Eleanor was an insufferable character.

I agree, I didn't see Theo as a lesbian either. It seemed almost like Theo was toying with/tormenting Nell at times, justifiably so because Nell was *beep* annoying.

You're welcome. Not sure how many times I've read or watched it at this point, myself, but a good number of times anyway.

I agree that Eleanor is unstable , and personally think that's more than subtley shown. But, to exact
Y what degree is. The question.

Her anxiety, alienation, and confusion, given her experiences -- provided they're true -- are certainly understandable. Who wouldn't feel the same house under the same, or similar, circumstances? Additionally, who wouldn't at least question their own sanity?

Very interesting.that Julie Harris herself was at the time suffering from anxiety coupled with depression. Often they do go hand in hand, in this case, as far as I'm concerned, her unfortunate state of mind, no matter the cause, added a further dimension to her Eleanor.

Would you like to read more it? I have had a number of people read portions of it before even though it's not finished - I'm not sure if it ever will be.

The movie opens with a character that I made up; he doesn’t exist in any other version. In this case, Professor David Marrow hired four people, instead of the three as in previous versions. The fourth person is a young black man from New York City named Roland Sykes. He is fairly tall and lanky and in his early thirties.

Roland is riding a subway train from Queens to Manhattan (the train is actually outdoors at this point on an elevated section). He is going to meet David at Columbia University so that he can get a ride to the Berkshires.

He’s sitting in a seat near the end of the car with his luggage, and he is reading a newspaper.

A musician busker comes through the end door. He is a middle-aged black man carrying a guitar, a portable amplifier and a small folding stool. He sets up near Roland and starts his introduction.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, sorry for any interruption, but I’d like to do a song for you today. Now you’ll probably remember this one.” He takes a moment to tune his guitar. “This is by the great Bobby Womack - hope you enjoy it.”

Most of the passengers have seen many buskers, candy-sellers, panhandlers, and others working the trains – it’s practically a daily occurrence - and few of them give him more than the slightest notice. Roland glances at him and goes back to reading his paper.

The other man starts his act:

“I was the third brother of five,
Doing whatever I had to do to survive.
I’m not saying what I did was all right,
Trying to break out of the ghetto was a day-to-day fight.

Been down so long, getting up didn’t cross my mind,
I knew there was a better way of life I was just trying to find.
You don’t know what you’ll do until you’re put under pressure,
Across 110th Street is a hell of a tester.”

He’s singing this enthusiastically, but he’s noticeably off-key. Roland is finding this amusing, and he tries to avoid laughing out loud. He has to rub his face to hide his smile.

The other man continues:

“Across 110th Street,
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak . . .”

The doors open at a station, and the musician glances out.

“Oh, man, a cop!” He jumps up and quickly takes the seat next to Roland. A police officer comes into the car, takes a look around, and then goes through the end door to the next car.

Musician, “That was close. I had one of them give me a ticket last week. . . so how’s my singing? A little rusty, right?”

Roland doesn’t want to hurt his feelings, “No, you’re pretty good actually.”

The man smiles and taps him on the arm, “Come on, I know you’re just being polite.” He glances at Roland’s luggage, “You going on a trip?”

Roland, “Ah-huh, up to the Berkshires.”

Musician, “Yeah, really, a vacation?”

Roland, “More like a working vacation, sort of a temp job.”

Musician, “So what’ve they got you doing up there?”

Roland is starting to wonder how long these questions are going to continue. The other man notices Roland’s slightly annoyed expression; he decides to introduce himself, “Hey man, I’m Fred, glad to meet you.” He holds out his hand so that Roland can shake it.

Roland, “Okay, I’m Roland. . .you probably won’t believe this, but this guy, this psychologist, is doing a study of ghosts, and he’s paying me to stay in a haunted house - well, it’s supposed to be haunted, anyway.”

Fred, “Ghosts are real you know, I’ve seen them a few times myself.”

Roland, “Yeah? Where was that?”

Fred, “Down in North Carolina. Now, they’re scary when they’re around, but basically they’re just a nuisance. You see any up there, don’t pay them any mind, you hear?”

Roland shrugs, “All right, I’ll remember that if they show up.”

Fred, “You have to hang out with this dude all by yourself?”

Roland, “No, he’s hired three other people.”

Fred, “Any of them ladies?”

Roland, “I don’t know, I won’t know until I get there.”

Fred, “You could get lucky.”

Roland, “Oh no, I already have a girlfriend.”

Fred, “Yeah, but still. . .”

Roland, “No, this lady is special; I’m really tight with her.”

Fred, “You got a picture of her?”

