The Innocents, 1961

As a ghost story, this is a wonderful (if slightly confusing) movie. The problem is that, as both book and screenplay will attest, this was never meant to BE a ghost story, at least not in the way normally meant. You want to love this movie as a ghost thriller, but nothing is explained and not a lot makes sense (even the kind of sense youd need to love a ghost story) and you end up scratching your head. You then may want to think of the original story and love it for that...but the actors (particularly Deborah Kerr) make that pretty impossible. Its as if the main actors took Mr. James book and Mr. Capotes screenplay, read both, and threw them both away. Which does a huge disservice to book and screenplay...not to mention we, the viewers. This movie could have been a classic. As it is, however you look at it, its just a sad mess.

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