Sunday, November 06, 2005

The Innocents (1961)


Peter's Nite
Pizza, Salad, Fresh Baked Cookies

Note the crossovers with other recent movienites. Jack Clayton also directed Room at the Top. Freddie Francis (DP) shot The Elephant Man. John Mortomer also did the adaptation of Bunny Lake is Missing. Pamela Franklyn (the little girl making her debut) was the manipulative young student in The Prime of Miss Jean Brody.

New York Times Pamela Franklin bio:
Pamela Franklin was born in Japan, where her British father was a busy importer/exporter. Spending her early years in several Far East ports of call, Franklin was bundled off to England to study at the Elmhurst School of Ballet. At age 11, she made her motion-picture bow as the enigmatic "possessed" child, Flora, in 1961's The Innocents. Her American TV debut occurred in the 1963 Wonderful World of Disney two-parter "The Horse Without a Head." There was nothing Disneyesque about Franklin's portrayals of teen murderesses in both 1964's The Third Secret and 1965's Our Mother's House. Her first grown-up role (near-nude scene and all) was as the kidnap victim in Night of the Following Day (1969), but she was back to adolescents in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) as the rebellious, sexually inquisitive private-school student Sandy. Though still active in TV, Pamela Franklin made her last film in 1976.

Bright Lights Film Journal:
Kerr’s acting, regardless of the role, had always evinced a basic sensuality (it’s what kept her from turning into another Greer Garson), and while it may be hard to believe her Miss Giddens has never engaged in our most basic of mating rituals, it’s very easy to believe that she’s been fixating on them morning, noon, and night.

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