Emily, a pretty young Irish girl, gets a job on an English farm owned by the Tallent family. The local men take to her but the women don't, objecting to her flirtatious nature with their men... Read allEmily, a pretty young Irish girl, gets a job on an English farm owned by the Tallent family. The local men take to her but the women don't, objecting to her flirtatious nature with their men and one woman, Bess Stanforth, is especially disturbed by her. When Dan, a man from Emily... Read allEmily, a pretty young Irish girl, gets a job on an English farm owned by the Tallent family. The local men take to her but the women don't, objecting to her flirtatious nature with their men and one woman, Bess Stanforth, is especially disturbed by her. When Dan, a man from Emily's past, shows up and accuses her of having tried to kill, him Beth's suspicions are furth... Read all
- Saul Trevethick
- (as Denis Gordon)
- Man at Fairground
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaNear the beginning of the film a shopkeeper (played by Bartlett Mullins) was called Denis O'Dea. Siobhan McKenna (Emily) was married to actor Denis O'Dea.
- Quotes
Emily Beaudine: [in the stable] Hello.
Saul Trevethick: Hello. Are Bess and Julie home?
Emily Beaudine: Yes they are, surely.
Saul Trevethick: It's sweltering hot outside. What do you think?
Emily Beaudine: I wouldn't know. Whatever you think, will do.
Saul Trevethick: No, don't go. Larry about somewhere?
Emily Beaudine: Strange you should ask me that, you must have passed him just now. You're not fooling me, you see. You're very young, aren't you?
Saul Trevethick: Am I?
Emily Beaudine: It's a great pleasure to have you breathing down my neck.
Saul Trevethick: Like it?
Emily Beaudine: If it wasn't so draughty. And it's thirsty work in the fields, isn't it?
Saul Trevethick: Well, why do you ask?
Emily Beaudine: Cos' I can just smell that you've quenched it.
Saul Trevethick: I never know when you're joking. You're a funny thing.
Emily Beaudine: Indeed, how I must make myself laugh. Now you mustn't stand so close to me. If someone were to come in, it would be a great pity to make a fool of yourself.
Saul Trevethick: You like me, don't you?
Emily Beaudine: I haven't given it a thought.
Saul Trevethick: Emmie's there's, there's something about you that... that, you know what I mean, don't you? Don't you?
Emily Beaudine: Indeed I hope I don't. Now I think it would be much better if, very quietly you were to tip-toe out and go...
Saul Trevethick: Stop it, I... I don't know what the devil's got hold of me. When I come near you, I... I don't seem to be able to, I never seem to hold myself like. I can't, I can't. Are you laughing at me?
Emily Beaudine: Let me look at you.
Saul Trevethick: Then don't joke with me.
Emily Beaudine: Very deep chest. You're stronger than I thought.
Emily Beaudine: No, no you mustn't kiss me.
- Crazy creditsAnne Crawford and Maxwell Reed appear courtesy of the J.Arthur Rank Organisation.
Emmie Beaudine (McKenna) isn't liked by the women folk of the Irish village community where she lives. There's something about her that riles them, frightens them even. So when the women of the village round up on her keeper, the priest, she is sent off to live on a farm in a North Yorkshire county of England. Which is timely as she has had an altercation with one of the men from a travelling fair. Once at the "Tallent" family farm, Emmie settles in well and seems genuinely happy, but still some of the women folk in the vicinity view her with suspicion, and when a face from Emmie's past shows up, it's the catalyst for doom and desperation.
It's an odd chiller of a movie, something of an acquired taste, it's hard to pigeonhole. Never overtly horror, noir or otherwise, it's not hard to see why some specialist genre fans have found it a disappointment. Yet if you can buy into Comfort and Catto's ethereal world there's a picture of great rewards here, a complex character study mingling with asides on sexual empowerment, even a story with supernatural leanings, the edges of which are deliberately shaded in grey. And of course there's the crime factor bulging at the seams, Emmie Beaudine a cold murderess, her rhyme and reason for being so repulsed by male sexual contact is again deliberately left floating in an emotionally distorted purgatory.
Nicely photographed in black and white, the visual atmosphere is very tight to the murky themes swirling around the plot. There's also a number of memorable scenes, the hurly burly of the carnival sequences, the hauntingly troubling playing of an organ, and some super scenes featuring Thorn the Alsatian dog, a real life war hero (look him up, amazing animal) who is also very much a key character here. Strong acting performances around McKenna are a bonus (including the beautiful Blackman in her first credited role), but it is the Northern Irish actress who spellbindingly holds court, with much of her visual acting stunning in its execution.
Love it or hate it, you wont be able to ignore it. 9/10
- hitchcockthelegend
- Mar 27, 2014
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Oskuld eller djävul
- Filming locations
- Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK(studio: Fairground built on backlot)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1