The Innocents (1961) Movie Reaction | FIRST TIME WATCHING | PLUS Film Commentary & Trivia | Horror

[@MoviesWithMarty]

NOTE: I have realised I've mis-pronounced Deborah Kerr's surname, which should be pronounced as "Car". Apologies about that! Also, I didn't get a chance to add any of the commentary track from the Criterion release of the film, but here it is in full that someone has kindly uploaded! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqjZqKCpjK-EkNU&ab_channel=ClassicsCollection Thank you for watching

[@HuntingViolets]

Kerr is one name I've been meaning to look up, as I've heard it three different ways. Thanks for this info. You still left the end of Capote's name off, though. :)

[@michaelpennington7800]

I saw this film as a 7 year old boy upon release in 1971. I have always thought this an amazing film with beautiful cinematography, story, and acting. I, as a boy, believed totally the ghosts were possessing the children. Kerr, and indeed many who discuss the film, felt Mrs. Giddons was projecting, and nothing was really happening. I can't agree. Flora spouting obscenities and Miles at the end with Quint behind the glass, spouting obscenities made me, as a viewer, believe the ghosts were real. Even Mrs. Grosse said things that were not in Mrs. Giddon's mind. Miles soliloquy was absolutely incredible. Thank you, Marty.

[@spirogoritz-x5x]

Addition to what I wrote below - another outstanding movie made out of a Henry James story is The Heiress. I think you whould love it. Willow Waly!

[@douglascollier7767]

O willow waly...and this film gets in your brain and won't leave. I love it. Thank you. And, Thank You!

[@willmacintyre649]

"The Innocents" is pure class and a masterclass of film. O Willow Waly.

[@Adeodatus100]

I'm only 10 minutes in, but I love the way you're "getting" this film. The restless camera, the dark edges of the wide-screen - the cinematography is just _art!_ This is my favourite horror film of all time, and scared the crap out of me when I first saw it in my teens. Even now I get goosebumps as soon as I hear that voice singing O Willow Waly.

[@marlasotherchannel9847]

Willow Waly. I would like to give a shoutout for Michael Redgrave, a tremendous actor. He starred in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" 1938 and "The Browning Version" 1951, both I highly recommend. Another great job putting this together Marty!

[@jtt6650]

Victorian Gothic horror had a resurgence in the 1960’s. Since you obviously appreciate the finer details of this movie, you will most likely “love” THE HAUNTING (1963). 😱 It’s extremely eerie and psychologically unsettling throughout. Martin Scorsese lists it no. 1 on his 11 greatest horror movies of all time 🎥…and Oh Willow Waly

[@HuntingViolets]

Yes, I wish more people would watch these two before the miniseries (plural) extremely loosely inspired by the same material.

[@MoviesWithMarty]

I shall certainly place that on the list! Thank you for that. Yes, I very much enjoyed the fine details of this one! Ooh I do love an eerie, psychological film! I can't wait! Thank you

[@MoviesWithMarty]

Definitely. More people should delve into the classics!

[@sueacord1678]

Over 55 years ago I saw this movie. I was about 12 years old and I couldn't sleep for days. At the same time I was studying piano and one of my pieces reminded me of the song. This whole movie creeped me out and I loved it. I love your reaction to it, because I felt the same. I have to say I do not think The Exorcist creeped me out as much as The Innocents.

[@Dej24601]

O Willow Waly! 🎵This would be a spectacular experience on the big screen; I haven’t had the opportunity but would love to see it in the theater. Perhaps a film festival will include it sometime.

[@TessAvelland_1]

I'm so glad you enjoyed The Innocents! I thought you might. 😊 It's my favorite black-and-white film of all time, and a top 10 favorite horror as well. Years ago, when my kittens Oliver and Scout were little, if they were bad I'd call them Miles and Flora. They always promised to be EVER so good now! but I was skeptical, and always with good reason. 😉 I've got so much to say about this movie I hardly know where to begin. Also I'm worried you'll think (to use Miles' words) that I'm 'a damned hussy! a damned dirty-minded hag!!' Under the eerie, pretty, and ultimately tragic surface of the film, there is SUCH a dark, dark undercurrent of innocence corrupted and it's hinted at in symbolic yet explicit ways, over and over. More to come. For now, I'm singing O Willow Waly 🎵

[@jamesharper3933]

Wow! This film is a part of my annual Halloween film festival and I shared your joy and fascination while watching. Horror was transitioning from the 1950's, which was mostly sci-fi or Universal monster movies, to the 1960's which focused more on the psychological or violence. Psycho was a big influence on the progression of these movies. Other films of the 60's worth noting are Black Sunday, Village of the Damned, Peeping Tom, Carnival of Souls, The Innocents, Strait-Jacket, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Haunting, Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary's Baby. Great reaction again.👍

[@geraldmcboingboing7401]

I have two other films on DVD with Pamela Franklin: The Horse Without A Head (1963) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She's a very talented actress and more than holds her own with Maggie Smith in the latter.

