanwhile, Brando mumbles away in his Irish brogue, and Jerry Fielding's soundtrack and Winner's banal framing and zooming make it all feel more like a Sunday evening serial than a tale of child abuse.
Country: GB
Technical: col 96m
Director: Michael Winner
Cast: Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beecham, Thora Hird, Harry Andrews, Verna Harvey
Synopsis:
The story of how the children in The Turn of the Screw became so disturbed, through their governess's passion for the groom, Peter Quint, and his tutorship regarding worldly matters.
Review:
What ought to have been a quite chilling journey to the end of the night, preparing us for the latent evil of its literary forbear, is almost doomed before it begins by accepting as fact the novel's ambiguous premise. These kids are eager students of Quint as well as Miss Jessel, and there is little frisson at their subsequent misdeeds. Furthermore, Winner lays on the sex with a shovel too soon, making it already a fait accompli and withdrawing credibility as to Miss Jessel's infatuation. Meanwhile, Brando mumbles away in his Irish brogue, and Jerry Fielding's soundtrack and Winner's banal framing and zooming make it all feel more like a Sunday evening serial than a tale of child abuse.
