Kate Griffin’s new novel, Fyneshade, takes her love of Victorian Gothic to a new level. Who could be better to select the top six film and TV adaptations of the ultimate governess in a strange house story, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, for its 125th anniversary?
The year 1898 saw the publication of one of the most famous and influential ghost stories ever written. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a gothic tale of terror and lost innocence that has haunted writers (and most particularly screen writers) for 125 years.
I’m happy to admit that my novel Fyneshade, published by Viper this May, owes a debt to Henry James and his horrifying psychological caprice. Without it, my own rich slice of ‘Governess Gothic’ would never have stolen from the shadows.
First published in serial form by Colliers Weekly, James’s novella tells the story of an unnamed governess who goes to Bly, a remote but well-ordered and beautiful house in Essex, to care for orphans Miles and Flora.
Their guardian is as remote as his property. When he offers the job to the naive young vicar’s daughter, his only stipulation is that he should not be bothered or contacted by her. The role gives her responsibility and freedom. But freedom comes at a cost.
What begins as a sunlit idyll, with the governess smitten by the charm, intelligence and almost angelic ‘radiance’ of her young charges, swiftly becomes a nightmare.
Are Miles and Flora sweet, guiltless children or are they possessed by the diabolical souls of two former servants? The governess begins to suspect that there is something corrupt and corrupting at the heart of Bly and her battle against what she perceives as the forces of darkness is to have tragic consequences.
Oh, what a gloriously ambiguous tale this is! We are never quite certain whether the spirits of Peter Quint and his lover – the children’s former governess Miss Jessel – are genuine revenants or whether they are the products of a sensitive and sheltered young woman’s feverish imagination. Are these terrifying ghosts the manifestations of smothered sexuality or are they truly returned from the grave determined to continue their lustful liaison channelling Miles and Flora in some unspeakable way?
Henry James’s dense and admittedly well-padded prose never quite answers those questions. This queasy uncertainty has acted as literary and cinematic catnip, exerting a strong hold over writers and directors fascinated by the surprisingly modern psychological questions at the novella’s dark heart.
It is notable that this Victorian ghost story was written the year after Sigmund Freud began to analyse himself – a process that led to the birth of modern psychoanalysis. Perhaps, in some supernatural way, James was tuning into zeitgeist? Haunted and haunting, it is undeniable that Screw continues to inspire.
This is my highly subjective selection of six of the best — or most ‘interesting’ — screen iterations of The Turn of the Screw from directors and writers eager to put their own spin on this tempting terror.
The Innocents (1961): Almost fresh from the role of Anna in The King and I, a luminous Deborah Kerr stepped into the crinoline of another governess in this gorgeous screen adaptation directed by Jack Clayton.
Filmed in shimmering, otherworldly black and white, the film was partly scripted by Truman Capote and John Mortimer. Capote’s influence is clearly felt in the almost ‘southern gothic’ intensity of the setting and story-telling. In my opinion, this is the finest screen version of The Turn of the Screw and — heretically — I often recommend it as an alternative to reading the novella.
The Others (2001): At first glance, this atmospheric chiller starring Nicole Kidman might appear to have little connection to the James original, but it shares the same DNA.
An anxious, over-protective young women (here a mother) is marooned in a mist-shrouded manor with her two children. Gradually she begins to believe that she is being tormented by malign spirits in the house. Sound familiar?
Directed by Spanish-Chilean Alejandro Amenabar, The Others catches the claustrophobic atmosphere of Bly along with questioning the nature of the main character’s sanity. It’s also notable for a cameo from veteran British comedian Eric Sykes.
The Nightcomers (1971): I think it’s fair to say that any film directed by Michael Winner is going to be… problematic, but this prequel to The Turn of the Screw starring a middle-aged Marlon Brando as Peter Quint (yes – read that again, Marlon Brando as Peter Quint) is something of a car crash.
It’s not just Brando’s wildly roving ‘Oirish’ brogue that undermines a film that Winner fondly thought might be a masterpiece; it’s not the portly Hollywood star’s scenery-chewing performance, or even poor Stephanie Beacham’s often gratuitously naked Miss Jessel; no, it’s the unsavoury storyline involving the children which turns the cobweb-light inferences of James’s original into something leadenly obvious. It’s also notable for a cameo from veteran British comedienne Thora Hird.
Otra Vuela du Tuerqua (1985) This rarely seen Spanish version directed by Eloy de la Iglesia makes an interesting gender swap of the central character. Here the ‘governess’ is a young male teacher and his orphaned charges Mikel and Flora are older and living with servants at a remote mansion on the coast.
The repressed sexuality of James’s novella is now repressed homosexuality. The naive young teacher has recently left a Jesuit seminary having failed to become a priest and in his new position he battles the devilish attempts of his male pupil, Mikel, to seduce him. Or does he?
True to the original, the viewer is never sure whether the seduction is a fantasy in the mind of the teacher, or whether it is real. There are ghosts here too, but they are never at the centre of the very sinister action.
It’s interesting to see the appeal of the story for another Spanish director, although perhaps not surprising as Spain understands the lure of the gothic so very well.
The Turning (2020): Floria Sigismondi’s contemporary American set version stars Finn Wolfhard (of Stranger Things fame) as a devious Miles Fairchild and Brooklynn Prince as his decidedly odd sister Flora. Their governess – here called Kate and played by Mackenzie Davis — fears that she might have inherited her mother’s delusional mental illness.
This questioning of the real and the imagined is a neat but underplayed link to the ambiguities of the original story. This one seems to divide people, but it looks icily chilling and I enjoyed it.
The Turn of the Screw (1999): The excellent Jodhi May plays the governess in this effective, straightforward and pleasingly chilling TV adaptation directed by Ben Bolt and carefully scripted by Nick Dear.
The stately pace and atmospheric sets and costumes capture the spirit (or should that be spirits?) of the original and the children played by Grace Robinson and Joe Sowerbutts are genuinely creepy. Pam Ferris, who I often think of as Thyme to Felicity Kendal’s Rosemary, is rather good as a sturdy and secretive Mrs Grose. Colin Firth plays the uncle – but here he keeps his shirt dry.
You might have noticed that I didn’t mention the recent (2020) Netflix version, The Haunting of Bly Manor. Rather like the BBC’s latest Great Expectations, I gave up on it because it made me so angry!
Fyneshade by Kate Griffin is published on 18 May, 2023.
Read more about this book.
Kate, a genuine Cockney who is also the author of the Kitty Peck music hall mysteries, loves film and all things Victorian. It’s no surprise that she’s also written Top ten films set in the Victorian era for Historia.
Find out about Kate in her Q&A interview.
Images:
- Deborah Kerr in a screenshot from The Innocents trailer: Wikipedia (public domain)
- First page of the 12-part serialisation of Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw in Collier’s Weekly, 1898: Wikipedia (public domain)
- Flora and Miles in a screenshot from The Innocents trailer: Wikipedia (public domain)
- Poster for The Others: Wikimedia (fair use)
- Poster for The Nightcomers: Wikimedia (fair use)
- Jodhi May and Colin Firth in a screenshot from The Turn of the Screw (1999) trailer: fair use
