The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black
DVD cover for the Woman in Black
Directed by	Herbert Wise
Written by	Nigel Kneale, Susan Hill
Starring	Adrian Rawlins Bernard Hepton David Daker Pauline Moran
Music by	Rachel Portman
Distributed by	Granada Television (UK)
Release date(s)	December 24, 1989 (UK)
Running time	100 min
Country	England
Language	English

The Woman in Black is a 1989 television drama production starring Adrian Rawlins, Bernard Hepton, David Daker and Pauline Moran. Nigel Kneale adapted it from the novel of the same name by Susan Hill and it was directed by Herbert Wise. The programme was produced by Central Television for the ITV Network, and was an unexpected success.

Plot synopsis

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (October 2007)

A young solicitor, Arthur Kidd (changed from Kipps in the novel), is sent to a small market town on the East Coast of England to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow, an elderly widow who lived alone at Eel Marsh House. On the train to Crythin Gifford, Kidd meets a rich local landowner, Sam Toovey, who seems unsettled upon hearing that Kidd is here to deal with the belongings of the late Mrs. Drablow. In the seaside town of Crythin, Kidd lodges at a local inn where he finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about Mrs. Drablow's dreary home.

The next day, Kidd attends the funeral with Mr. Pepperell, a local solicitor. During the sermon, he notices a woman in black standing at the back of the church. He sees her again amid the gravestones and mentions the woman to Mr. Pepperell, who appears shocked. Meanwhile, in town, a truck carrying heavy lumber accidentally drops its load. A log falls on a gypsy child, crushing her legs. Kidd rushes in and snatches her out of the way.

Since Pepperell refuses to accompany him to Eel Marsh House, Kidd decides to make his way there alone. The house is completely cut off from the mainland with access by a tidal causway and frequently hidden by mist. Kidd is driven there in a trap by Keckwick, a local man who knows the timing of the tides. He agrees to pick up Kidd in due time.

Kidd walks around the graveyard near the house when he sees the woman once again. This time he sees her face. She begins to walk towards him. Terrified, he flees back into the house. While looking around the study of the house, he finds the death certificates of two people who died on the same day, as well as pictures of a young woman who resembles the Woman in Black. After hearing some disturbing recordings made by Mrs. Drablow on wax cylinders, he decides not to wait for Keckwick and walk the causeway alone.

While walking on the path towards the town, the mist rolls in, rendering Kidd blind on the dangerous path. He hears the sound of a horse trotting down the path. Thinking it is Keckwick, he starts walking towards it. However, Kidd then hears sounds of the horse struggling and a child crying and screaming. Lost, Kidd cannot find the source leaving him no choice but to go back towards the house.

When Keckwick brings him back to town, Kidd pays a visit to Mr. Toovey, to whom he tells his story. Toovey tells him not to go back to the house, but Kidd insists on returning and staying there. Toovey then loans Kidd his dog, called Spider, to keep him company.

Upon his return, Kidd searches through the papers in the study, but is interrupted by the sounds of a bouncing ball from upstairs. Spider starts whining and leads Kidd to a door that cannot be opened. A panicked Kidd runs downstairs to get an axe to break the door, only to find the door has opened by itself.

Behind the door, Kidd finds a immaculately clean child's nursery. A football drops onto the floor, which was the source of the sound. Suddenly, the sound of a child's laughter fills the room, along with a soft 'Hello?'. Kidd notices that a little lead soldier somehow found its way into his hand. He then realises that the generator is running down. Unwilling to be left alone in the dark, Kidd rushes to the outhouse to start up the electricity generator.

When Kidd and Spider are outside, Spider answers a high whistle and runs away. As Kidd searches for him, the noises of the horse and the child start again. Kidd, frightened almost into madness, rushes back into the house and locks himself in. He then continues to study the papers in the house and records his fears onto the wax cylinders.

From various sources, Kidd learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Goss (changed from Humfrye in the novel), gave birth to a child, but was unable to care for it. Mrs. Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, insisting he should never know that Jennet was his mother. One day, Jennet kidnapped her son and tried to escape via the causeway. The pony and trap carrying Jennet and the boy across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard. Jennet then came back to haunt Eel Marsh House with a vengeful malevolence, as the Woman in Black.

