Review - Nightmare Classics: The Turn of the Screw (1989)

In the late 1980s, Shelley Duvall teamed up with Showtime to create an anthology series of horror stories called Nightmare Classics. The first episode was The Turn of the Screw, starring Amy Irving as a nameless governess. This version elaborates on James's source material, turning it into a traditional vengeful ghost story.

Irving's governess is the toughest, most fanatical broad I've seen in any adaptation (with the exception of Jodhi May in the 1999 BBC production). Yet, even though she's the devout and proper daughter of a clergyman, she's inexplicably infatuated with Mr. Harley, a sleazy old man who openly hits on her. He hires "Miss" to care for the two youngsters living on Harley's country estate and she quickly finds all is not as she expected it to be.

First, the decor at Bly is a problem: Mr. Harley likes erotic art (i.e., odalisques and nymphs) that simply isn't appropriate for innocent young minds. Second, the eldest child, Miles, recently booted from boarding school, is defiant and sneaky. Not only does he drink liquor and ride his new, fierce stallion against the governess's express orders, he blackmails her, threatening to tell his uncle of her shortcomings and get her fired. This Miles, in a departure from canon, is a teenager; while Dan Curtis's 1974 TV adaptation also used an adolescent Miles as a product of last-minute casting, here, Miles's age is a product of design as the plot requires him to chafe against having a nanny and strive to be in charge himself (I wonder if Curtis's film influenced that creative choice). Third, the house is haunted by a pair of Bly's former servants, the debauched Miss Jessel and Mr. Harley's valet, Peter Quint.

Though the novel is very sketchy about these characters' pasts, this telefilm provides an elaborate backstory: Quint killed a man in a drunken rage and was hanged on his employer's testimony. He vowed revenge against Mr. Harley and his family from beyond the grave. Now he and Jessel (who committed suicide after Quint's execution) are back as phantoms with designs on the innocent children. The godly governess vows to save them, but her task is made harder than in other versions, largely because Miles is such an antagonistic force.

This version is over the top and departs from the original story significantly, but I still thought it was very entertaining. Irving is engaging as a determined, harsh, and yet sympathetic protagonist. David Hemmings (who appeared in Eye of the Devil 20 years earlier) as Mr. Harley represents a bit of stunt casting; he essayed the role of Miles in the operatic version of Turn of the Screw. Meanwhile, Balthazar Getty (Lost Highway), the current Miles, is a perfect little shit who consistently gets the better of the governess. Micole Mercurio and Irina Cashen round out the main cast as Mrs. Grose and Flora, respectively.

I enjoyed this adaptation and regret that Duvall's series only ran for four episodes.