Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Written by Bryan Forbes from a novel by Mark McShane
1964/UK
Beaver Films/Allied Filmmakers
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
[box] Myra Savage: What we are doing is a means to an end. Now you agree with the end, don’t you? Well then you must agree with the means! You can’t have one without the other.[/box]
This unsettling gem contains two of the greatest performances you will ever see.
Myra (Kim Stanley) and Billy Savage (Richard Attenborough) are a childless married couple of limited means. He is unable to work due to asthma and she makes a small living by holding weekly seances. She claims to be in communication with Arthur, their baby who was stillborn. Arthur gives her many bad ideas.
Arthur inspires Myra to concoct a scheme in which the couple will kidnap a wealthy family’s daughter. Aside from collecting a ransom, Myra will gain fame and fortune by intuiting the location of the girl. A very reluctant Billy is assigned all the dirty work involved. Nothing, but nothing, will go the way it was planned.
The thriller plot is interesting but more than anything this is a sensitive study of two lonely people, one of whom is deranged and the other of whom is desperately weak. You really believe things could happen just this way. The camerawork is super effective. It’s been a while since I watched it last time and it was just as good as I remembered if not more so. dHighly recommended.
Kim Stanley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Richard Attenborough was at least her equal and got shafted.
I love this movie so much. Kim Stanley was my choice for Best Actress for 1964, and I agree that Attenborough was terribly snubbed for one of his best all-time performances.
This is one I proselytize whenever I get the chance. So good, and so damn disturbing.
Everybody who can tolerate the child abuse aspects of this one really should see it.
Extraordinary to think that Kim Stanley lost to Julie Andrews (whom I adore) for “Mary Poppins.’ But the Oscars are never political, are they? (wink) – I agree with you, Bea – this is an extraordinary film with magnificent performances by Stanley and Richard Attenborough – it DOES bog down in certain parts, but, ultimately, it’s a stunning film that remains with one for days – at least that was my experience the first time I saw it – Kim Stanley was a premiere stage actress, but her film appearances were scant and not very memorable, “Seance” notwithstanding
Who was to argue with a character who was “practically perfect in every way”? But Stanley was magnificent – a brilliant mixture of girlish and steely. Thanks for commenting!