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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 22, 2010 12:45:12 GMT
The title that catches my eye there is "Sardonicus" - but only coz I saw the film version when I was a kid (I can't recall it ever being on TV again) and it left something of a lasting impression (no, not that sort of lasting impression). Very strange film (William Castle directed), and with the lottery back-story it could be quite topical for these days, but I've never come across the original short story. The William Castle film is pretty good and holds up well (certainly better than some of his other pictures, like Zotz! - we saw it recently as part of the William Castle box set. You can also find the story in The Fourth Pan Book of Horror Stories
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Post by andydecker on Nov 22, 2010 19:07:48 GMT
Sardonicus. Very strange film (William Castle directed), and with the lottery back-story it could be quite topical for these days Why is that? Topical, I mean. I like this movie, even if its kitchensink-psychology is a bit heavyhanded. (to put it mildly ) Still it has a nasty edge if you think how many juicy topics are only suggested here.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 23, 2010 10:10:12 GMT
Why topical? Because of the national lottery (which didn't exist when I saw this on British TV).
Good story for a grave-robbing anthology too (not that I am suggesting there is anything topical there) - but, as I said, I haven't actually read the original story so I don't know how close the film is.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 23, 2010 15:52:09 GMT
Why topical? Because of the national lottery (which didn't exist when I saw this on British TV). Ah! Thanks. Here in Germany we always had and have a public weekly lottery, so I never saw the element of a lottery as something important. The movie followed the story pretty well. Here is the german edition from 1971 which includes 17 stories by Russell, most of which are pretty short.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 23, 2010 17:02:42 GMT
Since we've had the lottery in the UK since 1994, I might have been stretching it a bit when I said "topical". I don't think I am at all familiar with Ray Russell though - I googled him and had quick look down his story list and nothing rang any bells.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 23, 2010 19:34:43 GMT
I don't think I am at all familiar with Ray Russell though After Sardonicus this is possibly his most famous work in the horror & supernatural field as it has been favourably compared with Blatty's The Exorcist of a decade later. Any old excuse to reproduce the cover. Ray Russell - The Case Against Satan (Sphere, 1970: originally 1963) Can a pious and beautiful young girl become the spokesman of the devil? Can Satan manifest himself in the mind and body of a guileless innocent?
The Bishop could find no other reason for Susan Garth's strange and shocking behaviour - and Father Sargent was assigned to the dangerous task of exorcism. A dangerous task indeed for a brilliant young priest beset by serious doubts about his own faith.
As Father Sargent struggles to reconcile the new frontiers of psychiatry with the dark, primeval forces of evil, the story unfolds with painful suspense to its extraordinary climax. my favourite of his books is Unholy Trinity, three Gothic horror novellas featuring Countess Bathory, Mr. Hyde and Sardonicus (again). and i seem to remember that Incubus was a very nasty piece of work.
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Post by jamesdoig on Nov 23, 2010 20:08:02 GMT
Ah, nice! Same publisher, but Prince of Darkness is uninspired by comparison. Interesting how pb publishers went for photographic covers for a time, especially in the mid to late sixties - like Panther. The same thing happened with Horwitz in Australia - all of a sudden they stopped using gorgeous painted covers for Carter Brown books and went for, presumably, cheaper photos. But some photographic covers are grand.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 24, 2010 8:00:12 GMT
Wow. That blurb (and cover) for The Case Against Satan could just as easily be for The Exorcist. Can't believe I've never heard of this, and I'd really like to read it - I am a big fan of the Exorcist film (only the first one though!), but I found Blatty's writing in the book a bit over-wrought at times. Are the similarities between the two stories more than just superficial by any chance?
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Post by dem bones on Nov 24, 2010 9:19:35 GMT
To be honest, can't remember that much about it now. Here's Nightreader's take on The Case Against Satan, May 5th, 2007, from Vault Mk. 1Here's my copy, from Ensign Books dated 1974... I was looking forward to this. Maybe I expected too much. At the end I still can’t decide if the book was any good or not. The comparisons with ‘The Exorcist’ are hard to avoid, and I’m not sure which came first but this seems a bit like the low-fat version of ‘The Exorcist’. All the same (or at least similar) elements are there - the young priest (potentially with doubts about his faith), the older and more devout priest (a Bishop who initiates the exorcism), a possessed young girl (“her gaping mouth spewing jet after jet of reeking substance that covered her and splattered the wall and ran sluggishly in long viscous tendrils down to the floor”), Catholic dogma versus modern day medicine/psychiatry, a Police Lieutenant looking into a death possibly related to the exorcism (the girl’s father)... The movie of 'The Exorcist' maintains a lot of it's power I think, certainly dated in parts but still deeply disturbing in others. It's many years since I read William Peter Blatty's novel, I have it lurking around here somewhere so must revisit at some point to make a proper comparison with this... ****************
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Post by marksamuels on Nov 25, 2010 23:42:40 GMT
I've got the Ballantine Sardonicus & Other Stories by Ray Russell. Well, I've got the cover, at least! Found it in an old box above the khazi whilst hunting for some old fanzines. No idea what's happened to the rest of the book... If I can get the scanner I've not used for a couple of years to work I'll try and post it tomorrow. Mark S.
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Post by marksamuels on Nov 26, 2010 16:41:12 GMT
Blimey! Here's a fine way to spend time; looking for drivers for a scanner that's 10 years old and was designed for Windows 98 ... Nevertheless, the old tank is working again. Mark S.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 26, 2010 19:49:40 GMT
Thanks Mark. It's a collection I've not yet managed to complete but my picks would include the title story, The Cage (as later revived by Michel Parry for his 4th Mayflower Book Of Black Magic Stories) and a grisly space opera, The Exploits Of Argo. Have had fun picking the bones from his The Devil's Mirror collection over recent days and might just get back to Sardonicus in the not too distant.
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Post by thecoffinflies on May 27, 2014 8:28:38 GMT
I know the Ballantine family, in fact, and once spent a weekend up in the house of Grandma Ballantine in the forests of New England.
She has a copy of every edition of every Ballantine book since they started, on wooden bookshelves that spill out of the living room, rise up the stairs, cling all around the hall, loom over the mezzanine, and stretch into the poky old attic.
If I ever go back there, I'll try and take a photo - rarely has so much beautifully-preserved pulp been so lovingly stacked over quite so many walls....
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 27, 2014 14:12:03 GMT
I know the Ballantine family, in fact, and once spent a weekend up in the house of Grandma Ballantine in the forests of New England. She has a copy of every edition of every Ballantine book since they started, on wooden bookshelves that spill out of the living room, rise up the stairs, cling all around the hall, loom over the mezzanine, and stretch into the poky old attic. If I ever go back there, I'll try and take a photo - rarely has so much beautifully-preserved pulp been so lovingly stacked over quite so many walls.... next time you're there could you either a) Thank her from the bottom of my heart b) Steal all the books and send them to me
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 27, 2014 15:52:21 GMT
next time you're there could you either a) Thank her from the bottom of my heart b) Steal all the books and send them to me My demands are more reasonable: I only want the Adult Fantasy titles that I do not already own.
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