Trivia / The Innocents

• Ability over Appearance: As noted below, Miss Giddens is The Ingenue in the book, being a young governess on her first job. While Deborah Kerr was significantly older than her literary counterpart, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who protests against how well she portrays the governess.
• Acting in the Dark: Word of God is that director Jack Clayton didn't want the child actors to know about the darker themes of the story, so they were never shown the screenplay. They were only given their lines the day before they were to be filmed. Pamela Franklin said she never saw the film as a whole until she was sixteen.
• Billing Displacement: Peter Wyngarde is billed second because of "contractual requirements" even though he doesn't speak any lines and only appears in short shots (which add up to barely a minute of screen time). The unknown child actress Pamela Franklin has far more prominence and is billed fifth! Flora appears first and has many scenes to herself before Miles arrives, and Martin Stephens is billed before her (though Flora is absent for the last few scenes, balancing out their screentime somewhat) - as he was known for Village of the Damned (1960) and The Hellfire Club.
• Blooper: Inverted. Many projectionists in the original run thought the opening with Flora singing "Willow Waly" on a black screen was a mistake - and had the film open with the 20th Century Fox logo.
• The Danza: Peter Wyngarde as Peter Quint.
• Dawson Casting: Miss Giddens in the book is only nineteen or twenty. Her age in the film is not stated but she's said to be a governess on her first job, still placing her in early twenties — with a line from Mrs Grose calling her "young and pretty". Deborah Kerr was forty. The two child actors, however, matched the ages of their characters.
• Fake Brit: Clytie Jessop was Australian, playing the English governess Miss Jessel. Of course, the fact that Miss Jessel is a ghost who never speaks makes this a mild example.
• Follow the Leader: 20th Century Fox was persuaded to put up $1 million after House of Usher proved to be a Sleeper Hit. The film's poster also has an image of Deborah Kerr that evokes that of Janet Leigh on the Psycho poster. They were also inspired by Horror of Dracula, which led to Hammer buffs complaining that The Innocents wasn't gory enough.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Deborah Kerr regarded this as her finest performance. It's not one of the films she was nominated for, nor is it as famous as From Here to Eternity, An Affair to Remember or The King and I.
• Playing Against Type: Director example. Jack Clayton made this film to avoid being seen as a British New Wave director.
• Playing with Character Type: Deborah Kerr plays a Proper Lady governess...who's possibly going mad and having questionable thoughts towards a young boy.
• Referenced by...: Kate Bush's song "The Infant Kiss" is based on the film.
• Role Reprise: Megs Jenkins played Mrs Grose again in another adaptation The Turn of the Screw (1974) — where Lynn Redgrave played the governess.
• Shrug of God: Jack Clayton has said that it was intentional to make the film as ambiguous as possible. Deborah Kerr was told to play Miss Giddens as however she saw fit — as long as she didn't forget to keep people guessing. The child actors likewise weren't told whether they were seeing ghosts, in order to keep their performances uninhibited.
• Throw It In!:
  • For the scene where Miss Giddens first thinks she sees Quint on the tower, the filmmakers lucked out when shooting the shot of the pigeons flying past. They were up to the last bit of film in the camera, and the last few frames sped up as they went through the magazine. The result is that the pigeons fly across the tower in slow-motion.
  • When Miss Giddens is wandering around the house with a candelabra, a clapperboard is briefly visible in the corner of the frame. Jack Clayton chose to leave it in — feeling it added to the unease in the scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Cary Grant offered to play the uncle, but was turned down. It would have reunited him with Deborah Kerr after An Affair to Remember.
  • Jack Clayton initially considered using flashbacks to show the story of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. He was advised not to by Harold Pinter.
  • In the original draft of the script, which is adapted from a play, Miss Giddens's repressed sexuality was much more obvious. The final film relegates it to subtext, leaving it open whether Miss Giddens is repressed or actually seeing ghosts.
  • A scene was scripted where the Uncle would visit the nearby area to watch a cricket match, and Miss Giddens would try in vain to convince him that something was wrong with the children. It was never filmed - Word of God saying that having a scene outside Bly would break the isolation of the story.
  • The film had an opening scripted that actually began at Miles's burial, with everyone shunning Miss Giddens, who then goes to write a letter to the Uncle explaining what happened. This would make the story one extended flashback. Jack Clayton chose to replace this with the more ambiguous opening sequence of Miss Giddens praying.