XVI.

Séance on a Wet Afternoon

Full Movie from YouTube, posted by Gelyn Resuma

"Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a 1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by Mark McShane, in which an unstable medium convinces her husband to kidnap a child so she can help the police solve the crime and achieve renown for her abilities. 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 medium who holds séances in her home. Her husband Billy (Richard Attenborough), unable to work because of asthma and cowed by Myra's domineering personality, assists in her séances. Myra's life and psychic work are dominated by her relationship with the spirit of her son Arthur, who died at birth."

"At Myra’s insistence, Billy kidnaps the young daughter (Judith Donner) of a wealthy couple (Mark Eden and Nanette Newman), confining her in a room in the Savage home dressed as a hospital ward. Myra impersonates a nurse to deceive the girl into believing she is hospitalised. Myra insists she is "borrowing" the girl to demonstrate her psychic abilities to the police in helping them find her. Although they ask for a £25,000 ransom, they plan to return the money with the girl after Myra has become famous for helping find her."

"Myra's plan goes awry as her unsteady mental health begins to fray. She tells Billy to kill the girl, and he takes her into the woods and leaves her body under a tree."

"When the police ask Myra to conduct a séance to help them find the missing girl – as she had hoped they would – she breaks down during the séance and reveals, as if in a psychic trance, what she and Billy have done. Billy tells the police where he hid the ransom money and reveals that he did not kill the girl, but left her unconscious where she would be found by scouts camping nearby."

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 tense for nigh two hours.""

"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."

CAST

Kim Stanley as Myra Savage

Richard Attenborough as Billy Savage

Nanette Newman as Mrs. Clayton

Mark Eden as Charles Clayton

Patrick Magee as Superintendent Walsh

Gerald Sim as Detective Sergeant Beedle

Margaret Lacey as Woman at first Séance

Marie Burke as Woman at first Séance

Godfrey James as Mrs. Clayton's Chauffeur

Ronald Hines as Policeman outside Clayton's

Frank Singuineau as Bus Conductor

Source:  WIKI