Who is the Banshee?!?!

Don't know who it was but she/he/it sure scared the pants off of me when I saw this movie in a theater when I was 8 years old. I loved scary movies and didn't frighten easily, but the Banshee gave me nightmares. I've warned friends with young children about that scene and 2 couples I can think of decided not to show their kids the film after being frightened by it themselves. Of course, the effect was much greater on a big screen. But just last night I watched it again on TCM on a rather small screen. And it still gave me a shiver!

The banshee was definitely not animated; the detail is too precise. If you look closely, she is combing her hair, as the banshee is said to do when she comes for someone who is dying. Also, in the close-up when Darby opens the door and sees her, the face is all too real to be animation.

To get the effect, they filmed the actress alone, probably against a red screen such as they used for the flying sequences in 'The Absent-Minded Professor' (Disney was a pioneer in that field), then polarized the film in post-production to give the banshee that other-worldly look. It's rather like looking at a black-and-white photographic negative.

For tricky Disney trivia, I used to write to David Smith at the Disney Archive. He or his staff had more knowledge and access to information that you could find in any other source. If the banshee information is still available, they would have it.

"Truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson