The Nightcomers

A film crass enough to have the outraged ghost of Henry James haunting Wardour Street with flashing eyes and gnashing teeth. Purporting to explain how Peter Quint and Miss Jessel became the ghostly presences of The Turn of the Screw, it has Brando mumbling endless Irish blarney, and Stephanie Beacham roped naked to her bed at frequent intervals, as the pair corrupt the two innocents in their care with sado-masochist goings-on. Michael Hastings' dialogue is evidently designed to echo the hieratic Jamesian flavour, but tends to sound embarrassingly like a Cockney nanny doing her best to be genteel.