GHOST STORIES Various directors/BFI Certain experiences are ineluctably burned into childhood consciousnesses, and these generational scars are remembered for the rest of the lives of those undergoing such an experience. Shortly after the television terrors of the original British Quatermass series had made its mark on many a viewer, another truly terrifying television experience was talked about for decades after by those who had seen it – and found it a cauterising experience. This was, of course, one of the famous series of BBC films A Ghost Story for Christmas, of which there were 12 – and Jonathan Miller’s 1968 ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You’ is undoubtedly one of the most famous ventures into the macabre ever shown on British television. With Michael Horden as a fussy academic who unleashes something supernatural and unspeakable, it raised the hair on many a neck in its original showing – and on the various occasions it has been repeated since. It is undoubtedly the centrepiece of the BFI’s exemplary collection of all 12 ghost stories to be collected here in multiple individual volumes and a box set. Interestingly, a comparison may now be made with the 2010 adaptation of the same story, this time starring John Hurt and directed by Andy de Emmony. Inevitably, highly professional though the latter is, it offers no real challenge to the celebrated original which still works remarkably well in the 21st-century – although Michael Horden’s excessively mannered performance has perhaps worn less well.
To impressive viewing figures in the 1970s, the BBC showed this succession of adaptations of the immortal ghost stories of MR James, the Cambridge academic responsible for the definitive eldritch stories written in English. The default director for many of these tales was Lawrence Gordon Clark, who supplies insightful interviews for the new introductions in this remastered series. A handful of these classic tales have appeared before, but it is particularly welcome to see them collected together — and it is easy to see why the series was so influential, and continues to be; the writer and actor Mark Gatiss (responsible for the new Holmes series Sherlock) is an avowed fan. In such adaptations as ‘Lost Hearts’, ‘The Treasure of Abbott Thomas’ and ‘The Ash Tree’, the understated, allusive approach of the personnel involved here pays dividends, with a concentration on the slow accretion of atmosphere rather than any indulgence in more overt horror tropes. MR James is not the only author represented here: long before his fame for his work on such writers as Jane Austen and George Eliot, Andrew Davies supplies an impressive version of Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’, perhaps being more faithful to the material than he was subsequently to be in the adaptations which upped the sexual content — something which would hardly be appropriate here. In ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You’, a sceptical academic (Horden) discovers an ancient whistle on a beach in Norfolk and ill-advisedly plays it, releasing a terrifying apparition. What is particularly intriguing about Jonathan Miller’s adaptation is the suggestion that the monstrous thing (which appears chillingly – and simply — as an ambulatory bedsheet) is a product of the professor’s repressed psyche, representing an overlay of then-modern readings of psychosis (sexually-related or otherwise) on the chaste original material. However, of course, while James and the other great ghost story writers who followed him could hardly explore such regions, that is not to say they were not reaching into such dark channels, whether consciously or not. The savvy Miller never twists the material to make any particular points in this area. ‘The Stalls of Barchester’, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark in 1971, has Clive Swift coming across a box of papers which were the property of the former Archdeacon Haynes (played by Robert Hardy), locked away since the 19th century. Inevitably, of course, they are released. All of the stories are about the unleashing of something unspeakable which wreaks chaos when it is brought into the light – in this case, a clandestine history of bloody malfeasance and supernatural revenge. Once again, a carefully maintained atmosphere is crucial in setting up the eruption into the presents. If the following year’s story, James’ ‘A Warning to the Curious’ (also directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark) is a tad less effective (and hardly as creative in its use of unsettling mise-en-scene), that is as much a comment on the sheer adroitness of the earlier teleplays than on any shortcomings to be found in this adaptation. Extras, as might be expected from the BFI, are copious, and this is a particularly unmissable set.
THE BOFORS GUN Jack Gold, director/Odeon This bitter and powerful drama made relatively little impression on its first release, but those lucky enough to have seen it will know that dialogue, direction and acting are of the first rank. And look at that cast today! Nichol Williamson is absolutely mesmerising as the self-loathing Irish rebel in uniform, bent on self-destruction but not wishing to spare anyone around him. The rest of the top-notch cast includes David Warner, John Thaw and Ian Holm, with Jack Gold’s incisive direction screwing the tension as tight as possible. The print, unfortunately, is fuzzy and slightly panned-and-scanned, but not ruinously so.
THE ASSAULT Julien Leclerc, director/Studio Canal BLU-RAY Perhaps the most striking thing about this gripping and unrelenting hostage drama is its refusal to bow to any notions of political correctness: the fundamentalist inspiration of the terrorists who take over a plane is given little shrift (or sympathy) here, with a willingness to die in the name of a deity a particular target for the director and writer’s disdain. Perhaps the SWAT team sent against the terrorists might have been characterised with more imagination, but there is no denying the fact that the tension is pretty well unrelenting.
LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS Marcel Carné, director/Second Sight BLU-RAY Hyperbole required? Well, if you’re not familiar with it, this is simply one of the great masterpieces of world cinema, looking astonishing in this new Blu-ray wash-and-rinse.
THE CHAIRMAN J. Lee Thompson, director/Odeon Released in this country under the title The Most Dangerous Man in the World, this is a dialogue-heavy but consistently tense Cold War thriller with Gregory Peck acquitting himself well in the role of an American scientist in a threatening Red China. Perhaps the film’s most signal achievement is the rich, percussive orchestral score by Jerry Goldsmith.
THE PARANORMAL INCIDENT Matthew Bolton, director/Arrow Mass suicide closes the doors of the infamous Odenbrook sanatorium and six decades pass before a group of college students loaded down with cameras and recording equipment move into the sanatorium to prove the existence of the supernatural. You will not be surprised to discover that that is exactly what they do, and as entries in the now-overcrowded field of ‘found footag’e scares, this is acceptable, if hardly innovative.
THE LEGACY Richard Marquand, director/Odeon Katherine Ross plays a young woman travelling to England with her boyfriend Pete (Sam Elliott) at the bidding of an enigmatic patron. The couple are involved in an accident and find themselves recuperating at a large country house – but they are not alone. Five other individuals have been brought there, several of them powerful and influential. But there is an evil force at work which is soon bringing havoc and death. Well received at the time, it is particularly interesting to see this sharply-made British horror film again, which contains both exemplary small-part playing (the always-reliable Charles Gray) and its opposite (in the person of Roger Daltrey).