{ "id": "epyms6fk70", "slug": "seance-on-a-wet-afternoon", "title": "Seance on a Wet Afternoon", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: 1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Seance on a Wet Afternoon is Bryan Forbes' 1964 British psychological thriller starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough, based on Mark McShane's novel about a medium's kidnapping scheme.", "snippet": "Seance on a Wet Afternoon is Bryan Forbes' 1964 British psychological thriller starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough, based on Mark McShane's novel about a medium's kidnapping scheme.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "markdown": "# Seance on a Wet Afternoon\n\n**Seance on a Wet Afternoon** is a 1964 British psychological thriller directed by [Bryan Forbes](https://www.edgepedia.org/bryan-forbes), in which a London medium persuades her weak-willed husband to kidnap a wealthy couple's young daughter so that she can \"find\" the child through supposed psychic powers and build her reputation. It was written by Forbes from the 1961 novel by Mark McShane, produced by [Richard Attenborough](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-attenborough) and Forbes for Beaver Films, and presented by Allied Film Makers.[1](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/plotsummary/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | United Kingdom, 1964; 116 minutes, black and white, 35mm[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/f5b13553-3fb0-5469-83ea-42d8d69e8aa0/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon) • [1](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/) |\n| Source | Screenplay by Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by Mark McShane[1](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/) |\n| Principal cast | Kim Stanley (Myra Savage), Richard Attenborough (Billy Savage), Nanette Newman, [Patrick Magee](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-magee-actor), Mark Eden, Judith Donner[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon/cast-and-crew) |\n| Key awards | Kim Stanley nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress; Attenborough won a BAFTA and the San Sebastián Silver Shell for Best Actor[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) • [6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964-online) • [7](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon.html) |\n| Music | Composed, arranged and conducted by John Barry; photographed by Gerry Turpin; made at Pinewood Studios[1](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/) |\n| British box office | First week at the Odeon Haymarket ended just under £3,000, with business \"very strong on Saturday and Sunday\"[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) |\n| Later remake | A new adaptation directed by Tomas Alfredson, with Rachel Weisz, Matthew Macfadyen and Joe Alwyn, entered production in 2026[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12941330/news/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nMyra and Billy Savage are a married couple living in London. Myra works as a medium, holding weekly séances for a regular group of customers, while Billy, who does not otherwise work because of his asthma, supports her ventures. Her spirit guide is \"Arthur\", the stillborn son the couple lost years before. Myra is the dominant partner; Billy is the follower.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/plotsummary/)\n\nTo raise her public prominence, Myra devises a scheme: Billy is to kidnap Amanda Clayton, the young daughter of a wealthy couple, and Myra will then offer her psychic services to the parents and the police, providing information that leads to the child and the ransom money. The couple regard the plan as a victimless crime, since they intend to return both the girl and the ransom. Amanda is kept sedated in a room dressed to look like a hospital ward, with the Savages posing as a doctor and nurse behind surgical masks.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/plotsummary/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon/cast-and-crew)\n\nThe plan begins to come apart after Myra's first visit to the parents, when the police want to check her background. As her delusions worsen, Billy realizes that Myra may not want the child found alive, and that her obsession with contacting the dead Arthur is driving the case toward disaster.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/plotsummary/)\n\n## Production and reception in Britain\n\nThe film was made at [Pinewood Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinewood-studios) by Beaver Films, the company Forbes had co-founded with Attenborough in 1959, whose earlier productions included *[The Angry Silence](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-angry-silence)* and Forbes's directorial debut *Whistle Down the Wind* (1961).[1](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/) • [9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/bryan-forbes-1926-2013) Attenborough said many years later that he thought Forbes had inspired his finest performance in the film.[9](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/bryan-forbes-1926-2013)\n\nWhen the film was set for release, cinema managers were advised that \"feminine appeal\" was a particularly strong angle for publicity. The Rank Organisation press book suggested a leaflet \"aimed directly at the ladies\" for women's magazines and door-to-door distribution, with copies left in beauty parlours, hat and dress shops, stores and restaurants, and offered sample copy addressing wives whose husbands chose the film. It billed the stars as \"Richard Attenborough and Hollywood's Kim Stanley\" and called the film \"an unusually powerful drama which every woman will want to see\".[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf)\n\nThe film opened at the Odeon Haymarket in London and was a critical and commercial success in Britain. *Kinematograph Weekly* reported an excellent press and satisfactory business, very strong at the weekend; the first week ended just under £3,000, the second week started at the same level, and by the third week the film had more than satisfied its backers.[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) Forbes's screenplay was nominated for the 1965 BAFTA for British Screenplay.