The Haunting

 

The Haunting 1963

• Director: Robert Wise
• Seen by this director: The Sound of Music, West Side Story, I Want to Live
• Based on the book by Shirley Jackson
• Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Ross Tamblyn
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julie Harris – Ellen Foster, Gorillas in the Mist, The Voyage of the Damned, Reflections in a Golden Eye, East of Eden, many TV series
• Claire Bloom – The King’s Speech, Doctor Who, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, The Life and Death of King John, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Charly
• Richard Johnson – The Man Who Knew Infinity, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Lady Jane, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra
• Ross Tamblyn – Django Unchained, Twin Peaks, West Side Story
• Why? It’s a classic, as is the book.
• Seen: Once before. Now 21 October 2023 

       Hill House is a huge gloomy Gothic mansion in New England, known for its hundred-year history of mysterious deaths. Professor Markway (Johnson) now wants to do a scientific experiment to prove the house is haunted. He invites three assistants: Eleanor (Harris) escapes her domineering sister after caring for their demanding ailing mother for years. She is timid and downtrodden, but also brave and feisty. Theo (Bloom) is a mod swinger with experience as a psychic. Luke (Tamblyn) is the money hungry playboy nephew of the current owner of Hill House. He regards all this supernatural stuff as nonsense.

       Artistically and dramatically filmed in black and white, it is a spooky and intelligent character study. 

3 ½ * of 5