Classics Of The Supernatural/ Ghost Movies

[dem]

Peter Haining (ed.)- Classics Of The Supernatural (Pan 1998: Originally Severn House, 1995 as Ghost Movies: Famous Supernatural Films )

Peter Haining – Prologue: Things That Go Bump On Screen

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

Blurb:
Cinema audiences all over the world enjoy a good ghost story, and for over half a century stories by the famous writers of supernatural fiction have been adapted for the screen. Classics of the Supernatural brings together the best of these chilling, inspirational tales.

Collected here for the first time are short stories and self-contained episodes from works which inspired such classic pictures as The Old Dark House, The Ghost goes West, Dead Of Night, Ghost Story and Beetlejuice. As several of these stories have not appeared in paperback before or have long been out of print, Classics of the Supernatural is a must for anyone who loves a chilling tale.

Thorne Smith - A Smoky Lady In Knickers: (Topper: An Improbable Adventure (Robert M. McBride & Co., 1926: Uk as The Jovial Ghosts: The Misadventures of Topper, Arthur Baker, 1926). "It was awful. I'll never forget those knickers dancing around the shop." Cosmo Topper, timid, henpecked bank manager, is tormented by the ghosts of George and Marion Kerby, bright young things who died when their sports car collided with a tree. In this episode, sexy, thoroughly mischievous Marion causes mayhem in a department store, contriving an embarrassing situation for Cosmo when he gets home to Mrs. T. Apparently considered quite racy in its day. Haining's text is an abridged version of chapter 12 (you can read the entire novel on Gutenberg)

John Carpenter - Harlequin: (The Continent, 1969: The Science Fiction Collector #15, Pandora, 1981). Have tried, but can make no sense of this four pager. Protagonist strips off his flesh as he walks into the ocean, revealing a scaly skin beneath. The sound of the carousel compels him to return to the Carney, where a sinister clown reminds him he's one of their own. Sure enough, when he tears off his scales .... According to the editor, this vignette was first published in a Bowling Green Uni student magazine. I suspect that, had it been written by anyone other than John Carpenter, it would have never again seen the light of day.

[ripper]

I see PH is at one of his favourite tricks again i.e. taking an extract from a novel. I'm intrigued if the J.B. Priestley piece is also an extract from his The Old Dark House or whatever the source novel was actually titled.

[dem]

Dec 15, 2018 15:56:37 GMT ripper said:

I see PH is at one of his favourite tricks again i.e. taking an extract from a novel. I'm intrigued if the J.B. Priestley piece is also an extract from his The Old Dark House or whatever the source novel was actually titled.

Night Sequence is a stand alone story, though Peter would later include an extract from Beknighted/The Old Dark House in Mammoth Book of 20th Century Ghost Stories.

Eric Keown - Sir Tristram Goes West: (Punch, May 1935). A cash-strapped English Lord sells the family castle to Mr. Julius Plugg, Wall Street tycoon, who ships it home to the States to be rebuild in his garden. Moat House comes complete with resident spook, Sir Tristram Mullion, would-be poet, who fell during the opening seconds of the battle of Naseby. Sir Tristram has been cursed - by his Royalist father - to haunt the library until he performs a single-handed act of bravery. Opportunity arises aboard the S.S. Extravaganza when, after much mischief making, the ghost has a run in with Blowzy Bolloni and his fearsome stage gangsters. I think this story, or more likely the film, inspired half the strips in the peerless Shiver 'n Shake.

Shirley Jackson - The Bus: (Saturday Evening Post, 27 March 1965). Old Miss Harper has never enjoyed travelling home by bus. After tonight's disconcerting episode in Ricket's Landing we can sympathise. Locked in a terminal nightmare, etc.

Memo to self: Night Sequence and The Other Place are two different stories.

[ripper]

Thanks, Dem. Extracts from novels in short story anthologies are things I don't like to see too often. I would imagine PH ties Jackson's tale to The Haunting; I'm sure I've seen him tie a short story to a film or TV programme simply because they shared the same author before.

[dem]

Dec 16, 2018 13:55:50 GMT ripper said:

I would imagine PH ties Jackson's tale to The Haunting; I'm sure I've seen him tie a short story to a film or TV programme simply because they shared the same author before.

Spot on!

