Seance on a Wet Afternoon
- 1964
- 1h 55m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
7.6K
YOUR RATING
A medium and her husband stage a kidnapping in order for her to pretend to solve the crime and achieve fame.A medium and her husband stage a kidnapping in order for her to pretend to solve the crime and achieve fame.A medium and her husband stage a kidnapping in order for her to pretend to solve the crime and achieve fame.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 7 wins & 6 nominations total
Maggie Rennie
- Woman at Second Seance
- (as Margaret McGrath)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector Bryan Forbes looked for the house with the turret as a film location. When he went to the owner for permission, she asked who was in the movie. When told that an American actress named Kim Stanley, the woman blanched, stepped back, and said that Stanley was one of her oldest friends whom she had not seen in seventeen years.
- GoofsDuring the final séance, there is a closeup of a man's hand with a pinkie ring and gray sleeve, who is not at the table. It is a repeated shot from the previous séance, when the gray-jacketed man took part.
- Quotes
Myra Savage: You know what I sometimes wish? I sometimes wish I *were*... ordinary. Like you. Dead ordinary. Ordinary and *dead* like all the others.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Clock (2010)
- SoundtracksHear my Prayer
Written by Felix Mendelssohn (as Mendelssohn)
Played by George Thalben-Ball (as Sir George Thalben-Ball) (organ)
Sung by Ernest Lough
Featured review
A Deeply Unnerving Film with Two Tremendous Lead Performances
Kim Stanley delivers a tremendously affecting performance as a sad English suburban housewife who desperately wants to prove her validity as a medium and will go to criminal means to do so in this chilly and chilling drama.
Critics heaped praise upon Stanley, always known as more of a stage actress than a movie actress, and the Academy awarded her a best actress nomination for her work in this film, and rightly so. At a time when movie acting could still be superficial, when Hollywood starlets were cast in ill-fitting roles because they looked better and would sell more tickets, Stanley gave a performance that distinguished itself in sheer commitment to character. It was rare then and still rare now to see a performance in which the actress creates a living, breathing human being before your very eyes.
But in the interest of fairness, one must also mention the equally strong work of Richard Attenborough, who gets a less showy but as important role as Stanley's beleaguered husband, who will do anything to keep his wife happy, even after he begins to suspect that she may be ill. Attenborough creates the image of a middle-aged man who suspects that he was lucky to get the wife he has, and who wants more than anything to live a normal, family-oriented life that seems to always remain just beyond his grasp.
"Seance on a Wet Afternoon" is not a masterpiece, but it is a subtly and intensely disquieting film, the kind that lingers in your head long after you've seen it.
Grade: A-
Critics heaped praise upon Stanley, always known as more of a stage actress than a movie actress, and the Academy awarded her a best actress nomination for her work in this film, and rightly so. At a time when movie acting could still be superficial, when Hollywood starlets were cast in ill-fitting roles because they looked better and would sell more tickets, Stanley gave a performance that distinguished itself in sheer commitment to character. It was rare then and still rare now to see a performance in which the actress creates a living, breathing human being before your very eyes.
But in the interest of fairness, one must also mention the equally strong work of Richard Attenborough, who gets a less showy but as important role as Stanley's beleaguered husband, who will do anything to keep his wife happy, even after he begins to suspect that she may be ill. Attenborough creates the image of a middle-aged man who suspects that he was lucky to get the wife he has, and who wants more than anything to live a normal, family-oriented life that seems to always remain just beyond his grasp.
"Seance on a Wet Afternoon" is not a masterpiece, but it is a subtly and intensely disquieting film, the kind that lingers in your head long after you've seen it.
Grade: A-
Helpful•173
- evanston_dad
- Nov 30, 2006
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Seansa jednog kišnog popodneva
- Filming locations
- Staines Stadium, Hythe End, Staines, Surrey, England, UK(abandoned stadium)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £143,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 55 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) officially released in India in English?
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