Peter Haining - TV Late Night Horror Omnibus

[dem bones]

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Television Late Night Horror Omnibus: Great Tales From TV Anthology Series (Orion, 1993: Bounty, 2003)

Peter Haining - Introduction

John Dickson Carr - Vampire Tower Appointment With Fear
Cornell Woolrich - The Corpse And The Kid Suspense
Thomas Burke - The Hollow Man Lights Out
Steve Fisher - What Price Murder? Danger
H. G. Wells - The Crystal Egg Tales Of Tomorrow
John Collier - Back For Christmas Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Larry Marcus - The Hand One Step Beyond
Rod Serling - Where Is Everybody? The Twilight Zone
August Derleth - The Incredible Dr Markesan Thriller
E. M. Forster - The Machine Stops Out Of This World
H. R. Wakefield - Farewell Performance Moment Of Fear
Algernon Blackwood - The Terror Of The Twins Tales Of Mystery
Roald Dahl - William And Mary Way Out
Edgar Allan Poe - William Wilson Great Ghost Stories
Clifford D. Simak - The Duplicate Man The Outer Limits
John Wyndham - Random Quest Out Of The Unknown
Margaret Oliphant - The Open Door Mystery And Imagination
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle - The Kiss Of Blood Late Night Horror
L. P. Hartley - The Killing Bottle Journey Into The Unknown
H. P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model Night Gallery
M. R. James - The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas Ghost Story For Christmas
A. M. Burrage - The Summer House Ghost Story
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
Kingsley Amis - The Ferryman Haunted
Nigel Kneale - The Tarroo Ushtey Beasts
Robert Muller - Countess Ilona Supernatural
Philip Ketchum - Death Can Add Tales Of The Unexpected
William F. Nolan - The Partnership Darkroom
Stephen King - Gramma New Twilight Zone
Richard Matheson - The Doll Amazing Stories
Andrew Weiner - Distant Signals Tales From The Darkside
Ray Bradbury - The Coffin A Twist In The Tail
Robert Bloch - The Legacy Monsters

A collection of the most terrifying and popular horror stories that have entertained and frightened television viewers around the world. A must for any horror addict.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Freddie of Nightmare On Elm Street - Bram Stoker's Dracula - The Twilight Zone - Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected - Alfred Hitchcock Presents - The Hammer House Of Horror - Stephen Speilberg's Amazing Stories - Tales From The Darkside

The late-night horror show has long been a favourite with British and American viewers. audiences have been gripped by terrifying monsters and tales of horror that have become legends: Frankenstein and Dracula, alongside the stories of Roald Dahl, Robert Bloch, Stephen King and Ray Bradbury.

Half a century of the best late-night horror shows is found in these pages complete with details of the programmes they have inspired, and the actors they have made famous. Here are stories so chilling and so sinister that they will linger in your nightmares forever ....

It's taken me ages to work out why i didn't fall head over heels in love with this book as i normally would given such a selection and Haining's ever readable (if not always reliable!) commentary. It's that bloody awful, not to say mus-representative cover - and the Bounty rehash is more of same except worse; the same old stills from Psycho, Nightmare On Elm Street and The Shining. The blurb is suspect, too. Not read it cover to cover, but unless i'm very much mistaken, there's little Frankenstein, Dracula or Freddie Krueger going on here. Many of the stories are over-familiar (if not under these titles) from previous anthologies although, of course, that doesn't suddenly make them 'bad,' and this is the only place I've came across Carr's nice 'n nasty Vampire Tower before. But my main reason for revamping such a tedious excuse for a post was to get a Vault-eye view of the TV adaptations. How did the episodes in question shape up against the stories that inspired them?

Thanks to Franklin

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Margaret Oliphant - The Open Door - Mystery And Imagination
The M&I version of this is somewhat slow and creaky, as I recall, though the condition of the nth generation copy I saw probably didn't help matters. Will need to get the Network DVD release of the existing M&I episodes when the purse strings are loosened up a bit.

H. P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model - Night Gallery
This is actually quite an effectively creepy adaptation, very moody, until the inevitable disappointment of the bloke in a rubber suit at the end.

M. R. James - The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas - Ghost Story For Christmas
A favourite of mine amongst the Ghost Story for Christmas series, though many other Jamesians seem a bit put out by the deviations from the original. Personally, I love all the new stuff, with the dodgy seance, slices of slab cake, slimy monsters, and a terrific performance from Michael Bryant.

Kingsley Amis - The Ferryman - Haunted
Only vaguely know the story, but the TV version, starring Jeremy Brett, is well done and creepy, with its implications of ghostly child-rapists and an effective phantom.

Nigel Kneale - The Tarroo Ushtey - Beasts
Old Peter H was straining a bit to tie this one in with Beasts, as the story is about a possibly fake monster in a loch, while the episode allegedly based on it, "The Dummy", is a swipe at Hammer films, and is about an actor having a nervous breakdown after years of playing a movie monster

Robert Muller - Countess Ilona - Supernatural
I think this is one of the few stories in the collection that was written after the tv version. It wouldn't have been my choice from "Supernatural", as "Night of the Marionettes" and "Dorabella" are both infinitely better.

