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The Nightcomers (1972)

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17 comments in total

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Forget Henry James, forget The Innocents and just enjoy, 3 March 2006

Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London

As with many Winner films it is necessary to not make the mistake of expecting his film to be exactly as you expect, or very much like it at all actually. Forget Henry James, forget The Innocents and just enjoy Mr Winner's take on how the children lost their innocence. The SM and bondage scenes were more explicit than I remember on a previous viewing and it may be that the earlier video had been trimmed. Certainly here there is no mistaking the powerful relationship between Brando and Beacham and I for one found the playing out of these scenes by the children fairly powerful. I suppose the pace is a little slow which is perhaps particularly noticeable because of how quickly does the effective ending unfold. Not for purists but if you are looking for that something just a little bit different……

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Cigar smoking frogs, 31 December 2000
Author: DC1977 from United Kingdom

One of Marlon Brando's least-known films, 'The Nightcomers' is a prequel to 'The Turn of the Screw' and describes the events leading up to Henry James' famous ghost story.

Brando plays Peter Quint, the valet at the English country estate, Bly House, whose owners have recently died abroad in an automobile accident. Their children, Flora and Miles, see Quint as a fascinating source of knowledge and believe that everything he says to them is true. They are intrigued by his words and actions, often copying them with ultimately disastrous results. These re-enactments include acting out Quint and the governess, Miss Jessel's (Stephanie Beacham) bondage sessions.

The children all too literally accept Quint's claims that to hate is to love and that the dead remain where they are and meet as though still alive. They then attempt to apply their own logical conclusions to life at Bly House.

Brando gives a decent performance (with an Irish accent) in a role that, because of the dull script, is difficult to excel in and easy to mess up and he often resembles Richard Harris in 'This Sporting Life'. The success of the film is severely limited as it appears incomplete to those who haven't read the original story and it will disappoint those who have as the previously unexplained mystery that made 'The Turn of the Screw' so chilling has now been solved. This 'solution' is not helped by Michael Winner's rather bland direction and the wretched performance of Christopher Ellis as the young Miles.

It is difficult to see what attracted Brando to the idea of making a film that is often reminiscent of Hammer horror. Maybe it was the prospect of playing a character who causes a frog to explode by making it smoke a cigar.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
It's The Explanation, 6 May 2006

Author: greyeyesoul from Toronto

For the inscrutable yet precocious personalities of Miles and Flora evident in the 1961 film 'The Innocents'. As well, the ghosts of that movie are fleshed out nicely in this prequel. Quint is a morally repugnant character, sadistic and controlling, but he's also darkly magnetic as the corrupter of the lovely young governess who submits to (and even embraces) his perverted ideas of sexuality. Together they are fated to become the imprisoned souls that haunt the estate. Together they have inflicted unknowable damage to the psyches of the children.

Brando is very good in the role of Quint. He gives the character a credibility and powerfulness that one would expect from a personality who will ultimately refuse to leave, even after his bizarre death. Few actors would be convincing enough to portray such a reprehensible protagonist and still be vaguely, mysteriously likable. That Brando can deliver this affect with legitimacy is not surprising, genius that he is. Another who might have been very interesting to watch in this role is Dirk Bogarde.

The director's visual styling of the film is it's most unfavorable aspect and prevents it from being excellent. In any case, this unusual little entry has always been a tad underrated. I suspect that now that Marlon has passed on an overdue re-assessment is likely

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Prequel to "The Innocents" or "Turn of the Screw"?, 7 July 2007

Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

I guess I get rather confused with what this film is supposed to represent, because I was told by a friend who recommended it that it was the prequel to "The Innocents"....now, if "The Innocents" is based on "Turn of the Screw" then I guess that would explain it find, so I'll leave it at that. What we have here is two children whose parents have died, who are left with a wealthy relation who wants nothing to do with them and leaves them in the hands of their maid, nanny, and the somewhat questionable gardener Quint (as played by Marlon Brando). Of course, with no other adults around to help with their upbringing, the children embrace what they are told by Quint as gospel, and Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham), their nanny, doesn't exactly provide a better example to follow either. For it seems that she and Quint have something of a rather dubious nature going on, being that he likes to tie her up and hurt her. And the children have found a way to spy on them too, so of course soon they're imitating what they see, oops! "It has to hurt" says young Miles to sister Flora, as he has her hog-tied on the bedroom floor. Anyway, Mrs. Grose, the maid, is rather down on this whole kinky thing that's going on and forbids Quint to enter the house, but the children are rather eager to get the loving couple back together. No good can come of this all though and soon Miss Jessel and Quint are united in the afterlife after a somewhat gruesome set of events. And then, a new nanny arrives...which is where, I guess, The Innocents picks up. This is gorgeous to look at and there are a few chilling moments here and there, some of which are fantasy but you don't realize that for a few moments. The ending is rather grim and creepy though. This is fairly stylish and is not a far cry from the Hammer brand of horror. Well done and interesting, 8 out of 10.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Brando is Ferocious, 4 July 2007

Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Easily the best movie ever directed by Michael Winner...due in large part to the stunning performance he coaxes out of Marlon Brando. He plays Peter Quint, the surly British handyman-cum-deviant who destroys the children of Henry James' THE TURN OF THE SCREW while violently deflowering the children's tutor (a decidedly foxy Stephanie Beacham). Brando and Beacham have real electricity. Beacham manages to hold her own against the acting giant so it's a surprise that she never really made it as a film actress.

