Full Circle [The Haunting of Julia] * (1977, Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill Bennett) – Classic Movie Review 12,580

Director Richard Loncraine’s 1977 supernatural horror film Full Circle [The Haunting of Julia] is based on the 1975 novel Julia by the American writer Peter Straub, and stars Mia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, and Jill Bennett.

Wealthy American Julia Lofting (Mia Farrow) quits her husband (Keir Dullea) and moves into a Victorian haunted house in London after her little girl dies from choking. The house is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a nasty little girl who died in the 1950s and plans to use Julia as a pawn in her revenge plot.

This would-be chiller is initially atmospheric, then rather nasty, unpersuasive and not really at all well done. Dave Humphries’s script fails to find any interesting new variations on an over-used tale. But Farrow is good, there is a classy support cast, and there are a few tastily handled shocks along the way.

Also in the cast are Robin Gammell, Cathleen Nesbitt, Mary Morris, Edward Hardwicke. Anna Wing, Pauline Jameson, Peter Sallis, Sophie Ward, and Samantha Gates.

Final film for stalwart actress Mary Morris (1915-88).

Harry Bromley Davenport originally adapted Peter Straub’s Julia as his screenplay The Link, but Dave Humphries reworked it as When the Wind Blows, and Richard Loncraine retitled it Full Circle.

It runs 98 minutes.

It is a Canada and UK co-production, shot in London over seven weeks between November and December 1976 on a budget of Can$1.1 million. The interiors were shot in a home in South Kensington, but the home’s exterior is a London different house.

It premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 1977 as Full Circle and was released theatrically in cinemas in England and Canada in May 1978. It was finally released in the US in May 1981 by Cinema International Corporation as  as The Haunting of Julia.

Loncraine said the shoot was tense, and he called Farrow ‘an eccentric but well-mannered woman’ who disappeared for two days after suffering a nervous breakdown. Farrow had conflicting feelings about appearing in another horror film after Rosemary’s Baby (1968). She shot the film while appearing in a Royal Shakespeare Company stage production of Ivanov.

The original cut shown at the 1977 Marché du Film at Cannes was six minutes longer before it was recut to solve pacing issues and make it more marketable.

Colin Towns’s score was written and recorded before the film was shot, based on the screenplay.

The cast ar Mia Farrow as Julia Lofting, Keir Dullea as Magnus Lofting, Tom Conti as Mark Berkeley, Jill Bennett as Lily Lofting, Robin Gammell as David Swift, Cathleen Nesbitt as Heather Rudge, Anna Wing as Rosa Flood, Edward Hardwicke as Captain Paul Winter, Mary Morris as Greta Braden, Pauline Jameson as Claudia Branscombe, Arthur Howard as Piggott, Peter Sallis as Jeffrey Branscombe, Damaris Hayman as Miss Pinner, Sophie Ward as Kate Lofting, Hilda Fenemore as Katherine, Nigel Havers as Estate Agent, Samantha Gates as Olivia Rudge, Denis Lill as Doctor, Julian Fellowes as Library Assistant, Michael Bilton as Salesman, Yvonne Edgell as Mrs Flood’s Niece, Robert Farrant as Receptionist, Oliver Maguire as Nurse, Susan Porrett as Mrs Ward, John A Tinn as Customer, and Elizabeth Weaver as Mother in Showroom.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,580

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