The Nightcomers, 1971.
Directed by Michael Winner.
Starring Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beacham, Thora Hird, Verna Harvey, Christopher Ellis, Harry Andrews, Anna Palk.
SYNOPSIS:
Prequel to the Henry James classic ‘Turn of the Screw’ about the events leading up to the deaths of Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel, and the slow corruption of the children in their care.
So here we have a prequel to Henry James’ classic Gothic horror novella The Turn of the Screw from 1971, starring a pre-The Godfather Marlon Brando and directed by Michael ‘Death Wish’ Winner – what could possibly be contentious about that?
The Turn of the Screw had already been adapted into The Innocents in 1961 – a movie that is still held in very high regard to this day – and so the choice of Michael Winner to direct a prequel written by playwright Michael Hastings and starring American heavyweight Marlon Brando was always going to draw sneers from certain quarters, but somehow The Nightcomers works, making it one of the weirdest but creepiest movies of its time.
Brando plays Peter Quint, a gardener at a huge mansion house, and when the lord of the manor has to leave the estate urgently he entrusts the care of the orphaned children he is legally (but not emotionally) in charge of to his housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Thora Hird) and governess Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham). However, young Flora (Verna Harvey) and her brother Miles (Christopher Ellis) are very troubled and don’t play nicely with their carers, instead preferring to spend their time with Quint, who fills their minds with his philosophies about love and hate and endless tall tales about bad behaviour.
At night, though, Quint comes into the house and spends his time sexually and emotionally abusing Miss Jessel, tying her up and having unconventional, brutal sex with her, not knowing that the two children are spying on them. This corruption begins to seep into their everyday life as their behaviour gets worse, copying what they see the adults doing and misinterpreting what Quint has been telling them, until tragedy strikes.
The Nightcomers is a very strange horror movie in that it has an off-kilter atmosphere right from the get-go and it goes for unnerving more than shocking. The key to this weirdness is Marlon Brando, who makes Peter Quint a rogue you can’t help but be charmed by thanks to his huge charisma and cheeky Irish patter, although his Irish accent is something of an enigma, falling somewhere between Dublin and Captain Hook, but it helps to create this character who draws you in and you can see why the children are enamoured by him.
The person who isn’t enamoured by him, though, is Mrs Grose, who knows exactly what sort of person he is and won’t have him inside the house. Played by British TV stalwart Thora Hird, Mrs. Grose is the closest thing we have to a hero as she has everyone’s motives down to a tee and does not suffer fools gladly. She is an old, stuffy busybody in the proper English tradition and the children take great delight in making her suffer, but Hird’s no-nonsense persona shines through and makes Mrs. Grose the one character who makes the most sense when it comes to her actions.
But let us not forget that Michael Winner is behind the camera so there is a delicious amount of sleaze to combat the eerie children and their mischievous ways. The sex scenes between Brando and Stephanie Beacham are uncomfortable to watch, acting almost as a precursor to what he would go on to do in The Last Tango in Paris (but without the butter!), and you can’t really connect the sadomasochistic characters presented here to the ones in Henry James’ book but, as stated previously, this was the early 1970s and Michael Winner is directing the action so it comes as no surprise, and the corruption of the children is the real horror element at the core of the movie. It just feels so dirty.
Presented in 4K UHD by StudioCanal, The Nightcomers is not an effects-heavy movie (although the corpse that is discovered near the end of the movie is quite effective) and despite the period costumes all looking detailed, there isn’t a lot about it that pops out of the screen as it was shot on location in an almost soft-focus style with very natural colours. It isn’t a bad transfer by a long shot, but neither is it anything to get too excited about. The disc also comes with two audio commentaries, an introduction by critic and author Kim Newman, a video essay by film historian Kat Ellinger and interviews with various crew members, so there is a lot to delve into for more context.
Whatever its narrative shortcomings, The Nightcomers is an intriguing movie in that it is never as successful in what it is doing as the presence of the individual people involved would suggest – for example, Stephanie Beacham is a great actress but here gives a better performance when she is not onscreen with Marlon Brando, which is unfortunate given their characters’ relationship – but somehow it comes together by the end to make an understated horror movie that lingers in the memory, but possibly not for all of the right reasons. A curious movie to be sure, but not really an essential one.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
