he once scoffed at, Luke says solemnly, "It ought to be burned down ... and the ground sowed with salt." Over a final shot of the house, part of the opening narration is repeated, this time by the voice of Eleanor. Production Robert Wise was in post-production on West Side Story when he read a review in Time magazine of author Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House. Wise read the book and found it frightening; he passed it to screenwriter friend Nelson Gidding, with whom he had worked on the film I Want to Live! (1958). Gidding did a full story treatment for Wise before proceeding to work on the adaptation. As Gidding crafted the screenplay, he came to believe that the novel was not a ghost story at all, but rather a compilation of the insane thoughts of the lead character, Eleanor Vance. He theorised that Vance was having a nervous breakdown, envisaging a scenario in which Hill House is the hospital where she is held, Markway is her psychiatrist, the cold, banging, and violence are the results of shock treatment, and the opening and closing of doors reflected the opening and closing of hospital doors. Wise and Gidding travelled to Bennington, Vermont, to meet Jackson, who told them that it was a good idea but that the novel was definitely about the supernatural. Nonetheless, elements of the insanity concept remained in the script, so that the audience was left wondering whether the supernatural events in the film were in Eleanor's mind or whether they were real. It was also during their visit to speak with Jackson that Wise and Gidding chose the title for the film. As they did not want to keep the book title, they asked Jackson if she had considered an alternative title. She suggested The Haunting, which Wise and Gidding immediately adopted. Script Writing the screenplay took about six months. During this period, Gidding worked alone, and although he passed some of his work to Wise to show him that work on the screenplay was progressing well, he and Wise did not otherwise collaborate on the screenplay. The screenplay made other changes to the story. The number of characters was cut down, the backstory was significantly shortened, most of the supernatural events depicted in the novel were kept off-screen, and the greater part of the action was set inside the house to