[dem bones]

Thanks Lurks. You know, i don't think i've seen a single one of these. Don't suppose you can shed any light on the Thomas Burke and H. R. Wakefield adaptations?

Just discovered we had two threads for this on the old board. One dead rubber, and a more active one here from which i've just cribbed Franklin's comments on The Tarroo-Ushtey for the time being

the Nigel Kneale Beasts story - it concerns the episode 'The Dummy' - about a series of 'Dummy' films being made at a place similar to Bray Studios. Kneale's inspiration apparently came from his 1949 story The Tarroo-Ushtey - about a fake monster created to ensure the survival of an old superstition....all this cribbed from Mr H's intro. I will read it - sometime.

(Bet he didn't).

While i'm here, the even less imaginative and mis-representative Bounty cover.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Aug 22, 2009 17:50:18 GMT dem bones said:

Thanks Lurks. You know, i don't think i've seen a single one of these. Don't suppose you can shed any light on the Thomas Burke and H. R. Wakefield adaptations?

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with either of those, though someone once sent me a bunch of "Lights Out" episodes on video, so I may have the Burke one. I'll try to see if I can locate it amongst the various tapes.

One that I have seen but missed out of my earlier posting;

August Derleth - The Incredible Dr Markesan - Thriller
"Thriller", known as "Boris Karloff Presents" when it was shown in the UK on Channel 4 in the 80s, had some great horror episodes, and some less interesting crime installments. "Dr Markesan" is a favourite horror one, as it was one of the few episodes where Karloff acted in the story and didn't just pop up at the start, Rod Serling-like, to introduce the players. He gives a great performance as a dessicated looking necromancer with a nasty laboratory under his crumbling mansion.

[ripper]

I haven't come across the Late Night horror anthology, but did read a similar volume by PH about 15 years ago which included short stories connected with supernatural series. I can't remember the title but it contained a story by Susan Hill that PH connected to the TV film of The Woman in Black. There was also a story based upon the US TV movie Terror at London Bridge, plus The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral by M.R. James, connected to the Ghost Story for Christmas episode.

[dem bones]

Here you go, Rip. Had to borrow the scan, so it's a bit small.

Peter Haining (ed.) - Ghost Movies II: Famous Supernatural Television Programmes (Severn House, 1996)

Peter Haining – Prologue: A Night of Terror-Vision

Susan Hill – Farthing Hall (The Woman in Black)
Bennett Cerf – Room for One More (Great Ghost Stories)
Algernon Blackwood – The Listener (Mystery and Imagination)
M. R. James – The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (Ghost Story for Christmas)
Elizabeth Taylor – Poor Girl (Haunted)
Leon Garfield – The Constable’s Tale (The Ghost Downstairs)
George A. Romero – Clay (Tales from the Darkside)
William F. Nolan – Terror at London Bridge
Elizabeth Jane Howard – Three Miles Up (Ghosts)
Dean Koontz – The Black Pumpkin (Phantoms)

The first in the series was:

Peter Haining (ed.) – The Supernatural (Severn House, 1995, republished as Ghost Movies, Severn House, 1995. Pan edition Classics of The Supernatural, 1998)

Peter Haining – Prologue: Things That Go Bump On Screen

James Herbert Haunted – Hallowe’en’s Child
J. B. Priestley The Old Dark House - Night Sequence (aka ‘The Other Place’)
Eric Keown The Ghost Goes West – Sir Tristram Goes West
Thorne Smith Topper – A Smoky Lady In Knickers
Dorothy Macardle The Uninvited – Samhain
Gerald Kersh Dead of Night – The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy
M. R. James Night of the Demon – Casting the Runes
Shirley Jackson The Haunting – The Bus
Nigel Kneale The Stone Tape – The Trespassers (aka ‘Minuke’)
Robert Bloch Asylum – Lucy Comes to Stay
Daphne Du Maurier – Don’t Look Now
John Carpenter Halloween – Harlequin
Michael McDowell Beetlejuice – Halley’s Passing

Had the first volume from Plaistow library, and moaned and moaned about it, mostly on account of him renaming Minuke. Also:

"... The Thorne Smith and Eric Keown offerings are 'humorous' ghost stories which sure don't smell so good with the passing of time, likewise John Carpenter's Harlequin, a severely malnourished thing, revived from his teenage years and a student mag, The Continent, where maybe it should have rested in peace. James Herbert doesn't do short fiction as a rule, hence every horror anthologist finds it their duty to resurrect Halloween Child in the hope that Jimbo completists will HAVE to buy a copy.

Interestingly, Haining cites Kersh's wonderful The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy as the basis for the homicidal ventriloquist doll sequence in Dead Of Night, and I'm inclined to agree with him although it's a mystery why Kersh doesn't make the movie credits. Along with the Du Maurier and Macardle stories, this is probably the only reason why any of us would wish to shell out the asking price on this one. "

I'm a right miserable bastard sometimes.

