A couple of weeks ago, I recommended the 1964 Bryan Forbes film Seance on a Wet Afternoon.  Recalling it as a “stone masterpiece,” but admitting I hadn’t seen it in a long time, I promised to watch it again to see if I remembered it rightly.  Being a serious man of my word, only without the serious part, I did as promised over the weekend.

I’ll modify my praise this far:  it’s a small, brilliant crime film, one of the best of its era.  It is kept from being an absolute masterpiece by a single mistake, a change in the plot of the novel by Mark McShane on which it is based.  I can’t give the change away without spoiling it, so I won’t, but if you can find the novel, read it.  It’s also a pleasure.

As for the film, it’s as riveting and suspenseful as I remembered.  Beautifully directed.  And the acting is phenomenal.  For those who only know Richard Attenborough from his later Jurassic Park hambone days, he was, in his prime and in his admittedly limited range, one of the great actors of his generation.  Brighton Rock, 10 Rillington Place, Guns at Batasi–he was absolutely wonderful.  And in this, playing a little Englander trapped between his own desperation and the desires of his disturbed wife (also brilliantly played by Kim Stanley) he’s at his best.

Definitely a top-notch suspenser, disturbing, beautiful and brilliant.