YMMV / The Innocents

• Adaptation Displacement: This is easily the most famous film adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, and certain details such as the governess's name being Miss Giddens and her repressed sexuality being part of the story are taken as canon from the novella - as well as Quint and Miss Jessel's relationship being possibly abusive (in the novella they were merely known to be in love before he died). The Innocents actually takes more from a 1951 stage play, albeit it returns to the novella's ambiguity about the ghosts (the play confirms they are real).
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Are the ghosts real? Or is Miss Giddens simply imagining it? Her very first scene has her telling the uncle that she has quite a vivid imagination. And having been raised in a cramped house in the city, she's bound to be a little bored of Bly and only two children who are 'easy to live with'. The big thing is that she doesn't see Quint's ghost up close until after she's seen his picture in the attic.
  • The counter argument to the above is that Miss Giddens spots mysterious people apparently hanging around the house long before she knows two servants died^note She knows Miss Jessel died but doesn't find out the circumstances until much later.. Similarly she hears someone calling out Flora's name in the garden as soon as she arrives at the house - and Mrs Grose confirms it wasn't her. When we hear Anna the maid talk, it doesn't sound like her voice either. Then there's the scene where Miss Giddens sees Miss Jessel on the lake. When she mentions it to Flora, the girl gives her a very odd look. While it's ambiguous, something about Flora's expression seems to say "you can see her too?"
  • Also how aware are the children that Miss Giddens suspects ghosts? Could their behaviour be a cruel joke to make her think the house is haunted?
  • Is Miss Giddens a pedophile? It isn't outside the realm of possibility that her overactive imagination tells her that Miles is possessed by the ghost of a handsome man - to justify her attraction to a young boy. She gets Miles alone for the climax. Is she really just planning to appropriately make her move? Adding on to this, Miss Giddens does describe Quint as handsome from his picture - so is she convincing herself he's possessing Miles as a way of living out a romantic fantasy with this attractive stranger?
  • If the ghosts are real, then can Mrs Grose actually see them or is she just in complete denial? Does she just believe "it's none of my business, I'm not getting involved". She never actually says she didn't see a ghost; she just says "I know what I saw" - and the idea of the governess being mad is probably easier to think of than two ghosts possessing the children. Flora lends a lot of merit to this earlier, where she says Mrs Grose often tells them to pretend they don't see things.
  • Does Miles actually have a crush on Miss Giddens? Or is he a budding manipulator like Quint and his uncle, and Miss Giddens is the only woman available?
  • There's also the matter of how much sympathy Miss Jessel actually deserves. Miss Giddens seems to pity her for being seduced by Quint, and she only expresses dislike for her apparent possession of Flora. As noted under Values Dissonance below, the relationship may not have been traditionally abusive - but more of a BDSM type thing. The fact that she allowed this to go on in front of the children makes her look quite unsympathetic. As the governess, she would have more power than Quint (who was a valet) and could probably have got the uncle to dismiss him if he was really bothering her.
  • This veers into Wild Mass Guessing, but if Quint and Miss Jessel's relationship was abusive, what if Miss Jessel was the one who killed him? He's found having slipped and fallen on the steps outside. It would be easy for Miss Jessel to kill him that way, with the only witnesses being Mrs Grose and Anna (who wouldn't be likely to be outside). What if her suicide was more motivated by remorse, or fear that she'd be caught?
  • This too veers into Wild Mass Guessing, but is it possible that Quint may have groomed and molested Miles? Mrs. Grose speaks of how close they were, Miles always "trotting after" Quint, and from what is known of Quint's character, it is perhaps likely he would have taken advantage of the child's admiration. There is also the mention of constant secret-keeping on the children's part (Miles can be heard repeating "It's a secret" during Miss Giddens's dream sequence), and some of Miles's rather sexually precocious behaviour, such as kissing Miss Giddens on the mouth (he may believe that it's completely normal for adults and children to interact that way) lends itself to the interpretation.
• Applicability: Miss Giddens's and Mrs Grose's contrasting attitudes to what's happening to the children - ghosts or not - could be parallelled to different ways of coping with traumatic events. Mrs Grose believes in repression and simply never talking about the trauma to avoid unnecessary pain. Miss Giddens however believes in confronting it head on. If we go by the fates of the two children neither attempt is successful - suggesting that trauma counselling should be done by the professionals.
• Award Snub:
  • Deborah Kerr gives one of the performances widely considered to be among her best (she herself felt it was her strongest) as a governess grappling with her own sanity and repressed sexuality - and not a single nomination on any of the awards circuits.
  • Martin Stephens also gives a shockingly layered performance for a child actor - depicting a boy who is either being possessed by an adult man or dealing with trauma in a creepy way - and he too wasn't nominated for anything.
  • Freddie Francis's stunning cinematography went largely ignored by the Oscars and BAFTA ceremonies.
• Death of the Author: Jack Clayton wanted to follow Henry James's interpretation that you never found out if the ghosts were real - and was annoyed at the original screenplay by William Archibald confirming that they were real. The film never comes down on either side but it hasn't stopped people from trying to prove the 'right' interpretation.