[@pennypierce6511]

Great reaction, as usual. Put the Uninvited 1948? on your list. Haunted house galore

[@donkfail1]

Great commentary and trivia as always. I think the movie hadn't been such a classic if Truman Capote hadn't reworked the script. Before he did his thing there was no doubt about a supernatural reason for what happens. Now it's more ambiguous.

[@D-Cameron]

If you haven't yet done so, you should dip back another year to 1960 and watch Village of the Damned, which is also an excellent and intelligent creepy film, and co-incidentally features Martin Stephens as an even creepier child than he was in this film.

[@MoviesWithMarty]

I certainly have watched it for the channel since watching this (I mention it nearer the end of this), yep, with the utterly amazing Martin Stephens, who yes exactly, performs just as creepy! 😜 It's available as an Uncut reaction at the moment, but not sure yet when that will come to the channel. It's fantastic! I had a tinker and recreated the eye thing (the same way they do) for the start of the video too haha! Thank you so much for watching Cameron!

[@D-Cameron]

@@MoviesWithMarty Yes, I just finished your video and realise that my comment was redundant! I shall watch your reaction to VOTD if it ever makes it to KZbin.

[@HuntingViolets]

Great reaction! Oh, Willow Waly.

[@leehallam9365]

Well I have to say Oh Willow Waly, fascinating reaction to a great film. I think the books original title makes it clear that it is about a creeping insanity rather than real ghosts, or perhaps the ghosts sent her mad. A mention to lovely warm performance as the house keeper, Megs Jenkins. She is a face from my childhood, as she played the similarly warm farmers wife in Worzel Gummage, with Jon Pertwee.

[@HuntingViolets]

Capability Brown. I love that. Virtue names are so fun. (I've had a character name idea that's pretty similar for a while too.)

[@celladora31]

Thanks!

[@MoviesWithMarty]

Aww MONICA! Thank you so much!! That means a lot. I'm so glad you loved the video. It was a delight to watch and bring to the channel. Plus, a superb creepy film! Thank you so much for watching and supporting ❤️

[@MFuria-os7ln]

I love Deborah Kerr. I think she's quite underrated. Great actress, witty,charming...CLASS itself!

[@IvorPresents]

O willow wally indeed. 1961 I was thirteen and I was going to go out to Radio City with my Grandmother. My Grandmother did not like the film, a lot of it went over my head but I was impressed with the eerie nature of the images. Very impressive visually. the close contender was filmed two years later. Another classic black and white ghost story, The Haunting. 1963.

[@HuntingViolets]

I'm so excited!

[@storyandsoulgardening]

Omgoodness!! This is my movie. I haven't seen it in 20yra.

[@jacquespoulemer]

O Willow Waly O Woe is We. Hi Marty, Thanks so much, you just being yourself is wonderful just for you, but above and beyond that you remind me of my constantly commenting family. Watching movies was my dad's dry humor, my brother's hilarious quips, my mom's "Don't answer that phone!!!" and my own contributions. The Innocents was consistently guilty of using visual clues against your expertise. I love this movie and have a couple of points. Do Read the Henry James 1898 novella....it's not long and is a great read. And you never mentioned Benjamin Britten's 1950 opera The Turn of The Screw. One of my favorites and availible on the you-tubas. Jacques the Noisy living in mexico where the people also talk during movies heheehe

[@redcardinalist]

The Innocents was directed by Jack Clayton; an great director who sadly, only directed a few films in his career; but what films they were. Can I point you to "Our Mother's House", which I think you'll like.

[@celladora31]

ahhhh! Best day ever! 🎉 😀

[@MoviesWithMarty]

Welcome back Celladora! I hope you're well 🥳 Thanks for joining me again 🎉

[@celladora31]

​​@@MoviesWithMarty My take on this one is: the uncle was driving her crazy in order to get rid of Miles and Flora. Miles said "he doesn't care what happens to us". Where did the uncle meet a man like Quint in the first place? Ms Jessel was no lady and she didn't seem to do any teaching just singing and dancing "danced by the hour". Sounds like Ms Jessel worked in a saloon or dance hall. My guess is she and Quint already knew each other. Then the uncle hires this woman who had zero experience being a governess. The uncle has to maintain a country estate year round for the children. That's a good deal of money spent. Mrs Gross says they "could use another pair of hands" perhaps the uncle is skimping on their care or is running low on money. If the children had trust money....well the uncle would benefit if anything happened to the children, no?

[@EuroCultMix]

Deborah Kerr is also excellent in Black Narcissus

[@HuntingViolets]

This book has had a debate over whether there is a haunting or it's the governess (unnamed in the novel) imagining things who is mad and the cause of Miles' death. The movie portrays that pretty well. She always seems mad to me, though. She sees things and projects it on the children. She sensed the housekeeper's fear (she says), but the housekeeper just seems confused by her rantings.

[@auntvesuvi3872]

I love this one, Marty! 😱 It's, by far, the best telling of THE TURN OF THE SCREW (1898), as far as I'm concerned. But THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR (2020) has its charms, too. 🔸 Are you hearing "O Willow Waly" in your head?

[@Az12er34ty]

If you like this, you will also like Seance on a Wet Afternoon. 1964, British, and an incredible cast. And B&W.

