MovieChat Forums > The Nightcomers (1972) Discussion > The actress playing Flora was 20 and LOO...

The actress playing Flora was 20 and LOOKED it


I know because of the sexual overtones they couldn't use a real little girl, but come ON. This chick looked like she could have had a few kids of her own!

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Apparently it was ok to use a 14 year boy. Flora was supposed to be several years younger than Miles. There should have been no problem finding an actress who looked younger than she really was, instead of using one who looked like she could have been Miles' mother rather than his younger sister.



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This was released in 1971 and the actress was 18 or 19 when it was filmed. She was in her late teens and looked it. I am not sure how old the character is supposed to be in this (though in the 'The Turn of The Screw' Flora is younger than Miles).

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Actually, she was 19, and I agree, she looked too old for the role.

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True, Verna Harvey at 19 was way too old for the role of Flora. Actually Christopher Ellis who played Miles was also a bit too old - he was 14 but the boy was supposed to be older than his sister. In The Innocents, the actors were of the right age - Pamela Franklin (Flora) was 11 and Martin Stephens (Miles) was 12. Actually, while it might be considered inappropriate to use a young girl in scenes with sexual overtones, there really were not many such scenes (except, for example, the one in which Miles tied Flora up, which was presumably what Quint "did" to Miss Jessel). It might have been possible to tone down such scenes a little and perhaps make them less explicit, while at the same time use some girl who was closer to the right age. It might be noted that given the actors playing Flora and Miles in the original film were actually children, what they were required to do in some scenes could be disturbing to some viewers too (like Miles kissing Miss Giddens on the mouth in one scene and almost strangled her in another).

A 19 year-old girl today would be second year in college and doesn't need Quint and Miss Jessel to "corrupt" her mind with knowledge of BDSM. Even at the time in film was set, women of that age were routinely married off and soon had children of their own.

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Not quite 19; she was still 18 during filming in February-March 1971 (she was born in 1952).

In response to the OP's contention that the actress playing Flora (Verna Harvey) looked 20, not in this movie. She looked about 13-14 tops. The filmmakers did a great job of making her look so young.

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