It's an audacious, one of a kind film that's a must see for Brando fans. He gives a truly great performance at a time when most of Hollywood had written him off. He would rebound a year later with THE GODFATHER. Director Winner never did make anything nearly as good as this and was soon back to making the likes of DEATH WISH (various volumes) and of course the woefully ill-advised remake of THE BIG SLEEP.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Cruelty without irony..., 21 October 2007

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Prequel to Henry James' "The Turn Of the Screw" attempts to show how the two young British children at the center of that story became so disturbed. It turns out the creepy caretaker at their manor (Marlon Brando) seduced their passive nanny into an S&M relationship. Interesting concept, yet director Michael Winner's ham-fisted execution of the material is surely not inviting for an audience (it plays like an R-rated version of "The Innocents"). Damp, creepy atmospherics and a potentially engrossing narrative are each mitigated by Winner's sledgehammer style, which doesn't allow for anything loftier than shock moments (no psychological overtones here!). Soap buffs will be stunned to see ice queen Stephanie Beacham in such a role (although she does garner points for bravery). As for Brando, this is right in keeping with his repertoire of offbeat roles, and he seems to delight in the vulgarity. There's a streak of nastiness running through this film that isn't provocative--just repellent. *1/2 from ****

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Brando was perfect and it is a must see rare gem in his film career., 5 August 2006

Author: victorsargeant from United States BOULDER COUNTY COLORADO

The Innocents implies, but Nightcomers delivers the rare emotional flesh of the under belly of Henry James story.

It is appropriate to the tale for the audience to experience the sexual paradox of SM, to understand the true power of Quant over the children.

What will these children be like when they mature into adults? Or will they develop into adults ever? Fascinating story. Brando was perfect for this story, and I am sure, his own psychology included such behaviors.

Prick ones body to find ones soul? The levels of pain and pleasure become blurred as in real SM experiences....one does not know where one begins and the other ends. A valid depiction of the pain +pleasure paradox is soundly explored. The audience is given a crash course to SM which enables the intelligent observer to taste and enmesh the aspects of this paradox. All feelings are permitted to be touched. I am sure it will be unsettling emotionally far after one leaves the theater or the click of your remote. Its excellent theater and well told with a master teacher in Brando as your spiritual guide.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Typical Winner mish mash - Brando still in Last Tango mode, 3 December 2002
Author: FilmFlaneur from London

Conceived as a prequel to The Turn Of The Screw, Winner's film is a curious vehicle for Marlon Brando, as well as a example of a failed attempt to film gothic, period drama satisfactorily. Brando plays Peter Quint, the sexually aggressive former valet, now locum gardener at Bly House, an English county estate. Bly is run jointly by housekeeper, Mrs Grose (Thora Hird), and a governess, the repressed Miss Jessell (Stephanie Beacham). The only other inhabitants of this curious domicile are two children, Miles (Christopher Ellis) and Flora (Verna Harvey), nominally the wards of the absent Master of the House (a splendid Harry Andrews), obliged with their care after the death of their parents in an overseas automobile accident. The children regard Quint as something of a surrogate father, and feel that they can ingratiate themselves by manipulating his private life, notably his intense relationship with Miss Jessell.

Jack Claytons The Innocents (1962) is the closest point of reference for Winner's effort, as the earlier film is the definitive telling of the Henry James tale, the events of which spring from this. Presumably the appointment, and despatch to Bly of the (unnamed) new governess at the film's end is that of Miss Giddings, the character played by Deborah Kerr. But where Clayton's film was completely successful in transmitting a feeling of supernatural unease and psychological dread, Winner's ham-fisted approach to his material comes across as almost entirely without atmosphere or charm. James' characters may act out their allotted parts in The Nightcomers, but its presentation of situation and personality veers uncertainly between the childhood gormlessness of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the compulsions of Lady Chatterley's Lover, as much as evoking any genuine atmosphere of psychic foreboding.

Perhaps such foreboding was the last thing the director had in mind. Brando of course regularly exudes magnetism, even in his less successful films, and the animal sexuality of the gardener towards the governess is one of the most dynamic things about Winner's film. UK TV viewers, used to seeing Beacham as the staple of such programmes as Tenko and Dynasty, will raise eyebrows as she gamely submits her buxom charms to Quint's hands - at one point hogtied and squirming in an impromptu Edwardian bondage session. Jessell despises herself, and yet craves what Quint brings during his nocturnal visits. These scenes, verging on the embarrassing for viewer and participants alike, at least provide vivid entertainment sadly missing elsewhere. Unfortunately such adult titillation also disrupts the progress of a film which required the screw turned of increasing tension and menace and proves a distraction from the growing relationship between Miles and Flora, the children at the centre of the film.

