Séance on a Wet Afternoon

Infobox Film
name = Séance on a Wet Afternoon


caption = HVE DVD cover
director = Bryan Forbes
producer = Richard Attenborough
Bryan Forbes
writer = Bryan Forbes
Mark McShane
starring = Kim Stanley
Richard Attenborough
Nanette Newman
Mark Eden
Patrick Magee
Judith Donner
music = John Barry
cinematography = Gerry Turpin
editing =
distributor = Rank Organisation
released = 20 June, 1964
runtime = 115 min
country = flagicon|UK
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:43354
imdb_id = 0058557

"Séance on a Wet Afternoon" is a 1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by Mark McShane. The film stars Richard Attenborough (who was also the film's co-producer), Kim Stanley, Nanette Newman, Mark Eden and Patrick Magee.

Plot

Myra Savage (Kim Stanley) is a self-styled medium who hosts seances in her dreary home. Her husband Bill (Richard Attenborough), who is unable to work full-time due to his asthma, provides assistance to his wife’s gatherings. At Myra’s planning, Bill kidnaps the young daughter (Judith Donner) of a wealthy couple (Mark Eden and Nanette Newman). The child is confined in a room of the Savages’ home that is made up to resemble a hospital ward. Myra, who dresses as a nurse to fool the child into believing she is hospitalized, insists she is “borrowing” the child in order to provide the police investigator (Patrick Magee) with a display of her supposed psychomancy to help recover the missing girl. However, the plan goes seriously awry as Myra's already-shaky mental health begins to fray. [ [http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/74185/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon.html Time Out London review] ] [ [http://www.qnetwork.com/index.php?page=review&id=1069 QNetwork review] ]

Casting

According to John Krampner's biography "Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley," Forbes and Attenborough had initially encountered difficulty in casting the role of Myra. Deborah Kerr and Simone Signoret were originally approached for the part, but both actresses turned down the role. Forbes and Attenborough then contacted Kim Stanley, an American theatre and television actress whose previous film work was limited to starring in the 1958 feature "The Goddess" and providing the uncredited opening and closing narration for the 1962 adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Attenborough would later be quoted as stating that Stanley was the best choice, noting that the “complexity of dramatic impression vital to the credibility of Myra was hard to find. Also an intellectual ability to follow and understand the character. I didn’t believe Simone (Signoret) could convey, as Kim did, the otherworldliness which this woman inhabited in her private fantasies.” [Krampner, John. “Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley.” Watson-Guptil Publications, page 221. ISBN:0-8230-8847-2.]

After completing "Séance on a Wet Afternoon", Stanley would not appear in another film until "Frances" in 1982.

Reception and awards

Critical reaction in the British and American media was overwhelmingly strong. The "London Express" called the film “superbly atmospheric” while "The Sunday Telegraph" dubbed it “compassionate, intelligent and absorbing.” The "New York Herald-Tribune" called "Séance on a Wet Afternoon" “the perfect psychological suspense thriller and a flawless film to boot” while "The New York Times" stated “it isn’t often you see a melodrama that sends you forth with a lump in your throat, as well as a set of muscles weary from being tenses for nigh two hours.” [Krampner, John. “Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley.” Watson-Guptil Publications, pages 226-227. ISBN:0-8230-8847-2.]

Kim Stanley won the Best Actress Award from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review. She was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Actress (she lost to Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins") and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress (she lost to Anne Bancroft in "The Pumpkin Eater"). Richard Attenborough won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, while Forbes’ screenplay and Gerry Turpin’s cinematography received nominations. Forbes' script won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award and the 1965 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Remakes

"Séance on a Wet Afternoon" was remade in 2000 as the Japanese language horror film "Seance", directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. An opera based on the film, created by Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz ("Pippin", "Godspell"), is scheduled to have its world premiere on October 31, 2009, at the Granada Theater-Opera Santa Barbara in California. [ [http://www.operaprojects.org/seance.htm Opera Projects: Seance on a Wet Afternoon] ]

References

External links

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