• Genius Bonus: Miss Jessel is imagined by Miss Giddens as a woman in a complicated relationship with a man she loved, who ultimately commits suicide by drowning in the lake - details that are only given second hand (in a churchyard no less). A clear parallel to Ophelia from Hamlet. But as Miss Giddens undergoes a subtle wardrobe change until she wears a black dress like Miss Jessel's, we understand that Miss Giddens also parallels Ophelia - who at first went mad before she killed herself.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The whole film is essentially about Miles having a complicated relationship with his guardian. Martin Stephens confessed that he was pushed into acting by a Stage Mom - who wanted to live vicariously through him.
  • Miles lacking a father figure is also quite sad when you learn that Martin Stephens rarely got to see his own father because he was always busy filming, and his mother was his chaperone. The father died of cancer when Martin was only ten, and his mother got rid of all pictures and things to associate with him. He admits that the climactic scene of Miles in the garden had him channelling some very real emotions.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Pamela Franklin's first film is in a story where the ghosts may not be real. She would later do Hell House - as a medium convincing sceptics that ghosts are real.
  • Pamela Franklin would likewise have a questionable relationship with a teacher figure in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie eight years after this film.
• Jerkass Woobie: Miles may be a Creepy Child who was expelled from school because of how he behaved towards the other boys, but he's been pretty much abandoned by anyone he's ever cared about. He even latched onto a toxic father figure in Quint, and had to find that man dead. If he's being possessed, then it only increases his Woobie status.
• Les Yay: There's rather a lot of it between Miss Giddens and Mrs Grose. Specifically Mrs Grose spends almost as much time as Miles telling Miss Giddens how pretty she is. Likewise Miss Giddens has one moment where she rather tenderly says "Dear Mrs Grose." It helps that they're essentially Miles and Flora's parental figures.
• No Yay: Miss Giddens kisses Miles on the lips after he dies. He's twelve and not only is she several years older and his caretaker - but she is responsible for his death.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Michael Redgrave and his five minutes on screen as the uncle.
  • If you add up all his shots, Peter Wyngarde has roughly one minute of screen time. But isn't he memorable as Quint?
  • Miss Jessel likewise is very memorable, only being seen fully twice when she appears across the lake and when she's weeping in the school room.
• Retroactive Recognition: Flora is played by Pamela Franklin, who would be best known for her role as Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
• Sacred Cow: Considered one of the all-time classic horror films, and widely praised by both professional critics and horror fans.
• Signature Scene:
  • The extended sequence of Miss Giddens walking through the dark corridor in her nightgown, holding the candelabra and being spooked by ghostly voices.
  • Then there's Miles's infamous kiss to Miss Giddens, with Kate Bush even titling her song "The Infant Kiss" after it.
  • Additionally, Miss Giddens sitting by the lake with Flora, who begins to hum "Willow Waly" and then Miss Jessel appears across the water.
• Uncertain Audience: At the time of its release, "the art crowd" thought there was too much thunder and lightning and Hammer-esque touches. But on the flip side, Hammer fans felt the film wasn't gory enough. It's since been Vindicated by History.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Mrs. Grose tells Miss Giddens that she's seen Quint hit Miss Jessel, and that Miss Jessel acted as if that made her happy and crawled back to him. In both the Victorian Era and the time when this film was made, this would be seen as a brainwashed woman in an abusive relationship. Now, modern viewers could still take it as such, or as a consensual BDSM scene, seen through the eyes of a sheltered woman.
  • Modern viewers are more likely to assume it being abuse, now that we're removed from the British class system. Miss Jessel was the governess - and she would be given authority over the household, as Miss Giddens is (Mrs Grose and Anna answer to her). Quint is a valet - a high-ranking servant but a servant nonetheless (and less likely to be able to assert dominance over her out of fear of being dismissed). Miss Giddens's interpretation of it as an abusive relationship could also be seen as her horror at the idea of an inter-class romance.
• The Woobie:
  • Even if she isn't being possessed, Flora deserves a hug. To start off with, she's an orphan and her only living relative doesn't bother about her. She gets a mentor in Miss Jessel that she seemed to have a good relationship with - but then she was exposed to a questionable romance between the servants (it's implied she may have seen Quint and Miss Jessel having sex). Then one of the servants dies, her brother is traumatised, and her mentor drowns herself. Then Miles is sent away to boarding school, and Flora has to live alone until a new governess comes. While things start off well enough, this governess soon suffers Sanity Slippage and traumatises her even more - and then her brother dies!
  • If she is not attracted to the twelve-year-old Miles, then Miss Giddens does deserve some Woobie points. She's a governess on her first job - one which she took because she loves children and wants to care for them. She then has to deal with two extremely creepy ones who are either possessed by ghosts or dealing with emotional trauma she is not prepared to help with. If the children aren't possessed, they're still in the habit of playing nasty pranks on her, and driving her mad with their behaviour. And if they are, Miss Giddens is the only one who knows this - as Mrs Grose either can't or won't see the ghosts - and all she wants to do is help the children.

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