"No one lives any nearer than town. No one will come any nearer than that. In the night. In the dark."- Mrs. Dudley, the housekeeper in THE HAUNTING.
THE HAUNTING is that welcome kind of rarity, a film adaptation that improves on the original source. Shirley Jackson's novel doesn't put the emphasis on whatever supernatural vibes may be lurking. Her real focus is the chills and shocks that are derived from the clash of personalities and wills of the characters, notably Eleanor, an embittered and repressed woman who has experienced paranormal phenomena, and Theodora, a somewhat worldly but also quite wary psychic. In the book the people are more frightening than the house. The film's director Robert Wise maintains the painful human interactions but smoothly and intelligently sharpens the presence of that dreadful something enveloping the house and its inhabitants. In the film the house becomes a fifth and menacing character.
There are odd little changes from book to film. Dr. Montague, the scholar who spearheads the paranormal project in the book, becomes Dr. Markway in the movie. Markway's wife, an disruptive, imperious shrew in the book, is softened and humanized considerably in the movie (and Mrs. Markway is played by James Bond's Miss Moneypenny, Lois Maxwell). With the exception of Russ Tamblyn (a bit out of his league here) the cast is excellent. Julie Harris, seen in too few films, plays the long suffering Eleanor to perfection. The dark, understated beauty and sexual vibrancy of Claire Bloom, expressing the fragility and viciousness of Theodora, is in ideal contrast to Harris' neurotic primness. The tension between the two women sets in motion a subtle undercurrent of desire.
Then there is the house. Photographed by Davis Boulton in chilling black and white, in harsh daylight, at odd angles and throughout its forbidding interior, it is most unsettling to gaze upon. One scene may actually haunt you: the door to the study is probed!
THE HAUNTING is that welcome kind of rarity, a film adaptation that improves on the original source. Shirley Jackson's novel doesn't put the emphasis on whatever supernatural vibes may be lurking. Her real focus is the chills and shocks that are derived from the clash of personalities and wills of the characters, notably Eleanor, an embittered and repressed woman who has experienced paranormal phenomena, and Theodora, a somewhat worldly but also quite wary psychic. In the book the people are more frightening than the house. The film's director Robert Wise maintains the painful human interactions but smoothly and intelligently sharpens the presence of that dreadful something enveloping the house and its inhabitants. In the film the house becomes a fifth and menacing character.
There are odd little changes from book to film. Dr. Montague, the scholar who spearheads the paranormal project in the book, becomes Dr. Markway in the movie. Markway's wife, an disruptive, imperious shrew in the book, is softened and humanized considerably in the movie (and Mrs. Markway is played by James Bond's Miss Moneypenny, Lois Maxwell). With the exception of Russ Tamblyn (a bit out of his league here) the cast is excellent. Julie Harris, seen in too few films, plays the long suffering Eleanor to perfection. The dark, understated beauty and sexual vibrancy of Claire Bloom, expressing the fragility and viciousness of Theodora, is in ideal contrast to Harris' neurotic primness. The tension between the two women sets in motion a subtle undercurrent of desire.
Then there is the house. Photographed by Davis Boulton in chilling black and white, in harsh daylight, at odd angles and throughout its forbidding interior, it is most unsettling to gaze upon. One scene may actually haunt you: the door to the study is probed!