[10](https://static.bafta.org/files/bryanforbes-tribute-87.pdf) • [16](https://www.bafta.org/awards/film/british-screenplay/)\n\n## Reception in the United States and awards\n\nReleased in the United States at the end of 1964, the film met with almost-unanimous critical praise, with reviewers dwelling on its darker qualities: the *Boston Globe* invoked \"tragedy and horror\", the *New York Times* described \"a flow of sensuous experience that has the eeriness and tension of a spell\", and the *Washington Post* called it \"a film of haunting, enveloping horror\".[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) [Roald Dahl](https://www.edgepedia.org/roald-dahl), writing in *LIFE*, called it \"a kind of classic\" as a study in suspense, arguing that the most effective suspense is created in a low key and without violence.[11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon)\n\n[Kim Stanley](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-stanley), an acclaimed theater and television actor who appeared in only a handful of films, was nominated for the [Academy Award for Best Actress](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-actress) in a Leading Role, and both the New York Film Critics and the US National Board of Review voted her the year's best actress.[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) She did not make another film appearance until *Frances* in 1982.[6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964-online) Attenborough won a BAFTA for his performance as Billy and the Silver Shell for Best Actor at the 1964 San Sebastián International Film Festival.[6](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964-online) • [7](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon.html)\n\n## Place in British horror and afterlife\n\nDespite the plaudits, the film is relatively unknown in histories of British horror cinema. The film scholar Alison Peirse, who works on gender and horror film at the [University of York](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-york), argues that its female lead, spiritualist premise and psychological rather than corporeal horror make it an uneasy fit with established accounts of 1960s British horror, which foreground the sexualized, color-saturated violence of Hammer Studios; when it opened at the Odeon Haymarket, the ABC-South across town was showing Hammer's *The Evil of Frankenstein*. Peirse places the film in a cycle of 1960s black-and-white British horror films addressed primarily to women, built on complex female characters, interiority, and stories of motherhood, stillbirth and child murder.[5](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf) • [12](https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-feminine-appeal-of-british-horror-cinema/)\n\nThe film has remained in circulation through repertory and home video: the [Museum of Modern Art](https://www.edgepedia.org/museum-of-modern-art) screened it in a 1986 British series, it appeared on DVD in a 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer in 2002, and it has streamed on the Criterion Channel and [HBO Max](https://www.edgepedia.org/hbo-max).[13](https://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/6365/releases/MOMA_1986_0099_93.pdf) • [14](https://www.qnetwork.com/review/1069) • [11](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon) • [15](https://www.criterionchannel.com/films/SNcPZ68g/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon) A new British adaptation of McShane's novel, directed by Tomas Alfredson (*Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*) from a script by [Jack Thorne](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-thorne), with Rachel Weisz as Myra, Matthew Macfadyen as Billy and Joe Alwyn, began principal photography in 2026; in this version the kidnapped child is the son of a wealthy family.[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12941330/news/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), EOFFTV, The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television](https://eofftv.com/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964/)\n2. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Plot summary, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058557/plotsummary/)\n3. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/f5b13553-3fb0-5469-83ea-42d8d69e8aa0/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon)\n4. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Cast and Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon/cast-and-crew)\n5. [Alison Peirse, \"The Feminine Appeal of British Horror Cinema\", White Rose eprints (published in New Review of Film and Television Studies 13(4), 2015)](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/127534/3/REVISED%20SoaWA%20Submission%20to%20NRFTS%20160615.pdf)\n6. [Watch Seance on a Wet Afternoon online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-1964-online)\n7. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Sinekatalog](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon.html)\n8. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon (2026 adaptation), News, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12941330/news/)\n9. [Bryan Forbes (1926–2013), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/bryan-forbes-1926-2013)\n10. [Bryan Forbes filmography and honours, BAFTA tribute](https://static.bafta.org/files/bryanforbes-tribute-87.pdf)\n11. [Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon)\n12. [Alison Peirse, \"The Feminine Appeal of British Horror Cinema\", York Research Database](https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-feminine-appeal-of-british-horror-cinema/)\n13. [Museum of Modern Art press release, 1986 British film series](https://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/6365/releases/MOMA_1986_0099_93.pdf)\n14. [Séance on a Wet Afternoon DVD review, QNetwork](https://www.qnetwork.com/review/1069)\n15. [Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/films/SNcPZ68g/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon)\n16. [bafta.org](https://www.bafta.org/awards/film/british-screenplay/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Seance on a Wet Afternoon\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Seance on a Wet Afternoon](https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon](https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Seance on a Wet Afternoon\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/seance-on-a-wet-afternoon. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Seance on a Wet Afternoon is Bryan Forbes' 1964 British psychological thriller starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough, based on Mark McShane's novel about a medium's kidnapping scheme." }