Myra Savage (Kim Stanley) is a psychic medium who, with the help of her husband Billy (Richard Attenborough), holds séances in her home every Wednesday afternoon. Billy is a meek and mousey man. Myra is quiet and unassuming, but very manipulative and overbearing, especially when it comes to Billy. He has long resigned to the fact that Myra runs the household, and he does whatever she says. Billy has asthma and is unable to work. This gives Myra another hold over the diminutive man. Myra’s contact in the spirit world is the spirit of her son, Arthur. Arthur was stillborn. Believing that she is in contact with her dead son is the only tenuous connection she has with reality. Myra is quietly insane.
Myra wants to be a famous psychic. She believes that the best way to do that would be to use her powers to solve a major crime and get her name in the papers. The Claytons (Mark Eden and Nanette Newman) are wealthy prominent people. Myra convinces Billy that they should kidnap their young daughter, Amanda (Judith Donner) and hold her for ransom. Once they get the ransom money, Myra plans on divining where Amanda and the money are, thereby returning the child safely back to her parents along with the ransom money and garnering the attention she craves.
Billy manages to kidnap Amanda without getting caught. Myra and Billy put the child in what was supposed to be Arthur’s room. They dress as a doctor and nurse and tell Amanda that she was hurt and is in the hospital. With the help of sedatives, they maintain control over her. In Myra’s unstable mind, she looks at the kidnapping as ‘borrowing’ the child. Myra arrives at the Clayton home telling them that she is a psychic and wants to help find Amanda. She leaves her business card with Mrs. Clayton. Back at home the Savages make and send their ransom letter. Billy is stuck with the cloak and dagger activity. The message is delivered, and instructions are given to Mr. Clayton. Things are beginning to unfold as planned.
Events, however, take an even darker turn when Myra decides that the spirit of her dead son wants Amanda to be with him forever.
“Séance on a Wet Afternoon” was released in 1964 and was directed by Bryan Forbes. It is a British crime thriller with horror undertones. The movie was based on the book by Mark McShane.
I wanted to watch the film because it had a really cool title. That doesn’t always work out well, but in this case the movie was just as compulsive as the title. This was a slow burning but intense movie. Kim Stanley is frightening as the quiet, yet unhinged, medium. Her insanity is a nightmare for her husband, who has empathy for others and a conscience. Still, he functions more like a robot than a husband doing whatever Myra tells him to do. Whether or not Myra’s psychic ability is real or not is immaterial. Even whether or not Myra believes she has the gift or not is immaterial.
Performances for everyone are outstanding. Kim Stanley was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress. Director Forbes manages to make the film look more like a work of art than a horror style movie.