James Herbert Haunted - Hallowe’en’s Child
J. B. Priestley The Old Dark House - Night Sequence
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
Robert Bloch Asylum - Lucy Comes to Stay
Daphne Du Maurier - Don’t Look Now
John Carpenter Halloween - Harlequin
Michael McDowell Beetlejuice - Halley’s Passing

As with Tune In For Terror and The Mummy, scan the contents, see too many over-anthologised stories, think 'rip off,' but, once you get stuck in, Haining's enthusiasm for the subject matter - not to mention his sheer audacity - carries the day. Does for me, anyway.

The Severn House edition, Ghost Movies, was the first book I ever scrawled a 'review' of for some ratty vampzine . Then-me got very shirty over Minuke suddenly becoming The Tresspassers, and the inclusion of two rotten comic ghost stories ....

[ripper]

I agree that there is something that draws you into Haining's anthologies and you usually end up having a good time, despite occasional misgivings. A good half of Ghost Movies contents I have not read before, so it is one I shall put on my wish list.

[dem]

James Herbert - Hallowe'en Child: (The Daily Mail [Male & Femail supplement], 29 Oct. 1988). A foggy night in late October. Jim makes an emergency dash to the hospital where his wife is about to give birth to their daughter. Someone or something steps about before the car. Jim, mortified, gets out to see what he's hit, praying it isn't what he thinks it is - a child. Imagine his relief when the tiny, cloaked figure gets to its feet and hobbles away. Jim gives chase - ".... as far as any of us are, I'm a normal human being. I have a conscience" - and wishes he hadn't.

Based on a true incident (very loosely, we hope), this is the longer, over the top version of the story which appeared in Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher's Robinson-BFS collaboration, Gaslight & Ghosts.

J. B. Priestley - Night Sequence: (The Other Place & Other Stories of the Same Sort, Harpers, 1953). Luke and Betty Gasworth of New Era Actuality Films are on their way to shoot their next documentary when he drives the car into a ditch. Soaked through, lost in the middle of nowhere and arguing bitterly over whose fault it is, the bedraggled pair seek shelter at an old dark house, where they are entertained for the evening by a wily old rogue, Sir Edward Peritan, and his gorgeous niece. The reader suspects that Sir Edward and pure-as-the-driven-snow Julia are ghosts long before the warring Gasworth's catch on. The strange encounter may ultimately save their marriage. Anti- Rat Race sentiments notwithstanding, am guessing that Night Sequence is another reason why a younger me had a down on this collection. Benign ghosts and cheerful endings are all very well, but three one after the other?

[dem]

Make that four "happy endings" on the spin. Am beginning to share younger me's reservations about this collection.

Dorothy Macardle - Samhain: (The Dublin Magazine, Oct 1924: Earth-Bound: Nine Stories of Ireland , Harrigan, 1924). A village in County Kerry during the typhoid epidemic. The dead join the living in praying to deliver the Parish Priest, Father Patrick - "the nearest thing to a Saint I have ever known" - from "the sickness." Their combined efforts are rewarded. No A Vow on Hallowe'en shenanigans this time, as far as I'm aware ...

[cromagnonman]

Dec 20, 2018 13:14:01 GMT dem said:

James Herbert - Hallowe'en Child: (The Daily Mail [Male & Femail supplement], 29 Oct. 1988). A foggy night in late October. Jim makes an emergency dash to the hospital where his wife is about to give birth to their daughter. Someone or something steps about before the car. Jim, mortified, gets out to see what he's hit, praying it isn't what he thinks it is - a child. Imagine his relief when the tiny, cloaked figure gets to its feet and hobbles away. Jim gives chase - ".... as far as any of us are, I'm a normal human being. I have a conscience" - and wishes he hadn't.

Based on a true incident (very loosely, we hope), this is the longer, over the top version of the story which appeared in Stephen Jones & Jo Fletcher's Robinson-BFS collaboration, Gaslight & Ghosts.

J. B. Priestley - Night Sequence: (The Other Place & Other Stories of the Same Sort, Harpers, 1953). Luke and Betty Gasworth of New Era Actuality Films are on their way to shoot their next documentary when he drives the car into a ditch. Soaked through, lost in the middle of nowhere and arguing bitterly over whose fault it is, the bedraggled pair seek shelter at an old dark house, where they are entertained for the evening by a wily old rogue, Sir Edward Peritan, and his gorgeous niece. The reader suspects that Sir Edward and pure-as-the-driven-snow Julia are ghosts long before the warring Gasworth's catch on. The strange encounter may ultimately save their marriage. Anti- Rat Race sentiments notwithstanding, am guessing that Night Sequence is another reason why a younger me had a down on this collection. Benign ghosts and cheerful endings are all very well, but three one after the other?

