Good morning Phoenix and welcome to Movie Monday!
Today’s scary movie of choice is The Haunting. The original
1963 version, mind you. Not the remake with Catherine Zeta-Jones. The original
was beautiful and scary in its simplicity. Filmed in black and white and
starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, it was incredibly scary. It is based on
the famous Shirley Jackson novel, The Haunting of Hill House, published in
1959.
Plot: Dr. Markway, doing research to prove the existence of
ghosts, investigates Hill House, a large, eerie mansion with a lurid history of
violent death and insanity. With him are the skeptical young Luke, who stands
to inherit the house, the mysterious and clairvoyant Theodora and the insecure
Eleanor, whose psychic abilities make her feel somehow attuned to whatever
spirits inhabit the old mansion. As time goes by it becomes obvious that they
have gotten more than they bargained for as the ghostly presence in the house
manifests itself in horrific and deadly ways.
Trivia:
• Director Martin Scorsese named this his favorite horror
film.
• The famous sharp contrast of the house against the dark
sky and the clouds was created by the use of infrared film stock.
• The exterior of Hill House in the film was not a set, but
an actual house (Ettington Park Hall Hotel, Stratford Upon Avon), although all
the interiors were carefully designed sets on sound stages. While shooting
exterior night scenes on location at the real house, Russ Tamblyn has shared a
story of having chosen to take a stroll through a cemetery at the rear of the
property and having had an experience nearly as terrifying as the film itself.
You can hear his story on the commentary track included on the DVD of the film.
• Julie Harris agreed to do the film in part because the
role was complex and the idea of the house taking over Eleanor's mind was
interesting. But she also chose it because she had a long-standing interest in
parapsychology.
• The infamous "bending door" scene was achieved
by constructing a prop door composed of rubber. While filming, the bending
effect was cause by having a number of stagehands push on the door.
Goofs:
• Because the story was filmed in England, but set in the
United States, Eleanor passes a house with a sign reading "To Let"
instead of "For Rent".
• When Nell leaves the Boston garage, we can see through her
car's back window that there are two English policemen standing on a street
corner.
• When Nell is leaving the Garage in Boston, she sees a
signpost that is, for the most part correct with respect to route numbers and
directions for the towns indicated. However, one sign refers to "US
50" and Nell then reads aloud her directions to take "US 50 from Boston
and watch for the turn-off to Route 238." US 50 is nowhere near Boston;
prior to the advent of the Interstate system of highways, US Route 50 was one
of the principal highways that went straight through the middle of the country
from Maryland on the East coast to California on the west coast.
• For a scientist, Dr. Markway exhibits an astonishing lack
of scientific curiosity regarding the "Help Eleanor Come Home"
writing on the wall they discover. He tells Luke to wipe it off the wall,
without even taking photographs of the writing or samples of the chalk-like
substance used to write it. (This one is debatable in my book…. I always
thought it was simply because he felt Eleanor was seeking attention and wrote
it herself)
• When Eleanor runs into a room in Hill House, a close-up
shot shows a mirror fall off a mantle on its own. However, a wire is visible
attached to the middle of the back of the mirror and going through a hole in
the middle of the wall behind it. When the mirror falls, the wire goes slack as
the wire feeds out of the hole in the wall, meaning the wire was held taut to
hold the mirror up on the mantle until it was time to release the wire.
Have a fangtastic Monday and enjoy!
<3 Brock V"""V
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