Roland thinks to himself, Well, why not? He takes a photo out of his wallet and hands it to Fred.

Roland, “That’s Yolanda.”

Fred, “I see what you mean, she’s really fine. So what’s she doing while you’re busting these ghosts?”

Roland, “She’s seeing some of her family down in Venezuela.”

Fred, “Venezuela, huh? I’ve never been there, how about you?”

Roland, “Not yet.”

Fred, “You might be soon - meeting the folks, if you know what I mean.”

Roland, “I know her parents, they’re already here, over in Jackson Heights.”

Fred gets up, “Well, time to get back to business. I guess this car is a complete loss.”

Roland, “You’ve got seven more to go on this train.”

Fred, “True, but you know brother, you could salvage something of this situation, right?”

Roland laughs, “Okay, I can do that.” He pulls out a few dollars and gives them to Fred.

Fred, “Thank you, I appreciate that. Ah, you ride this train a lot?”

Roland, “All the time.”

Fred, “So maybe I’ll catch you again soon.”

They wave good-bye, but then Fred stops for a moment.

Fred, “Yo, Roland, when there’s something strange, in the neighborhood, who you gonna call?”

Roland smiles, “You’re gonna be calling me!”

*********

There’s a brief scene of Roland emerging from the subway at 116th Street and Broadway.

Then we see David Marrow in his office at Columbia University; Roland will be meeting him there in a short while.

David is taking a last look at the paperwork for the people he’s hired; he’s sitting at his desk, and his assistant Mary is opposite. There is a photo attached to the top of each pile.

David, “Eleanor Vance here, you remember her?”

Mary, “Oh yes, she seemed very nice.”

David, “I thought so too, but I don’t know if you saw this - the first letter she wrote to me was a bit odd.” He flips through the pages until he finds it. “First of all, she starts off with a bit of poetry. Listen to this, ‘Dear Dr. Marrow: Can’t seem to face up to the facts, I’m tense and nervous, can’t relax; I can’t sleep, my bed’s on fire, don’t touch me, I’m a real live wire.’ ”

Mary, “That’s not a poem, it’s part of a song.”

David, “Oh, you know it then? So she just didn’t make this up. Then she writes a few lines in French. ‘Ce que j’ai, ce soir la, - what I've done that night, what she said that night, realizing my hope, I’m going to glory;’ that doesn’t make any sense.”

Mary, “Well, that’s sort of the whole point of it.”

David, “After that it’s very straightforward, although at the end, she signs off, ‘sincerely yours, Eleanor Vance’, then she’s got, ah, just a nonsense word repeated, fah, fah, fah, looks like about twelve times, although she hyphenates some of them.”

Mary, “That’s part of the song too, you know how singers will do that sometimes.” She thinks for a second, then sing-songs a bit of “Strangers in the Night”, “You know, like, doo-bee, do-bee doo, doo-doo doo-doo doo. . .”

David, “So how do you do that with fah, fah, fah?”

Mary sings that too, “It goes like, fah-fah-fah, fah-fah-fah-fah. . .”

David chuckles, “Somehow Sinatra does that kind of thing better. What is the name of this song anyway?”

Mary is reluctant to mention that it’s “Psycho Killer,” “Well, it’s by a group called The Talking Heads. You remember them, they had some hits about ten years ago.”

David, “It sounds familiar, but I can’t place them.” He looks at Nell's photo, “When I interviewed her, she seemed pleasant, but very. . . low-key, is the way I might put it. Especially since I met Theodora the day before.”

Mary, “Oh yeah, she was hard to miss.”

David, “Flamboyant is how I’d describe her. Although I got the feeling she was putting on a bit of an act.”

Mary, “How do you think they’ll get along up there?”

David, “We’ll have to see, but I suspect Theodora is going to be rather assertive about things. I hope Eleanor doesn’t get pushed around too much.”

[Later it will be revealed that the reason Eleanor wrote this goofy letter is that she thought the ad she was responding to was a prank, and she was surprised to find out that it was real.]

*********

There’s a scene of Roland entering Marrow's office; then of them walking across the campus. Roland discusses his job as an auto insurance adjuster and why he doesn’t have a car of his own. (Ironically, he wrecked it in an accident.) I’ve written the scene but I’ll skip it now.

The next scene: Eleanor is driving on the road up to Hill House. We first see the car in an overhead shot, then from the front, approaching (pretty much like it was actually done in the 1999 movie).

A song is playing on the car’s tape deck through this (this being 1999, cars still had tape decks) and we hear Nell singing along:

“One hundred cups of coffee, five hundred cigarettes,
A thousand miles of highway and I ain’t forgot her yet,
But I keep on moving, keep a moving on down the line.”

