Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Directed by BRYAN FORBES

Starring KIM STANLEY RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH JUDITH DONNER

1964

Released 13 JAN

Blu-ray

biography of the actor Kim Stanley was published after her death in 2001 and the, and on the back of the performance she delivers in this single screen credit, that biog title starts to make a whole lot of sense. Wracked by grief, manipulative, callous and just a little deranged, Stanley’s Myra is a spirit medium who entered into the game after losing her son at birth. Her husband Bill (Richard Attenborough, also extraordinary) does his best to placate her emotionally, while also helping with behind-the-scenes pyrotechnics. In order to catalyse her ascent up the spirit medium rankings, Myra coerces Bill into kidnapping a local schoolgirl with a view to pressuring her family into bringing her into the investigation. Their plan is too elaborate, too far-fetched, and in terms of credible plotting, it’s sometimes a little tough to swallow. Yet, the swirling psychodrama at the core of this unhealthy partnership is what energises the film, and the sequences in which Stanley and Attenborough just bicker over the complex logistics of their scheme are an abhorrent joy to behold. Director and screenwriter Bryan Forbes brings these two characters to the very edge of combustion with about 30 minutes left on the clock, and it’s quite something to just wait and see who will flame-out first, especially with the local constabulary closing the net. It’s as fine a portrait of a long marriage in irreparable disarray as that venomous touchstone,