As rounded dramatic characters, the youngsters have a hard job convincing the audience. Alternating between school children's pranks, nascent sexuality, naïve hero-worship and psychosis, it is difficult to discover an internal consistency in their actions. The gauche imitations by Miles and Flora of Quint's sexual performance, including a 'bondage' session of their own, and Miles' announcement to the shocked interrogation of Mrs Grose afterwards ("I'll tell you exactly what we have been doing. We have been doing sex!") are an amusing diversion. And this imitation of the adult affair they have witnessed serves as an ironic parody of their elders, if it hardly prepares the viewer for their final, violent, actions. Accordingly our interest is reduced, and dramatic curiosity falls readily upon the relationship between Quint and Jessell, rather than the peculiar wards they shepherd.

Winner clearly thought so too, for his camera dwells too much on those headline adult liaisons for the film's good. This 'false' emphasis (no matter how good sex is for the box office) means that, when the children ultimately take matters into their own hands, events seem rather lame, their motivation too unconvincing and bald. The paramount influence of Quint of course goes some way to explaining the kids' increasingly odd behaviour, notably his announcement, taken on faith, that "if you love someone, sometimes you really want to kill them." But there is a world of difference between his power games with Miss Jessell and the children's attempts to retain them both in their service, as "the dead have nowhere to go." A handful more scenes of the children, talking through their convictions together, would have gone a long way.

Outside of problems with characterisation, many of the film's faults can be place at the door of Winner. Never the subtlest of directors, he was an odd choice to helm a project of this sort which required emotional tact and physical suggestion. Although the location filming at 'Bly' is effective enough, Winner's weakness for jerky zooms, for exploitation, his stiff direction of actors (only the method-trained Brando seems at ease, even with a faintly ludicrous Irish accent), as well as an over-insistent score, provided by the normally excellent Jerry Fielding, are distracting. Beecham and Hird perhaps saw the film as a stepping-stone to better things and do their best. Fresh from Last Tango In Paris, Brando carries over some of the appetites of Paul, his character in the previous production. The blunt Quint, however, is miles away from the sophisticates who inhabited Bertolucci's classic.

Perhaps in the hands of a flamboyant Ken Russell, or even a cool Terence Fisher, The Nightcomers would have congealed more into a worthwhile experience. As it is the film remains an uneven oddity: explicitly sexual between consenting adults, and confused and coy when it comes to those far more interesting shadows of psychology.

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5 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A Very Dark Tale About Finding Sexuality and Losing Innocence, 7 October 2006

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the Victorian England, the teenagers Flora (Verna Harvey) and her brother Miles (Christopher Ellis) have just lost their parents in a car accident in France. Their tutor (Harry Andrews) decides to leave the children alone in their huge mansion under the care of the old housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Thora Hird), the governess Miss Jessel (Stephanie Beacham) and the gardener Peter Quint (Marlon Brando). Miles and Flore are very connected to Peter, who misleads their education with twisted concepts of love and death, but the orphans believe and are fascinated by his knowledge. Peter is the lover of Jessel, and they use to have sadomasochistic sex. When Peter sees their kink bondage night of sex, he has a corrupted and perverted sexual initiation. When Mrs. Grose writes to the master of the house to fire Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, Flora and Miles plot a dark scheme to keep them together in the property.

"The Nightcomers" is a very dark tale about finding sexuality and losing innocence in a very twisted way. The performances of the cast are top-notch, but Marlon Brando leads the story with his usual competence. I have never had the chance to read "Turn of the Screw" or see "The Innocents" to make any comparison, but I really liked this unknown and underrated movie. The bondage scenes are very impressive, with Marlon Brando and Stephanie Beacham showing a great chemistry. It is impressive to see that Verna Harvey was twenty-years old in 1972. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Que Chegam Com a Noite" ("The Nightcomers")

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Loose Screw in Need of a Good Turn, 11 July 2008
Author: DriesVermeulenDV8 (dv8@live.be) from Brugge, Belgium

This much-maligned prequel to Henry James' often filmed TURN OF THE SCREW actually has several things going for it. Marlon Brando (just prior to LAST TANGO...) defies stereotype as uncouth yet eminently desirable Peter Quint, object of Miss Jessel's inadmissible lust. A glowingly youthful Stephanie Beacham starts off a bit wooden but vastly improves as the plot moves along and her character loosens up. Speaking of loosening up, her three separate nude scenes certainly don't hurt matters either. British character actress Thora Hird is pleasingly grotesque as monstrous housekeeper Mrs. Gross. The kids convey a credible malevolence and the script has a considerable number of dark ideas floating about. Now for the bad news. The zoom-happy cinematography is particularly ill-suited to a period piece such as this. The music seems composed for a silent melodrama, signposting every single twist and emotion well in advance. On top of all that, Michael Winner directs in his usual ham-fisted way, draining all subtlety out of his promising material long before the end credits roll. Still well worth a look for what might have been...

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