| The Woman in Black | |
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DVD cover for the Woman in Black |
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| 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 |
| 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 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.
Contents |
A young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, 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, Kipps 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.
The next day, Kipps 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. Kipps rushes in and snatches her out of the way.
Since Pepperell refuses to accompany him to Eel Marsh House, Kipps decides to make his way there alone. The house is completely cut off from the mainland and hidden by mist. Kipps is driven there in a trap by Keckwick, a local man who knows the timing of the tides. He agrees to pick up Kipps in due time.
Kipps 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 Kipps 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, Kipps then hears sounds of the horse struggling and a child crying and screaming. Lost, Kipps cannot find the source leaving him no choice but to go back towards the house.
When Keckwick brings him back to town, Kipps pays a visit to Mr. Toovey, to whom he tells his story. Toovey tells him not to go back to the house, but Kipps insists on returning and staying there. Toovey then loans Kipps his dog, called Spider, to keep him company.
Upon his return, Kipps searches through the papers in the study, but is interrupted by the sounds of a bouncing ball from upstairs. Spider starts whining and leads Kipps to a door that cannot be opened. A panicked Kipps runs downstairs to get an axe to break the door, only to find the door has opened by itself.
Behind the door, Kipps 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?'. Kipps notices that a little lead soldier somehow found its way into his hand. He then realizes that the generator is running down. Unwilling to be left alone in the dark, Kipps rushes to the outhouse to start up the electricity generator.
When Kipps and Spider are outside, Spider answers a high whistle and runs away. As Kipps searches for him, the noises of the horse and the child start again. Kipps, 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, Kipps learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, 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 Kipps' new theories. He then tells Kipps 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. Kipps 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 Kipps, who collapses.
Toovey brings Kipps 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.
Kipps 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, Kipps 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.
Arthur and his family are 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, crushing all within it.
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 male to female). 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]. As a result of this there will probably be no further TV broadcasts of the TV movie or any further DVD releases.
Such is the popularity and demand for the out of print TV movie that the shortage of officially available copies created a small black market in illegal copies of the DVD release.
The programme was filmed on Osea Island, near Goldhanger in Essex, the causeway being two miles away from the local salt marshes and the National Trust village of Lacock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.
The Woman in Black was nominated for four BAFTA awards, including Best Design, Best Film Sound, Best Make Up and Best Original Television Music.