The Haunting (1963)
Richard Johnson: Dr. John Markway
Photos
Quotes
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[first lines]
Dr. John Markway : [voice-over] An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there... walked alone.
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Dr. John Markway : When people believed the earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.
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Dr. John Markway : A closed mind is the worst defense against the supernatural... If it happens to you, you're liable to have that shut door in your mind ripped right off its hinges!
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Dr. John Markway : It has taken 60 million years to develop the carnivorous biped you see before you, Luke Sannerson.
Theodora : Let's see what kind of martinis it makes.
Luke Sannerson : They should be pretty good. I majored in them at college.
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Dr. John Markway : Did something happen?
Eleanor Lance : [she and Theodora start laughing hysterically] No, nothing in particular, just someone banging on the door with a cannon ball!
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Dr. John Markway : Look, I know the supernatural is something that isn't supposed to happen, but it does happen.
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Dr. John Markway : Psychic phenomena are subject to certain laws.
Luke Sannerson : And just what are these laws?
Dr. John Markway : You won't know until you break them.
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Dr. John Markway : It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad.
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Dr. John Markway : You wait here, Grace. I'll go in and get your things, and then call the police.
Grace Markway : No, no! No one must go back into that house again. Whatever's there might...
Dr. John Markway : I'll be all right. The house has what it wants... for a while.
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[the group is huddled in the conservatory. Nell, Theo, and Markway are asleep as Luke enters and takes a drink from a liquor bottle, when the door suddenly slams shut by itself, waking everyone up!]
Dr. John Markway : [to Luke] Why aren't you upstairs?
Luke Sannerson : I needed a drink.
[suddenly there are sounds of wind blowing and then distant yet distinct pounding is heard]
Dr. John Markway : Grace!
Luke Sannerson : Wait a minute! It's nowhere near the nursery... it's down here.
Theodora : Seems we've been on this kick before.
Eleanor Lance : Next vacation I must really go somewhere else!
[the pounding becomes louder and closer]
Eleanor Lance : [thinking; voice-over] It knows my name, this time it knows my name!
Dr. John Markway : I have to go out there.
Eleanor Lance : [shouting] No, no! It hasn't hurt me. Why should it hurt her?
Dr. John Markway : She might try to do something about it!
[the pounding stops]
Eleanor Lance : Is it over, Theo? Is it?
Theodora : No, I'm still cold. It's going to start everything all over again!
[the pounding resumes violently and loudly against the closed door]
Eleanor Lance : [screaming] It can't get in! It can't get in! Don't let it get in!
[the pounding stops and the doorknob jiggles]
Eleanor Lance : [whimpering] God, it knows I'm here!
[the door begins to buckle and bend in on itself, Luke in his horror drops his bottle]
Luke Sannerson : Doc... I'll let you have the house cheap!
[the bulging door returns to normal, the wind is heard blowing again, and soon the pounding footsteps resume and head upstairs]
Eleanor Lance : [thinking to herself; voice-over] Go on and on and come back again until it finds me! On and on and on until it finds me!
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Eleanor Lance : I'm still so terrified from last night.
Dr. John Markway : You shouldn't be. It's silly to be frightened...
Eleanor Lance : Silly? You haven't been through it! This horrible, unknown thing!
Dr. John Markway : 'Unknown.' That's the key word - 'unknown.' When we become involved in a supernatural event, we're scared out of our wits just because it's unknown. The night cry of a child. A face on the wall. Knockings, bangings... What's there to be afraid of? You weren't threatened. It was harmless, like a joke that doesn't come out.
Eleanor Lance : But the child...
Dr. John Markway : There was no child, remember? Just a voice.
Eleanor Lance : A voice...
Dr. John Markway : Look, Eleanor, put it this way. When people believed the Earth was flat, the idea of a round world scared them silly. Then they found out how the round world works. It's the same with the world of the supernatural. Until we know how it works, we'll continue to carry around this unnecessary burden of fear.
Eleanor Lance : Supposing it is in my imagination. The knocking, the voices. Everything! Every cursed bit of the haunting. Suppose the haunting is all in my mind.
Dr. John Markway : Well, you can't say that, because there are three other people here. We all resist the idea that what ran through the garden that first night was a ghost, what banged on the door was a ghost, what held your hand was a ghost. But there is certainly something going on in Hill House. We're getting closer, very close to finding out what it is.
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Dr. John Markway : Now, which door?
Theodora : [pointing to her right] That one.
Dr. John Markway : Wrong. I've studied the map, it's this one.
[goes to his right and walks straight into the broom closet]
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Dr. John Markway : Ghosts make the papers along with celebrities every day of the week.
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Dr. John Markway : That's very good, Eleanor. You catch on quickly.
Theodora : [gets jealous and stands up] I'm hungry. Let's go.
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Dr. John Markway : [walks towards the door] Let's see if there's a tiger behind this one.
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Eleanor Lance : [panicking] But where?
Dr. John Markway : Home, of course.
Theodora : Back to your little apartment, where all your things are.
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Grace Markway : I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John.
Dr. John Markway : Well, what were you doing? What happened?
Grace Markway : That terrible house... I woke up and I was frightened, so I tried to find your room, but I got lost, almost as though the house was doing it on purpose... and I ended up in the attic. I was only trying to find a way out when I opened the trap door. I wasn't trying to frighten her. Didn't you see me?
Dr. John Markway : No, but Eleanor did. The shock of seeing you almost killed her.
Theodora : She DID kill her. Seeing her's what made Eleanor lose control of the car.
Grace Markway : Oh, no. No, she only saw me the very last instant, the same time I saw her! I don't even know how I got out here.
Luke Sannerson : It wasn't your fault. Eleanor did it to herself. Looked to me anyway like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree.
Dr. John Markway : Where the first Mrs. Crain was also killed in an 'accident.'
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Dr. John Markway : [voice-over] The story goes that the old lady died calling for help in the nursery upstairs while the companion fooled around with a farmhand on the veranda.
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Dr. John Markway : There was something in the car with her, I'm sure of it. Call it what you like, but Hill House IS haunted. It didn't want her to leave and her poor, bedeviled mind wasn't strong enough to fight it. Poor Eleanor...
Theodora : Maybe not 'poor Eleanor.' It was what she wanted. To stay here. She had no place else to go. The house belongs to her now, too. Maybe she's happier.
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[the group in the conservatory room hears the pounding and breaking glass and furniture from the unseen phantom]
Dr. John Markway : It's in the nursery!
Luke Sannerson : [stops Markway from opening the door] You must be crazy!
Dr. John Markway : I'm going out there!
Luke Sannerson : Oh, no you don't! Not with that thing out there!
Eleanor Lance : [intervenes] Luke, we must find Mrs. Markway to find out if she's there!
[Luke shoves Eleanor aside and continues to try to stop Markway from leaving the room]
Luke Sannerson : No! Don't be crazy!
Dr. John Markway : I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right.
Luke Sannerson : Look, I don't know what that is out there, but I don't want to find out!
Dr. John Markway : Get away from me! I've got to get out of here! I've got to find out if Grace is all right!