Reading your resume of the Herbert story reminded me that for reasons I cannot begin to fathom - much less enunciate - I've retained a copy of that newspaper supplement over the intervening deacdes. Honestly, one day I'm going to get a Viking send off on a pyre constructed out of all this crap I've hoarded. Anyway, here's the offending item for anyone that's interested:

[dem]

Thank you kindly, Mr. Crom. I can sympathise, having hung onto an issue of their You magazine specifically for the inclusion of Christopher Fowler's The Laundry Imp. I believe the M*il also published a few exclusive Midsomer Murder shorts, though have no idea when.

[cromagnonman]

I no longer buy newspapers so can't comment on current fads, but as I recall it was around this time of year that the tabloids used to run special seasonal stories featuring characters from popular tv shows like Minder, The Professionals, Hazell and the like. Haining used to plunder them mercilessly to bulk out his various tv detective bug crusher volumes. Midsomer Murders would have fitted the tradition like a glove.

[ripper]

Yes, I remember festive issues from yesteryear would sometimes print stories with popular TV characters. Also, they would occasionally re-print or commission a ghost story. Just going off on a tangent, when we would buy the Christmas/New Year issues of Radio Times and TV Times, that from the Beeb would often feature a drawing of some kind (I seem to remember a robin being on one cover), while ITV would have someone like Jimmy Tarbuck dressed as Father Christmas amid a snowy scene.

[helrunar]

Richard, you've given me a very special Xmas gift in the phrase "TV detective bug crusher volumes." I think that is worthy of its own thread. Perhaps there could be a series: "zombie bug crusher volumes," "voodoo bug crusher volumes," "domestic homicide bug crusher volumes," etc.


cheers, Steve

[dem]

Dec 22, 2018 12:19:50 GMT cromagnonman said:

I no longer buy newspapers so can't comment on current fads, but as I recall it was around this time of year that the tabloids used to run special seasonal stories featuring characters from popular tv shows like Minder, The Professionals, Hazell and the like. Haining used to plunder them mercilessly to bulk out his various tv detective bug crusher volumes. Midsomer Murders would have fitted the tradition like a glove.

Dec 23, 2018 1:59:38 GMT helrunar said:

Richard, you've given me a very special Xmas gift in the phrase "TV detective bug crusher volumes." I think that is worthy of its own thread. Perhaps there could be a series: "zombie bug crusher volumes," "voodoo bug crusher volumes," "domestic homicide bug crusher volumes," etc.

The Television Detective's Omnibus

More Great Tales of Crime & Detection/ The Television Crimebusters Omnibus

Had forgotten all about these "TV detective bug crusher volumes," (© cromagnonman), shameful considering the second includes Peter Leslie's delightful Avengers adventure, What’s a Ghoul Like You Doing in a Place Like This?. Also seem to have enjoyed the few other stories sampled from this volume. It's another where Peter's running commentary suggests he had great fun compiling the material.

I'm sure Ramsey once mentioned The News of the World running some horror shorts - or that they were considering doing so? Am also wondering if the Ma*l made a habit of including macabre fiction in their supplements, or were Hallowe'ens Child and The Laundry Imp one-offs? On a related note, Haining revived my favourite Tim Stout story, film crews in peril classic The Dracula File (Tales of Unknown Horror) from a 1977 issue of The Daily Examiner.

[cromagnonman]

I think that Avengers story was pulled from a Christmas annual, wasn't it Dem? An ingenious example of lateral thinking there from the ever resourceful Mr Haining. The only surprise in this being that he didn't do it more often. Christmas annuals remain a largely unplundered resource by anthologists. I still retain all the ones I was bought as a lad and have even got into the habit of adding to them in recent years. They remain relatively cheap and easy to acquire, and the 70s tv tie in volumes especially are repositories for the striking early work of then unknown artists like David Lloyd (Logan's Run), Ian Gibson (Bionic Woman and Gemini Man aka Invisible Man-on-a-budget) and especially John Bolton who worked on the Flash Gordon, Planet of the Apes, Lone Ranger, and Tarzan annuals amongst others. His work on the New Avengers annuals is particularly impressive and features amongst other things this marvellous faux vampire: