1961: The Innocents

It is set in a 19th-century English country house and it's a good old-fashioned ghost story, complete with moving curtains and a little girl humming an eerie tune. Excellently filmed in clear black and white by Freddie Francis, the movie's a thoroughly stylish experience. Early on, The Innocents reminded me of the 2001 The Others with Nicole Kidman and I suspected that the latter was a a remake of the former. More accurately, they're both based on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Both films are about equally good. (7)

And while we're at it: The job interview scene early in the film with its oh, there's another thing I feel I must tell you bit is strongly remindful of The Shining. Did Kubrick and his coauthor Diane Johnson take that trick from The Innocents? Or was it in Stephen King's book? And if so, did he get it from James? It seems I have a bit of reading to do.