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The Innocents
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Title:
The Innocents
NFSA ID
1673010
Year
1961
The Innocents (Jack Clayton, UK, 1961): Starring Clytie Jessop (1929–2017), b. Sydney, NSW
Clytie Jessop made her film debut as the ghost of Miss Jessel, while starring alongside Deborah Kerr, a 6-time Academy Award nominee.
While Jessop’s role was brief, the haunting image of her as the dead governess standing in the bulrushes left a lasting impression on viewers. Her ghostly face is highlighted in the centre of the poster.
Jessop carved a niche in horror, starring in 2 subsequent films directed by acclaimed cinematographer and director Freddie Francis.
In 1986, Jessop wrote, directed and produced the Australian film Emma’s War (1987).
A yellow-tinged and anxious Deborah Kerr, a wraith-like couple emerging from a candle flame, the tagline ‘You’ll get the shock of your life’ bordered by jagged red hatch marks – these design elements add up to a fitting poster for a psychological horror film.
Notes by Michelle Davenport
Director
Jack Clayton
Cast
Deborah Kerr, Clytie Jessop
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.