Assuming Miss Giddens was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs - which I believe she was - how did she kill Miles? Or rather, what was the cause of death? It looks as if his heart just stops.
Last night at the dance, my little brother paid a buck to see your underwear.
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My opinion is that Miss Giddens scared him to death. I believe she was insane.
Last night at the dance, my little brother paid a buck to see your underwear.
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I don't know why, but each time I watch the film that scene brings me close to tears. Martin Stephens acting was so great in this movie and I genuinely felt sorry for him as he screamed looking around for Quint.
Death lives in the Vault of Horror!
I just watched it tonight with a full house here in Los Angeles as part of the Academy of Motion Pictures' series of Cinemascope pictures, and I choked up at the ending, too.
What a masterpiece.
As I said in another thread I don't think Miles die, I think he just went into a shock (his eyes are closed when she picks him up but opened in between when she looks down at him. His dying doesn't make sense...children fall down all the time, they don't die of it and seldom will a healthy young child die of heart attack etc (unless he had some existing heart condition which is never mentioned), they are more common as one grows older.
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wat are you lookin' at...
In the novel, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, it is specified that Miles dies. I almost wish that the film had changed this ending because it is so tragic. However, an alternative ending might have lessened the overall impact of the story and our appreciation of the full consequences of Miss Giddens' deranged behaviour.
shareActually when the camera goes in for the final close-up, Mile's eyes are wide open. Also, Henry James makes it very clear in his novel that Miles dies. No, there is no question that Miles is dead at the end of the film.
shareI think it was the combination of banging his head on the garden steps and then jostling his brain while arguing with Miss Giddens about Quint. Cerebral hemorrhage? Curiously, most of the later versions have him dying outright of fright without banging his head first.
shareSuCue, you mean he suffered from the fall? His head didn't touch the ground at all.
share