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Whistle And I'll Come To You
Hi, I watched Ghosts in the Machine the other night. Can somebody remind me of the name of the ghost story with Michael Hordern and that scary flapping sheet?
Whistle And I'll Come To You
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83CIwVKNjM4"]YouTube - Whistle And I'll Come To You (1/3) Ghost Story M.R James[/ame]
Thank you guys. Solitude,.. and the repression of forces from within. Scary stuff portrayed brilliantly by Hordern
Superb.
But any new version of M.R. James tale should be more faithful to its source, in terms of the climax - when the horrible bed-sheet thing rises from the bed and begins to hunt around the bedroom (by sniffing, since it's blind) where the Hordern character cowers in fear; before rushing at him and pressing up against his face 'a horrible - an intensely horrible - face of crumpled linen ...'
Stephen Laws
The Midnight Man: The Official Website of the author Stephen Laws
Think I've got to read the book!!
Am I alone in thinking "Oh Whistle" is a bit overrated? I like Jonathan Miller showing off how clever he is with "Alice in Wonderland" which follows the text even less closely, but somehow M R James' source materila seems both better on the page, and not important enough psychologically, to warrant, or withstand, Miller playing with it.
Tv dramatisations of James all seem to lose something in translation from the page to the screen, even when quite faithfully done (the best - or at least the ones that evoke the true Jamesian "Pleaseing Terror" are the straightish face to camera readings), but Miller trying to add an extra layer of meaning is overdoing it, to me.
name='Midwich cuckoo']Think I've got to read the book!!
it's only a short story but well worth reading!
The Literary Gothic | Author Listing
name='ghughesarch']Am I alone in thinking "Oh Whistle" is a bit overrated? I like Jonathan Miller showing off how clever he is with "Alice in Wonderland" which follows the text even less closely, but somehow M R James' source materila seems both better on the page, and not important enough psychologically, to warrant, or withstand, Miller playing with it.
Tv dramatisations of James all seem to lose something in translation from the page to the screen, even when quite faithfully done (the best - or at least the ones that evoke the true Jamesian "Pleaseing Terror" are the straightish face to camera readings), but Miller trying to add an extra layer of meaning is overdoing it, to me.
miller says that WAICTY is an essay on the original text so that gives him an excuse to 'experiment' but i think his version works so well-more so than the following m.r.james adaptations from the BBC,which i put down to it being filmed in B/W which is far more atmospheric for me! i agree that the stories work better in the narration format-the best of which was the christopher lee readings from 2000.
if you're a fan of james then you may be interested in this link to a well known theatre group who perform a series of james stories in narration format-i'm sure there's a show in your area very soon!
Nunkie Theatre Company
here's a clip of the show-
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejPLQKGwZoo&feature=related"]YouTube- The Mezzotint (#1), a ghost story by M.R. James[/ame]
M.R.James Page
You can read it on the above link. Scroll down from the left side and the title will be the sixth from the top. I'm going to read it myself.
name='jaycad']miller says that WAICTY is an essay on the original text so that gives him an excuse to 'experiment' but i think his version works so well-more so than the following m.r.james adaptations from the BBC,which i put down to it being filmed in B/W which is far more atmospheric for me! i agree that the stories work better in the narration format-the best of which was the christopher lee readings from 2000.
if you're a fan of james then you may be interested in this link to a well known theatre group who perform a series of james stories in narration format-i'm sure there's a show in your area very soon!
Nunkie Theatre Company
here's a clip of the show-
YouTube- The Mezzotint (#1), a ghost story by M.R. James
I saw their first MRJ production a couple of years ago and it was excellent (perhaps the BBC could very quickly nip along and record their latest for Christmas?). Don't know why the nearest they've been to Norwich was Kings Lynn though
The Lee performances were good but (apart from the perm) Robert Powell's in the mid-80s were more like James. He wasn't a particularly old man when he wrote and read them for the first time.
name='ghughesarch']I saw their first MRJ production a couple of years ago and it was excellent (perhaps the BBC could very quickly nip along and record their latest for Christmas?). Don't know why the nearest they've been to Norwich was Kings Lynn though
The Lee performances were good but (apart from the perm) Robert Powell's in the mid-80s were more like James. He wasn't a particularly old man when he wrote and read them for the first time.
i thought lees performance was better than powells and the setting was correct,whilst james was reading his stories to guests from the late 1890s he continued to do so until not long before his death in 1936-and remember,lee actually met james whilst at eton!
if you're interested,the nunkie theatre group are releasing a dvd of their james narrations which should be available before christmas.
name='ghughesarch']I saw their first MRJ production a couple of years ago and it was excellent (perhaps the BBC could very quickly nip along and record their latest for Christmas?). Don't know why the nearest they've been to Norwich was Kings Lynn though
The Lee performances were good but (apart from the perm) Robert Powell's in the mid-80s were more like James. He wasn't a particularly old man when he wrote and read them for the first time.
i went to watch the nunkie theatre group perform 'whistle and i'll come to you' last night in southport and can highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet seen it-brilliant stuff!
name='will.15']M.R.James Page
You can read it on the above link. Scroll down from the left side and the title will be the sixth from the top. I'm going to read it myself.
Thanks Will,.. very enjoyable as I sit here alone looking at my pc screen. On more than one occasion I felt compelled to look behind me!!
it was good to be able to make the comparison between the story and Jonathan Miller's adaptation
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