Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Miles-10 This is a brilliant how-catch-'em told as a character study of a middle-aged couple, Billy and Myra, that decides to kidnap a child in order to fix everything that has gone wrong with their lives. As it evolves, the crime itself seems to bounce back and forth between lucky improvisation and clever planning. In terms of suspense, the best scenes are the kidnapping itself and the ransom pick-up. The movie seems to be saying that things are more apt to go according to plan when dealing with adults rather than children. Poor Billy has to do most of the dirty work. Myra masterminds the crime, but she is clearly an unstable person from the outset. At one point, Billy complains to Myra that he is not "a master criminal" implying that that is what their crime needs, and he is right about that. It needs two master criminals, and neither of them is up to it, but they give it their best.Despite all of that, you have people doing horrible things with a surprising hold on their humanity. There is genuine tenderness on the part of Billy throughout and even from the police inspector at the end.There is a revealing power shift in the course of the movie as the submissive Billy gradually reveals that he holds the marriage together and actually does have more talent as a master criminal than she does. Myra and Billy are both motivated by pain and loss, but she can't stand it while he has long since accepted it.The cinematography is tops, with judicious, almost invisible use of zoom lenses, clear-eyed views of London in the early 1960s, and moody, sinister looks at the kidnappers house, cluttered with the refuse of the couple's bad memories.

LeonLouisRicci An Exercise in Great Acting Placed in a Claustrophobic, Decaying Atmosphere, this Psychological Thriller is a Top-Notch British Film from the Sixties with a Sense of a Damp, Depressing World of Collapsed Landscapes, Failing Minds, and Frustrating Situations.Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough Lead the Proceedings Helped Immensely by Some Stunning Highly Contrasted Cinematography. The Mood is Persistently Bleak whether in the Gloomy Mansion or in the Underground with an Intense Money Exchange. Sometimes Subtly Expressionistic and Occasionally Nerve Racking the Movie Manages to Make the Tale of an Unhinged Psychic and Her Subservient Husband Kidnapping a Little Girl for Ransom with Twists and Turns that Keep the Viewer Attached to the Wild Story.It's an Uneasy, Uncomfortable Film that Delivers Many Outstanding Movie-Making Flourishes in an Understated Uformity and Keeps Things at a Lively Pace with One Foot in the Afterlife.

clanciai A very interesting dive into the world of spiritualism with an almost devastating charting of the psychology of a disturbed medium. Kim Stanley's performance as Myra, using the spirit of her stillborn child as a link with the other side, is almost ghoulish, being totally blind to reality and having lost all touch with her own humanity. A drama of great suspense, especially as she insists on a séance when the mother of the child they have kidnapped appears, the child being sick in the next room, it's almost unbearably uncomfortable but extremely interesting and fascinating. Bryan Forbes, born today in 1926, died last year, made a number of very diverse and tricky films, sometimes experimental, but always intelligent. This was one of his best, certainly a suspense thriller dealing with the out of the ordinary... One of the last great noir films.

blanche-2 Two magnificent actors, Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough star in "Seance on a Wet Afternoon," a 1964 film directed by Brian Forbes. Stanley was one of the truly great stage and film actresses of the last century; unfortunately, her film performances are very rare.Here Stanley plays Myra Savage, a woman who probably believes that she is a true psychic and communicating with her late son. Her late son tells her that in order to gain a big reputation, she needs to kidnap the child of a wealthy family, collect the ransom, and then psychically come up with the location of the child and the money.Myra doesn't do much - instead, she sends her weak, cowed husband Billy (Attenborough) to do the kidnapping. They make one room in the house look like a hospital room and, wearing surgical masks, they tell the child she's sick and in hospital. The whole thing starts to make Billy extremely nervous, as he realizes that his delusional wife, whom he's been jollying along all these years, is in fact nuts.Brilliant performances by Stanley and Attenborough, Stanley capturing the manipulative nature of Myra as well as her delusions, and Attenborough simply amazing as a weak-willed milksop who seems willing to do anything to avoid a confrontation with Myra.Though this is a somewhat slow film but extremely atmospheric and suspenseful. This is not only due to Forbes' direction, but is also driven in part by Stanley's portrayal of the unstable Myra. You never know what she's going to do next, but you can guess - and it scares you.Excellent film.