Mr. Toovey finds that Spider has returned to him and immediately realizes that something is wrong. He goes to Eel Marsh house, where he listens to Kidd's new theories. He then tells Kidd that according to local tales, seeing the Woman in Black presages the death of a child, which was why no one tried to interfere when the girl at the market was nearly crushed. Kidd decides to pack his things and leave the house. However, amongst the papers, he finds the lead soldier. He points this out to Mr. Toovey, and decides to show him the nursery. However, when they reach it, the room is a mess, with all the toys smashed and the furniture in shambles. This is too much for Kidd, who collapses.

Toovey brings Kidd back to the inn, where he falls into a deep sleep. He is awakened by the sound of the child's laughter and finds the soldier yet again in his hand. After asking out loud what the child wants of him, the child replies that the soldier "is for you". The Woman in Black then appears, hovering over his bed, and shrieks into his face, terrifying him into unconsciousness.

Kidd returns to London to his family and accuses his boss of sending him to Eel Marsh House because he was scared for his own safety. His boss then instructs him to look through the box of Mrs. Drablow's papers that was sent from Crythin Gifford. At that moment, his two assistants come in and say that there was a customer for him, a woman dressed completely in black. Delirious with terror, Kidd searches madly through the box for the toy soldier. When he does not find it, he burns all the papers and the box, and half his office as well. His boss fires him and he and his wife and children decide to leave London.

With the events apparently passed, Arthur and his family are boating on a peaceful lake when Arthur sees the Woman in Black standing on the lake, watching him. Petrified, he does nothing. A tree falls on their boat, killing them all.

Broadcast history and availability

It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV on Christmas Eve 1989 (repeated only once by Channel 4 over Christmas 1994). Overall the TV adaptation stayed reasonably faithful to the original novel, although some of the changes angered the author Susan Hill (for example, the sex of the dog 'Spider' was changed from female to male). Arthur's name has also been changed from Kipps to Kidd. The TV version was released in the United Kingdom on VHS but only for a fairly short time. There was also a Region 1 DVD release but it is now out of print and, according to the messageboard at the site of Susan Hill, the TV rights are now owned by someone else. Apparently the rights have been purchased twice and currently reside with the U.S. studio.^[1]

Production

The programme was filmed using the causeway to Osea Island, near Goldhanger in Essex, and the local salt marshes, whilst scenes to represent Crythin Gifford were filmed at the National Trust village of Lacock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Background

• The novel and play are not to be confused with Wilkie Collins's Victorian thriller The Woman in White - although Susan Hill admitted this is what inspired the name for her own.
• The actress who portrays The Woman in Black, Pauline Moran, is best known for playing Miss Lemon, the redoubtable secretary of Hercule Poirot, in the LWT television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet.
• The adaptation differs from the novel in several small ways.
  • Mr Kidd is named Kipps in the book, other names are also different.
  • In the novel, Kipps himself does not die; the entire tale is told years later by an elderly Kipps whose wife and child had been killed in an accident involving a runaway horse and trap whilst he looked on.
  • Mr Sweetman (in the novel he is called Mr. Bentley) is a kindly figure in the novel, unlike the disdainful coward of the adaptation.
  • The phonograph does not appear in the novel.
  • The dog Spider is female in the novel, male in the adaptation.
  • Kidd/ Kipps does not burn down his law office in the novel.
  • The accident involving the gypsy girl does not happen in the novel.
  • The child does not talk to Kipps in the novel.
  • The toy soldier does not appear in the novel.
  • Spider remains with Kipps in the novel and almost drowns in the marshes after being lured into them by (presumably) the woman in black. Kipps manages to save her and almost drowns himself. When he comes back ashore and looks up at the nursery window, the woman in black is watching him.
  • In the novel Kipps hears the sound of a rocking chair coming from the nursery, not a ball bouncing.
  • In the novel, Sam Daily's wife is very shy and withdrawn.
• In the adaptation, references to Charlie Chaplin and the Great War are used to set the scene historically.
• The screenwriter, Nigel Kneale, is best known for his Quatermass films.

Awards and nominations

The Woman in Black was nominated for four BAFTA awards, including Best Design, Best Film Sound, Best Make Up and Best Original Television Music.

References

External links

• Stage play website
• Susan Hill official site
• The Woman in Black at the Internet Movie Database
• The Woman in Black at AllRovi