Seance on a Wet Afternoon – 1964 | 114mins | Drama, Crime, Thrller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Bryan Forbes psychological thriller combines the brilliant double-act of Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough, together they play sad couple Myra and Billy Savage, who concoct a money-making plot as dark and dank as the Victorian house in which they live.

Myra conducts a weekly séance, claiming to be able to contact ‘the other side’ through her late son. Myra devises a plan, verging on lunacy to stage a kidnap, then use her dubious skills as a medium to help the police locate the child. Billy, the downtrodden and adoring husband, acquiesces to kidnap Amanda (Judith Donner), daughter of industrialist Clayton (Mark Eden), and his wife (Nanette Newman), for ransom, and returns with their daughter back to the Victorian house where Myra has prepared a room to keep her captive. Despite the disapproval of her husband, Amanda’s desperate mother agrees to attend one of Myra’s séances in the hope of finding clues about her daughter’s whereabouts, and the ransom money is duly paid.

Amanda becomes ill with a fever and Billy wishes to return the child to her parent immediately, but his wife claims that she’s been in touch with their dead son and that he wants a companion. Worried for the child’s safety, and his wife’s mental health, her husband takes the girl to some waste-ground for refuge. Walsh (Patrick Magee), the police officer investigating the case, learns of the Clayton’s contact with Myra and becomes suspicious when discovering that she had lost a child early in life. Walsh asks Myra to stage a séance to help the police locate the child. Once the séance is under-way, Myra falls into her trance; instead of using the carefully rehearsed story she had prepared with her husband, she tells the truth. Her husband can only stand and watch as Myra reveal the true facts that will put her into a mental institution and him into a jail.