[jamesdoig]

Feb 27, 2013 19:25:06 GMT dem bones said:

Pan edition Classics of The Supernatural, 1998)

Pan could have done a better job on the cover - at some point they just stopped trying:

[dem bones]

Thanks, James, hadn't seen that edition before. If i'm not very much mistaken, the only difference between this and the Severn House cover is theirs had a white background. They're neither of them the least inspiring. The rot was well and truly setting in.

[mcannon]

Feb 27, 2013 20:36:49 GMT jamesdoig said:

Feb 27, 2013 19:25:06 GMT dem bones said:

Pan edition Classics of The Supernatural, 1998)

Pan could have done a better job on the cover - at some point they just stopped trying:

That design looks pretty familiar - I think that at one point that edition, or one almost identical, was in the discount bin in just about every newsagent in Australia!

MarkC

[ripper]

Thanks, Dem :-). I got my copy of Vol 2 from the library, so the contents was rather hazy and the title had completely slipped my mind. It was in this book that I first came across Three Miles Up, which I enjoyed very much. I haven't seen a copy of Vol 1 as yet. It's interesting to note in the 3 volumes (the Late Night Horror and 2 Ghost Movies) all the supernatural anthology series that used to haunt our TV screens in the past and to compare that with the current situation where there is rather a lack of similar series. Thankfully, the availability of DVDs enables us to view again at least some of the series featured.

[jamesdoig]

Feb 28, 2013 8:13:36 GMT mcannon said:

Feb 27, 2013 20:36:49 GMT jamesdoig said:

I think that at one point that edition, or one almost identical, was in the discount bin in just about every newsagent in Australia!

Indeed it was, and probably still is.

[dem bones]

Finally got around to reading some of the lesser known stories. Enjoyed these three, but they're none of them what you'd call 'Late Night Horror.'

Andrew Weiner - Distant Signals: Why would anybody want to throw a fortune at reviving Stranger In Town, a generic 1960 cowboy series, cancelled during it's first run due to audience indifference? But the strange young man with the suitcase stuffed with gold bars is a very tenacious character, and even persuades Vance Maccoby - a bloated alcoholic who has not worked in upwards of two decades - to reprise his starring role. It seems that the greater minds of a far distant galaxy have a very different idea of what constitutes a televisual masterpiece.

Nigel Kneale - The Tarroo Ushtey: A fierce rivalry between Charlsie Quilliam, the fattest man in the whole of Ireland, and McRae, a one-legged Scottish peddler, reaches its tipping point when the latter learns of a new invention from across the waters, the foghorn. The villagers, being of a superstitious nature, are happy to believe Charlsie's improbable explanation that the the mournful sound of that of a distressed sea monster pining for its mate.

Philip Ketchum - Death Can Add: Financial whizz kid Oliver is caught embezzling from Belmont Trust by Coburn, his horrible boss. Rather than hand the miscreant over to the Police, Coburn insists he keep swindling the company and pays him 80% of everything he steals. As Coburn grows increasingly greedy, it is only a matter of days until the gaping deficit comes to light. With a new woman in his life - brainy, glamorous Lila from accounts, no less - Oliver needs shot of his tormentor for good. A bomb in the bastard's briefcase ought to do the trick ....

This next is more like it.

Robert Bloch - The Legacy: (aka The Chaney Legacy). Imagine silent movie fan Dale's delight when he buys the late Lon Chaney's cottage in the Hollywood Hills, and chances upon his hero's mirror and makeup kit! The mirror holds an unholy fascination, seemingly drawing strength from Dale, and each time he feels compelled to study the glass it reflects a face from Chaney's horror repertoire, never his own. When Dale reconciles with estranged girlfriend Debbie, the familiar hideous skull-face of Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, looks set to burst free. Dale finally finds the strength to smash the mirror and rushes to answer a knock at the front door .....

[dem bones]

The more I read, the more The Television Late Night Horror Omnibus recalls an 'Alfred Hitchcock' -edited anthology in that it is marketed as 'Horror' but several of the stories are crime fiction. Further cases in point:

Cornell Woolrich - The Corpse And The Kid: (Dime Detective, September 1935). Mrs. Weeks II has taken only a matter of days to achieve hate figure status, and when her meek and mild husband snaps and kills her, son Larry is all for framing her fancy dan sidekick. Can he lug the corpse out to the Pine Tree Inn and dump it in loverboy's car without being seen? Woolwrich's ending apparently so troubled CBS, it was toned down for public consumption.

Larry Marcus - The Hand: Tom Grant, a jazz pianist with Johnny Lane & his Combo, loses his rag with squeeze Alma, and murders her in the alley with a broken bottle before returning to the stage. When the corpse is discovered, her very latest latest flames is fast-tracked to Death row. Tom would have gotten clean away with it, were it not for .... the hand that dripped blood!