Product Description

Fraught with the kind of tension that makes breathing difficult, this frighteningly eerie story of a middle-aged couple unable to cope with the loss of their own child has won numerous awards and is now available for the first time on DVD. Myra (Kim Stanley, The Right Stuff) is a mentally unstable medium that believes if she kidnaps a child of wealthy parents, she can prove her psychic abilities by 'finding' the child. Award-winning performances from Stanley as the disturbed Myra and Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park) as Billy the meek, apologetic husband combine with tension packed location shooting to make this mid-sixties thriller an enduring portrait of madness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41231 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-24
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.com
Aside from boasting one of the great evocative titles in film history, Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) works up a surplus of dread with a minimum of devices. Kim Stanley was nominated for an Oscar^® for her performance as a London medium who bulldozes her weak husband (Richard Attenborough) into kidnapping a little girl; the goal is not ransom money, but a chance to prove Stanley's clairvoyant gifts to the police, and thus bring her the respect she has always deserved. The suspense is keen, yet the movie's real achievement is detailing the stifling marriage between two deluded, dependent middle-aged people. Attenborough is heartbreaking as a human doormat, and Stanley's Method intensity brings the movie into a genuinely unnerving realm (she didn't work in movies again for nearly two decades). The story was remade, with intriguing changes, by Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa as Séance (a.k.a. Korei, 2000). --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

A MASTERPIECE OF MOOD......
Stunning film of the staged kidnapping of a child by a demented medium and her cuckolded, guilt-ridden husband. Beautifully photographed in b&W, the film has a grey, somber feel to it that illustrates the emptiness of the childless couple's lives. The plan is to kidnap the child then stage a seance to help "find" the child to further enhance the medium's reputation and career. The husband trembles with fright and guilt while the medium is convinced that this is the "answer". She is "guided" by Arthur---her "spirit" guide---that is actually the child they lost at birth as stillborn. ASTOUNDING performances by stage actress Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough as the couple carry this film brilliantly to it's gripping conclusion. The subject matter is sensitive (especially today) but the film is a powerful masterwork of mood and psychological character study. I strongly recommend this for true cinema explorers. The DVD transfer is nice and crisp and the sound is clear. It's not for everyone---especially sensitive types---but it's still a must see for those who like engrossing and fascinating films that just don't come along that often. Filmed in 1964, it's as fresh and riveting now as it MUST have been back then. A true classic.

Greatest Film Performance to Date
I have seen well over a thousand films--including all the most critically acclaimed--but I have yet to see a film performance equalling Kim Stanley's in Seance on a Wet Afternoon. It is truly compelling and to highlight all the other many attributes of the film would detract from what is Stanley's astounding achievement. And just to think that Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins won the Academy Award over Stanley should give everyone pause to assess the real meaning of "Oscar". What more can be said?

Oh, You Gotta Rent This !
I came across with this movie all by chance and it certainly became one of my all-time favorites. Beyond everything else this movie is SOOOO well-done. It truly satisfies in every aspect. The economy that the director used in telling this story i think is just perfect.

It's sad, it's haunting, it's gripping, thick with magnificent ambient dread and it features 2 mind-blowing performances by the leads. It's really hard to decide which actor is better but i'd say you HAVE TO SEE Kim Stanley's superb work to believe it! I was blown away!

If you like off-beat, eerie movies with solid stories and tour de force acting you surely will love this one! Do not hesitate to rent it!