DVD Review: Cynicism hasn’t deadened ‘The Innocents’

If Amazon comments are any indication, few films demonstrate the change in audience expectations over the last 50 years better than “The Innocents,” director Jack Clayton’s classic 1961 adaptation of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw.” Amid the numerous positive comments are many about how “boring” and “unscary” it is — almost surely made by viewers desensitized by decades of shock cutting, CGI monsters and buckets of blood.

James referred to “The Turn of the Screw” as a “ghost story,” even while refusing to clarify its carefully constructed ambiguity. Deborah Kerr plays the originally nameless governess (here called Miss Giddens) who arrives at an old gothic mansion to take care of two pre-adolescent siblings — Miles (Martin Stevens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin, in her first film role). The only other clearly living presence is Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins), the housekeeper.

Unfortunately, Miss Giddens begins to see and hear other presences — apparently groundskeeper Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde, who gets remarkably high billing in the credits, given that he has no lines and is on screen less than a minute) and the previous governess, Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop). Giddens is dismayed, given that both died under unpleasant circumstances roughly a year earlier.

Shot in black-and-white in classic Hollywood style, with just a few deliberately jarring touches of transgressive modernity, it’s Clayton’s greatest achievement. Freddie Francis’ cinematography is extraordinary, particularly when you realize that 20th Century Fox forced him and Clayton to shoot in CinemaScope, which should be utterly antithetical to the movie’s tone. The screenplay was by Truman Capote, a surprising but inspired choice.

The three supplements (totaling about an hour) are all excellent: In a recently shot interview, current cinematographer John Bailey (“Groundhog Day”) vividly explains the solutions Francis and Clayton came up; the actual shoot is recalled by key crew members in interviews conducted in 2006; and, standing at the site where the exteriors were shot, film historian Christopher Frayling tells us the project’s history. Frayling goes into greater detail during a full-length commentary track.

“The Innocents” creates a spellbinding mood, so watching at home really requires that you turn off the lights, the phone and all other electronic devices. The most successful relatively recent attempt at a similar effect is Alejandro Amenabar’s brilliant 2001 “The Others,” clearly inspired, at least in part, by “The Innocents,” though without the earlier film’s still-potent ambiguity.

The Innocents (Criterion, Blu-ray, $39.95; DVD, two discs, $29.95)

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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).