[@Adeodatus100]

Re: Bly Manor. The source material for this film is Henry James's novella The Turn Of The Screw, and it's a fairly faithful adaptation - the great thing in the book is the ambiguity over what's "really" happening. Mike Flanagan loosely used that novella, along with material from several other Henry James stories, for his series The Haunting Of Bly Manor. Edit: "Bly Manor" also features the song ... O Willow Waly.

[@karenfritsche2249]

Two great ghost stories were made into brilliant films in the 1960's: "The Innocents," and "The Haunting." One down, Marty, and one to go. Willow Waly.

[@EuroCultMix]

The cinematographer Freddie Francis directed a handful of Hammer and other British low budget horror films in the sixties and seventies before going back to cinematography. He later shot Dune, The Elephant Man, and The Straight Story for David Lynch.

[@michaelpennington7800]

O Willow Waly, thanks Marty. I saw the film at release when I was a boy of only seven. Everything about it is outstanding. I disagree with most, including those that were part of the wonderful production. I always felt the ghosts were real, not just Mrs. Giddon's imagination. Mrs. Grosse was aware of things amiss before Mrs. Giddons was tapping into the spookiness at hand. At least as a boy, I felt this, I have never been persuaded otherwise.

[@HuntingViolets]

It would have been interesting for Cary Grant to play the uncle, with Giddens' instacrush on the character. No one would wonder at it then. And Grant and Kerr co-starred in _An Affair to Remember._

[@aurasunshine9428]

O Willow Wally! As a big fan of Deborah Kerr, I really enjoyed watching your reaction movie video! I hope you'll watch Deborah Kerr's film: The Chalk Garden (1964) also! 🫶🏻

[@spirogoritz-x5x]

When Turn of the Screw was published it was taken as a straight ghost story and it was only a generation later that the great critic Edmund Wilson in "The Ambiguity of Henry James" that the tale could be seen as the governess as the evil one. The film can be seen as the story of the governess as so sexually repressed that she is shocked out of her mind that the children were sexually corrupted by the dead lovers and it was her duty to "save" them. The Innocents is my choice as one of the best photographed black and white movie ever made and why it can often be superior to color, especially in the atmospheric way it is used here.

[@davidlionheart2438]

"What do birds mean?"...........In Greek mythology and many European folklore traditions birds are psychpomps, the classical Greek term for the entities that are charged with guiding newly deceased souls to the afterlife. The imagery and sounds of birds in "The Innocents" is quite purposeful with that in mind.

[@HuntingViolets]

I just recently went to a Q&A with Joe Dante. They didn't get around to talking about this movie, alas.

[@alansmith1989]

Marty. I saw your `Ghost and Mrs Muir` reaction. Glad you liked it. If you get time, please check out `Portrait of Jennie` (1948) starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton. It has a rather similar theme to `Ghost` and I have loved it ever since I first saw it in the 1960s!

[@MoviesWithMarty]

@@alansmith1989 Thank you for this and for watching! I'm so glad you love it. I certainly shall, I'll add it to my suggestions list! (Pinned public post on Patreon) I do love a ghostly, supernatural film! Very much appreciated. Have a lovely day and thank you again!

[@alansmith1989]

@@MoviesWithMarty Marty. I do hope you do get a chance to watch `Portrait of Jenny` The film (in my view) is just superb! You enjoyed `The Ghost and Mrs Muir` and good as that one undoubtedly is, I think `Portrait of Jennie` is even better!

[@pennypierce6511]

I'm back, The Uninvited, 1944. Please put on your watch list. Thanks

[@craigcurtis5965]

Wow! How about check out THE TURN OF THE SCREW. It's a classic ghost story.

[@aranerem5569]

Hi Marty

[@Opium1958]

Wasn't this movie remade? I could've sworn I remember a 90s version

[@HuntingViolets]

Pamela Franklin (now retired from show business, unfortunately for us) was an incredible actress. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, of course, but I also want to mention _The Legend of Hell House,_ because I think of the character Florence in that as a bit of an older Flora (of course the timeline doesn't work for that -- just a bit of fun).

[@jamesj.navagh222]

O Willow Waly is awesome. Here's my take. In the novella James intentionally made the objective existence of the ghosts ambiguous. The governess sees Quint up close and then describes his distinctive red hair and sideburns without any prior knowledge of his features. Then later Mrs. Gross says that she did not see the ghosts. Therefore it's ambiguous and you can argue it eigher way. In the film Miss Giddens doesn't see Quint up close until after she sees his picture in the locket. By inserting this scene the ambiguity is removed. Also the references to the children being exposed to Quint and Miss Jessup's sexual activity isn't in the book. The film suggests that Miss Giddens sees the ghosts because she is sexually repressed, a more psychological but less ambiguous explanation. In the book she wasn't sexually repressed she was just naive and infatuated with the uncle and looking for an excuse to contact him.

[@MaD-gs9qx]

This is based on "The Turning Of The Screw" by Henry James.

[@aranerem5569]

Did you see the movie Tarzan and the great river Marty?