The Woman in Black (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Woman in Black


image_size = 200px
caption = DVD cover for the Woman in Black
director = Herbert Wise
writer = Nigel Kneale, Susan Hill
music = Rachel Portman
narrator =
starring = Adrian Rawlins
Bernard Hepton
David Daker
Pauline Moran
distributor = Granada Television (UK)

released = December 24, 1989 (UK)
runtime = 100 min
country =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:130012
imdb_id = 0098672

"The Woman in Black" is a 1989 television drama production starring Adrian Rawlins, Bernard Hepton, David Daker and Pauline Moran. Nigel Kneale adapted it from the novel by Susan Hill and it was directed by Herbert Wise. The programme was produced by Granada Television for the ITV network, and was an unexpected success.

Plot synopsis

The story centers around a young solicitor, Arthur Kidd, who is sent by his superior, Mr Sweetman, to Crythin Gifford, a small market town on the East Coast of Britain, to attend to the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, an elderly widow who lived alone in seclusion at Eel Marsh House.

On the train to Crythin Gifford, Kidd meets a rich local landowner, Sam Toovey. Toovey gives Kidd a lift to his inn, where the innkeeper seems unsettled upon hearing that Kidd is here to manage the late Mrs. Drablow's affairs.

The next day, Kidd attends the funeral with Mr Pepperell, a local solicitor. They are the only mourners. During the sermon, he glances towards the back of the church, where he notices a woman clad in black standing at the back of the church. He sees her again amid the gravestones while Mrs. Drablow's coffin is being lowered. He mentions the woman to Mr Pepperell, who immediately becomes very shocked and white. Pepperell notices some children watching the funeral, he immediately chases them away, although Kidd has no idea what is wrong.

In the town, it is market day. A truck carrying heavy lumber is caught on a kerb-stone and drops its load. A log falls on a gypsy child. her legs are crushed and she seems doomed to be killed by the other logs. Kidd rushes in and snatches her out of the way.

Since Pepperell refuses to accompany him to Eel Marsh House, Kidd decides to make his way there alone. The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway and, at high tide, is completely cut off from the mainland by the surrounding marshes and hidden by sea frets (mists). He is driven there in a trap by Keckwick, a local man who knows the timing of the tides. He agrees to pick up Kidd in due time, after showing him how to work the electricity in the house.

Kidd then decides to walk around the graveyard near the house, when he sees the woman once again. This time he sees her face, which is filled with malevolence. She begins to walk towards him. Terrified, he flees back into the house. While looking around the study of the house, he finds the death certificates of two people who died on the same day, as well as pictures of a young woman who resembles the Woman in Black. After hearing some disturbing recordings made by Mrs. Drablow on wax cylinders, he decides not to wait for Keckwick and to walk the causeway alone.

While walking on the path towards the town, the sea frets roll in, rendering Kidd blind on the dangerous path. He then hears the sound of a horse trotting down the path and, thinking it is Keckwick, starts walking towards it. However, Kipps then hears the sounds of the horse struggling, and a child crying and screaming. Kidd is lost, and can not find the horse and child, so he has no choice but to go back towards the house.

When Keckwick brings him back to town, Kidd decides to pay a visit to Mr. Toovey to whom he tells his story and confesses his new-found uncertainty concerning the supernatural and ghosts. Toovey tells him not to go back to the house, but Kidd, determined to finish his job, insists on returning to the house and staying there. Toovey then gives him a dog, Spider, to keep him company.

Upon his return, Kidd searches through the papers in the study of the house, but is then interrupted by the sounds of a bouncing ball from upstairs. Spider starts whining and leads Kidd to a door that can not be opened. A panicky Kidd runs downstairs to get an axe to break down the door, only to come up and find the door has opened by itself.

Behind the door, Kidd finds a child's nursery; a football drops onto the floor. He has found the source of the thumping noise. Suddenly, the sound of a child's laughter fills the room, along with a soft 'Hello?'. Kidd also notices that a little lead soldier somehow found its way into his hand. He then realises that the generator is running down and, unwilling to be left alone in the dark, rushes to the outhouse to power the electricity.

When Kidd and Spider are outside, Spider answers a high whistle out on the marshes and runs away, presumably to his death. As Kipps searches for him, the noises of the horse and the child begin to start again. Kidd, frightened almost into madness, rushes back into the house and locks himself in. He then continues to study the papers in the house and records his fears onto the wax cylinders.

From various sources, Kidd learns that Mrs Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, gave birth to a child, but was unable to care for it. Mrs Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, insisting he should never know that Jennet was his mother. One day, Jennet kidnapped her son and tried to escape via the causeway. The pony and trap carrying the boy and herself across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard. She then came back to Eel Marsh House and Crythin Gifford with a vengeful malevolence, as the Woman in Black.

