Characters within The Haunting

For the time being the following analysis will be fairly superficial since it will be most based on Robert Wise' The Haunting, the 1962 film version of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House.  I will incorporate more of the text later when time allows (pardon while I indulge in a moment of maniacal laughter) and so lets look it over.

While action is vital for story line since something must happen, literary works (both in text and cinema) must also emphasize characters.  The audience must care about whom the events are occurring and believe in their responses as true to life.  Caring, by the way, should not be mistaken for liking (although in many stories we do like the hero or heroine) but there should be something within the character which engages us. I do not like Shakespeare's Richard III and many viewers from U-Tube have noted they did not Eleanor Lance.  Yet in both characters, even in their self centeredness and insanity, there is something which is engaging.

• Eleanor Lance - Julie Harris - Although this is an ensemble performance, Eleanor is the closest thing to the protagonist.  The events happen to her--which happens to be one of her strongest desires, to finally have something happen to h er.
• Theodora - Claire Bloom - In some ways she is Eleanor's foil.  She's about the same age and share's Elanore's psychic abilities but she has accepted that part of herself and presents a
• Dr. John Markway - Richard Johnson - The character of exposition.  His is the voice we should trust.  the only problem is that Dr. Markway is guilty of unintentionally filling the minds of his guests with his own bias.
• Luke Sanderson - Russ Tamblyn - Luke functions as the cynic within the experiment except that Markway reveals that he in fact is gifted in psychological gifts which is why he has a reputation as a "card shark" (although apparently Theo is stronger than he is seeing as it is that she defeats him in a game of cards in the living room).  He goes through the largest arch of attitude referring to Hill House as a valuable piece of property but by the ending saying
• Grace Markway - Lois Maxwell - Also a cynic She is also the catalyst which brings about the catastrophe of the plot.
• Mrs. Sanderson - Fay Compton -
• Mrs. Dudley - Rosalie Crutchley - Very little, in some ways Mrs. Dudley are more like items in a setting that the house is; this is emphasized in the way the characters (Theo especially) ignores Mrs. Dudley's descriptions of her routine.
• Mr. Dudley - Valentine Dyall -
• Hill House - One usually thinks of a house as a setting.  However Hill House is alive.  More than just an active ocean which would still be a setting, Hill House actually interacts with the other characters.  It is as Jackson described it "not sane."