Trailer
Plot summary
Myra Savage calls herself a medium and holds seances at home. Her husband Billy assists at the sittings; asthma keeps him from steady work, and he does what she asks. The spirit of their son Arthur, who died at birth, rules her life and her psychic work. Wanting fame for her gift, she persuades Billy to abduct Amanda Clayton, the small daughter of a rich household, and keep her in a room of their own house. There Myra poses as a nurse so the girl thinks she is in a hospital. The pair demand a £25,000 ransom, though they intend to hand back the money and the child once Myra has helped the police find Amanda. Myra then calls on the Claytons, claiming a dream about their daughter.
Cast
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bryan Forbes rewrote the script of Séance on a Wet Afternoon so that the leads were a gay couple, and offered both roles to Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay, who each turned them down.
- Bryan Forbes and Richard Attenborough struggled to cast Myra Savage: Deborah Kerr and Simone Signoret were both approached for the part, and both actresses refused it.
- The film's commercial failure, along with the losses of Life for Ruth (1962), brought down the production company Allied Film Makers.
- Bryan Forbes wrote the screenplay in seven days in December 1962, straight after finishing a rewrite of Of Human Bondage, and called it an act of penance for neglecting Beaver Films.
- Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz created an opera based on the film; it had its world premiere on 26 September 2009 at the Granada Theater at Opera Santa Barbara in California.