Mr. Toovey finds Spider and immediately realises that something is wrong. He goes to Eel Marsh house, where he listens to Kidd's new theories. He then tells Kidd that according to local tales, seeing the Woman in Black presages the death of a child, which was why no one tried to interfere when the girl at the market was nearly crushed. Kidd decides to pack his things and leave the house. However, amongst the papers, he finds the lead soldier. He points this out to Mr. Toovey, and decides to show him the nursery. However, when they reach it, the room (previously immaculate) is a mess, with all the toys smashed and the furniture in shambles. This is too much for Kidd, who collapses.

Toovey brings Kidd back to the inn, where he falls into a deep sleep. However, he is awoken by the sound of the child's laughter, and he finds the soldier yet again in his hand. After asking the air what the child wanted of him, the child replies that the soldier "is for you". The Woman in Black then appears hovering over his bed, shrieking into his face, terrifying him into unconsciousness.

Kidd then returns to London to his family, and accuses his boss of sending him to Eel March House because he was scared for his own safety. His boss then instructs him to look through the box of Mrs. Drablow's papers that was sent from Crythin. At that moment, his two assistants come in and say that there was a customer for him and that she was a woman dressed completely in black. Delirious with horror, Kidd searches madly through the box for the toy soldier. When he doesn't find it, he burns all the papers and the box, and half his office as well. His boss fires him, and he and his wife and children decide to leave London.

Arthur and his family are on a lake, rowing peacefully and gently, when Arthur sees the Woman in Black standing on the lake, watching him. Petrified, he does nothing, until his wife screams. A tree falls on their boat, crushing all within it.

Broadcast history and availability

It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV on Christmas Eve 1989 (repeated only once by Channel 4 over Christmas 1994). Overall the TV adaptation stayed reasonably faithful to the original novel, although some of the changes angered the author Susan Hill (for example, the sex of the dog 'Spider' was changed from male to female). Arthur's name has also been changed from Kipps to Kidd. The TV version was released in the United Kingdom on VHS but only for a fairly short time. There was also a Region 1 DVD release but it is now out of print and, according to the messageboard at the site of Susan Hill, the TV rights are now owned by someone else. Apparently the rights have been purchased twice and currently reside with the U.S. studio Universal [http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008544.html] . As a result of this there will probably be no further TV broadcasts of the TV movie or any further DVD releases.

Such is the popularity and demand for the out of print TV movie that the shortage of officially available copies created a small black market in illegal copies of the DVD release. At the time of writing, Susan Hill's official website states "Please do note.. if you are trying to track down Video or DVD copies of the old (1988) Television adaptation of The Woman in Black. The film and TV rights are now wholly owned by someone else and this TV version will not be shown again or re-issued. Meanwhile, pirate copies are sometimes for sale on ebay and amazon. THESE ARE ILLEGAL and should not be purchased".

Trivia

* The programme was filmed on Ozea Island, nr Goldhanger in Essex, the causeway being two miles away from the local salt marshes and the National Trust village of Lacock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.
* The novel and play are not to be confused with Wilkie Collins's Victorian thriller "The Woman in White" - although Susan Hill admitted this is what inspired the name for her own.
* The actress who portrays The Woman in Black, Pauline Moran, is best known for playing Miss Lemon, the redoubtable secretary of Hercule Poirot, in the LWT television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet.
*"The adaptation differs from the novel in several small ways."
** Mr Kidd is named Kipps in the book, other names are also different.
**In the novel, Kipps himself does not die; the entire tale is told years later by an elderly Kipps whose wife and child had been killed in an accident involving a runaway horse and trap whilst he looked on.
** Mr Sweetman (in the novel he is called Mr. Bentley) is a kindly figure in the novel, unlike the disdainful coward of the adaptation.
** The phonograph does not appear in the novel.
** The dog Spider is female in the novel, male in the adaptation.
** Kidd/ Kipps does not burn down his law office in the novel.
** The accident involving the gypsy girl does not happen in the novel.
** In the adaptation, references to Charlie Chaplin and the Great War are used to set the scene historically.
** The scriptwriter, Nigel Kneale, is best known for his Quatermass films

Awards and nominations

The Woman in Black was nominated for four BAFTA awards, including Best Design, Best Film Sound, Best Make Up and Best Original Television Music.

External links

* [http://www.thewomaninblack.com/ Stage play website]
* [http://www.susan-hill.com/ Susan Hill official site]
*imdb title|id=0098672|title=The Woman in Black