Fact1: Niles and Holland Perry play on bucolic family farm, Fact2: Perry family ring had been handed down to Holland, Fact3: Russell promises to tell on Niles to father, Fact4: Ada Angel of Better Day had described to Niles, Fact5: Holland has been dead in March
Output: Its a seemingly idyllic summer in 1935, and identical twins Niles and Holland Perry play on the bucolic family farm. Holland is an amoral mischief maker while Niles is more sympathetic. Niles carries a tobacco tin with him containing several secret trinkets, including the Perry family ring, which had been handed down to Holland, the older twin. Their obnoxious cousin Russell finds them in the apple cellar below the barn—a place they are not supposed to play—and sees the contents of the tobacco tin. Russell states that the ring was supposed to be buried, and promises to tell on Niles to his father, Niles Uncle George. Uncle George padlocks the door to the cellar, but there is another stairway inside the barn, giving them access. The twins mother is a frail recluse, physically weak and emotionally damaged. Grandmother Ada, a Russian emigrant, dotes on Niles, and has taught him a psychic ability to project himself outside of his body, for example in a bird; this ability she calls the great game. Several tragedies befall the family and neighborhood, to people who have caused trouble for the boys, and it appears Holland may be responsible. Russell is killed before he can reveal that Niles has the heirloom ring. Neighbor Mrs. Rowe, who had complained because Holland broke a jar of her preserves, has a fatal heart attack. The twins mother finds Niles tobacco tin, containing a severed finger. That night, she demands that Niles tell her how he has possession of the ring and he says Holland gave it to him. She is shocked; a struggle ensues and she falls down the stairs and is rendered partially paralyzed. Ada discovers Mrs. Rowes dead body, and finds Hollands harmonica at the scene. She seeks out Niles and locates him in church, where he is transfixed by the image of The Angel of a Better Day, which Ada had described to Niles as a comforting conveyor of the soul to heaven. Ada confronts Niles, and he identifies Holland as the culprit. Ada demands that he face the truth: Holland has been dead since their birthday in March, when he fell down the well trying to drown a cat. He was thought to have been buried with his fathers ring. Niles relives the memory of how he acquired the ring: he opened Hollands coffin and Holland spoke to him, insisting that he cut his finger off and take the ring. Niles kept both the ring and the severed finger. Niles appears to have developed a fascination for the recent Lindbergh kidnapping tragedy. The newborn baby of Torrie, Niles older sister, is kidnapped, an ugly doll left in the babys place, somewhat like the Lindbergh case. Ada discovers Niles shouting for Holland to tell where the baby is. Ada must now face the realization that her beloved Niles is disturbed and criminally insane. The baby is found drowned in the gardeners open wine cask. Ada hears Niles in the apple cellar, whispering with Holland. She starts a fire in the cellar, and Niles looks up as she is diving toward him, mentally seeing an image of The Angel of a Better Day. He smiles. As autumn begins, the ruins of the barn are being cleared. The camera focuses on a padlock that has been cut open with a hacksaw. It is the lock that Uncle George had placed on the door to the cellar. We remember hearing the sound of a hacksaw in a previous scene, when Ada shouted into the barn for Niles. Niles is alive and well, watching the cleanup from the house. His mother is a catatonic invalid, Ada has died in the barn fire, and no one knows Niles terrible secret. When the film aired on CBS in the 1970s, a voiceover at the end of the film has Niles speaking to Holland: Holland, the games over. We cant play the game anymore. But when the sheriff comes, Ill ask him if we can play it in our new home. The voiceover truncates a line by the maid, Winnie, who in the theatrical cut says, Niles, wash up now — time for lunch, whereas in the voiceover version she is cut off after merely Niles, wash up now. The voiceover is not on the home video releases nor has it appeared on any recent television airing.citation needed