Then we see the car from the side, revealing Nell behind the wheel.

“Ain’t nothing in my mirror, just a cloud of dust and smoke,
What do you expect when some old trucker’s heart gets broke?
Yeah, trucker’s hearts get broke.”

Then she sings the chorus:

“Those big wheels of rubber gonna rub her off of my mind,
I’m a highway junkie and I need that old white line.”

She slows down and pulls some papers out of a bag on the seat. She picks up a map, but it’s one from National Geographic and shows something completely irrelevant, like Australia. She tosses it aside. During this she sings,

“Was ten miles out of Nashville, I’m doing about ninety-one,
State boy pulls me over, said where’s the fire son?
He said, where’s that fire son?”

She finds the right map, showing part of Massachusetts, looks at that and then through the windshield.

“I said man there ain’t no fire, I’m running from a flame,
Go on and right your ticket, but I ain’t the one to blame,
That county judge tried to rob me blind.”

Hill House appears as she turns a corner, and she sings the chorus again.

“Those big wheels of rubber gonna rub her off of my mind,
I’m a highway junkie and I need that old white line.”

She stops in front of the gate and looks through her papers again. An instrumental part of the song is playing now.

She suddenly notices Mr. Dudley standing quite close to her open window. When the lyrics start again, she starts singing too, but now she turns her head and sings directly to him.

“So I rolled on down to Memphis, I had nothing left to lose,
Wanted to hear some rock and roll, but all they played was blues,
Didn’t to want to hear no blues.”

Dudley raises his hand and makes a motion with his fingers as if turning a knob. Nell turns off the tape but continues singing to him.

“So I went to call up Elvis but Roger Miller grabbed the phone,
He said dang we drive them 18-wheelers, boy you’re the kind of the road,
You’re the king of the road . . .”

She stops at this point; she sees him looking at her without any expression on his face.

Dudley gestures towards the car’s tape deck, “Randy Travis?”

Nell is a bit surprised, “Oh, you know the song. This is the Chris Knight version."

Dudley shakes his head, “Don't know that one.”

Nell consults her papers again, “You must be the caretaker, Mr. Dudley.”

Dudley, “One and the same. You must be either Theodora or Eileen Vance.”

Nell, “It’s Eleanor, Eleanor Vance.”

Dudley, “Anyway, you’re on the list.”

She notices that he has nothing in his hands, “What list?”

Dudley, “My list.”

Nell, “Right, you memorized it.”

Dudley, “There’s only four of you, plus this Dr. Morrow fella.”

Nell, “So there’s another woman coming up here.”

Dudley, “Appears to be.”

An awkward silence grows as she realizes he’s not going to say more. She gestures towards the gate, “Are you going to let me in?”

Dudley, “If that’s what you want.”

Nell, “By the way, I’ve got a couple of boxes in the back. Will you help me bring them in?”

Dudley, “I’ll have to look at them first.”

He abruptly leaves her and walks over to the gate. He unlocks it and swings the two sections open. He makes no gesture; he simply stands aside. She drives through and parks by the front door.

After she gets out, she looks at the house for a moment. She tries to think of something to say as Dudley walks up.

Nell, “So, Hill House.”

Dudley, “That’s because it’s on a hill.”

Nell, “Of course, I was just . . .”

He interrupts her, “The boxes?”

Nell, “Sure, they’re in the hatch there.”

As she unlocks the hatch, he notices the license plate, “New Jersey, huh?”

Nell, “You ever been there?”

Dudley, “Nope.”

Nell, “You should go sometime.”

Dudley, “And see what?”

Nell, “I don’t know, maybe the Paramus Park Mall. It’s got a waterfall inside.”

By now the hatch is open and Dudley is test lifting the boxes. Nell tries to keep the conversation going, “Did you know there’s a song that mentions that mall, it’s even got a scene set there?”

Dudley ignores her, “What have you got in here, bricks?”

Nell, “Sorry, it’s just some stuff for entertainment “

Dudley, “I’m going to need a handtruck.” He points towards the house, “Go on in, it’s unlocked. See the missus, she’s right inside.”

Nell, “The missus?”

Dudley, “Mrs. Dudley.”

Nell, “Ok, then you’re married.”

He gives her a slight look of annoyance, then he walks off without saying anything else.

Nell says quietly to herself, “What a happy guy he is.”

She gets a suitcase, a shoulder bag, and CD/tape player out of the hatch and closes it. Then she goes up to the front door and enters the house. She stands there for a moment, looking up at the high ceiling of the front hall.

**********

Well, that's how it starts. Thanks!