Seance on a Wet Afternoon

If you love Hitchcockian films with an absolute bonkers performance by its lead actress, this is the film for you. I already know I will never remember the title of this film, as I haven't been able to say it correctly since I watched it.

Excellent suspense. Richard Attenborough is fantastic...in his understated way, everything he does rings absolutely true. Kim Stanley, on the other hand...the whole movie, I had the feeling that she was--whether consciously or not--imitating Bette Davis. Her vocal inflections, facial expressions, physical mannerisms--Davis. It's a decent imitation, but Stanley doesn't have the intensity or personal strength to really carry it off, so in the end she's serviceable at best, irritating at worst.

This was a very unsettling and well-acted movie that kept me invested throughout its entire runtime.

Love the theoretical components of this more than the experience - the concept, story structure, ending, etc. Great performances by the two leads as well. I enjoy a couple of the set pieces but wonder if this concept could've been more dutifully and simply explored. Almost great.

This extremely well-made thriller is a powerful vehicle for Stanley, who sadly did very little film acting. She has to portray complex layers of self-delusion and a gradual mental collapse, which she does superbly. Attenborough is also marvelous, playing reticence gradually descending into a complete lack of confidence in his wife's sanity (all while sporting a really odd fake nose). Patrick Magee pops in at the end for a brief visit.

The opening set up conversation between them is one of best introduction sequences I've seen in a while. Sets up everything perfectly and is shot well (the shot of the convo being slightly framed by the record player is great)

An admittedly great performance from Kim Stanley can't save this one from being totally average. It's nicely creepy but there's a whole lot of useless talking and it's pretty dull visually.

Há 55 anos Farsa Diabólica estreava nos EUA. Eu tinha a mais absoluta certeza de que já havia visto esse filme, especialmente pela minha fase de obsessão pelo cinema britânico, mas não consta em lugar algum que eu o tenha visto. Em todo caso revi e é mesmo um filmaço que Forbes nunca mais equiparou na carreira . DVDRip Classics.

Top-notch acting and nice cinematography. The first conversation between Stanley and Attenborough was so intriguing that I was immediately captivated by this gem of a thriller and its mood.

Pretty good.

The concept behind Seance on a Wet Afternoon is pretty out there, but the film shows enough taste and restraint to pull it off quite elegantly. Very good acting helps it along. There are some major continuity errors plaguing the plot (something is planned by the characters but doesn't happen with no explanation given, a character inexplicably lacks vital information that had clearly been given to her in an earlier scene, etc), but they don't ruin the film outright.

Simply superb performances from Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley! The slow, foreboding pace of the direction by Forbes, the crisp black and white cinematography by Gerry Turpin, and the often minimal score by John Barry all contribute to the unique atmosphere of the film.

Given cast, director, and subject matter, I very much wanted to like this, but it moves like cement

Entirely about the mood and it never misses a beat. From the lengthy opening conversation to the tense finale, the plot slowly unravels and while it's not a particularly complex film the excellent lighting and wonderful performances make all the difference.

Dickie Attenborough was in it too (and quite a change from Brighton Rock).

It's kind of cliché to refer to a suspense film as "Hitchcockian" but this one really captures the Hitch feel. Excellent film about a really bad plan gone wrong, very tense and moody with fine performances from Kim Stanley as the off-kilter domineering wife and Richard Attenborough as the reluctant hen-pecked husband.