of the editing choices in the film were also used to heighten the audience's discomfort. There are a number of rapid cuts in the film that throw off the viewer's sense of spatial orientation, and Dutch angles are used to imply that reality is off-kilter. Likewise, cutting on action is often violated — showing the characters exiting a room to the right, for example, only to show them entering the next room from the left — so that the viewer cannot get a clear sense of which rooms and hallways are connected to one another. The film also lacks temporal clues, and there are few shots in which the audience can see out a window to determine whether it is night or day. In other instances, windows are visible but do little to establish temporality: for instance, when Eleanor is rescued by Dr. Markway on the unstable spiral staircase, some of the windows nearby show strong sunlight streaming in, while others show darkness outside. The Haunting is notable for its lesbian character, Theodora. Although the character's lesbianism is subtly mentioned in the novel, the film makes it explicit. The film is also one of the few Hollywood motion pictures of its day to depict a lesbian as feminine and not predatory. Theodora's lesbianism helps to create conflict in the picture. Had Theodora been heterosexual, Eleanor's growing attraction to Markway would not have threatened her. But with Theodora a clear lesbian, Markway becomes a threat that causes conflict between the psychic and the investigator. Originally, Gidding's script had contained a scene early in the film in which Theodora is shown in her apartment in the city. It is clear from the context that she has just broken off with her female lover: "I hate you" is written on the mirror in lipstick. Theodora is yelling curses at her out the window and more. However, Wise decided to cut the scene, believing it to be too explicit for a film that worked hard to make things implicit. According to Harris, film censors demanded that Theo never be shown to touch Eleanor, in order to keep the lesbianism less obvious. Release Critical reception The Haunting opened in New York and Los Angeles on 18 September 1963. Audiences were frightened by it. Film critic Dora Jane Hamblin related how four of her female friends went to see the film, which proved so frightening that