The Man And The Snake.

Found this wonderful adaption of an Ambrose Bierce short story while ghost hopping on Youtube.  Someone had uploaded this haunting little tale of a man who is confronted by and taken over by a snake which wills him to a terrible fate. It was made in 1972 and starred John Frazer and Andre Morell , it was directed by Sture Rydman for Jocelyn Films (Who were also responsible for that ghostly gem The Return, another story by Ambrose Bierce.)
              In this story a young teacher visiting the home of one of his pupils is given a tour of a "snakery", a hot house where some very dangerous snakes are kept as pets and for study. John Frazer plays the teacher, a very engaging , likeable, fellow with Andre Morell (Mu favorite Quatermass!) playing Doctor Druring, keeper of the "snakery." There is even an appearance by Damaris Hayman, Ms Hawthorne of Devils End herself, at the dinner table scene. This is a pleasantly atmospheric tale, its execution a great example of British film making with the character acting on display reminding the viewer of an age when this type of story telling felt utterly authentic and real. Even the soundtrack is so very charming, in much the same way as the one for The Return also was.
               This story, like the other, has a short running time and yet there is much in it that will deserve and reward a revisit.

Invasion. (1966)

One of my Christmas treats this year was a copy of this movie INVASION. distributed by Network(Boy, they have some amazing stuff in their back catalogue.) I was intrigued by it after a having a conversation about the Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes. The chap I was speaking to mentioned that Robert Holmes had incorporated elements of his story for the movie into his script for Spearhead From Space. The Doctor Who story he wrote which introduced The Third Doctor Jon Pertwee as well as recurring bad race The Autons. I was intrigued enough to put it onto a wants list for Olde Saint Nick.Glad I did too. its a lovely wee late night treat.
               It is very atmospheric. Mostly set in a rural hospital surrounded by leafy forests in which a crashed alien craft is discovered by a very UNIT-like set of troops. A mysterious figure is taken to the hospital after it is run down by accident by a swinging couple(Its an odd and very British mix of science fiction and kitchen sink drama.) Various medical tests reveal the patient to have unearthly origins and before too long the hospital is further isolated by a force field set up by the alien figures who are in pursuit of the patient who is no innocent visitor from beyond the stars.
              British character actor Edward Judd plays the over worked melancholy doctor who discovers their patient is not all they appeared to be to begin with. (The odd plastic/rubber outfit worn by him is a dead giveaway.) Edward Judd had a good line in world weary seen it all before types and his character is a ferocious smoker. He practically chews the smoke from his cigarette. Shocking bad habit for a medical man. One would think he would know better.
              Cheekily enough I also saw some other shared themes from a much later Doctor Who story. Smith And Jones, which introduced the lovely Martha Jones to the many worlds of Doctor Who. When the Judoon transport the hospital where Martha is an intern to the surface of The Moon in order to isolate it so they may track down their alien quarry.It is much the same as the technique favored by the aliens in INVASION. Although the Judoon win hands down when it comes to visually representing how an alien life form might appear. The aliens in INVASION are basically just Asian people in futuristic jump suits, like the hench men of Dr No.
                No one I have spoke to since watching the movie remember it but they are all familiar with the themes. It is so often the way with some of these wee obscure and quite forgotten gems...

Pharos The Egyptian.

Really enjoyed The Beetle by Richard Marsh and yet I could not shake the feeling after completing it that I had somehow read it before or else something incredibly like  The themes, the atmosphere, the sheer Victorianna and sense of upright daring-do, all terribly familiar. It was as though an ancient Egyptian scarab beetle were fluttering about my head trying to remind me of a life lived before..No, thats too strong. I just felt i had read something a long time ago that felt it may have sprang from the same pen. So I went looking in the old book room and before too long I found the very thing; Pharos The Egyptian by Guy Boothby.
               I read this book way back in the eighties. While I was staying in a house in Portumna, Galway. I found it among a pile of books by Walter Machen and old school books. It is a Victorian supernatural mystery, off course, about a long lived and wickedly cruel Egyptian called Pharos who is actually a mage from ancient times surviving using lost magics of that era. As i suggested, it feels as though it may have slipped from the same pen but is in fact a great wee novel in its own right. Utterly of its time and completely entertaining for that very reason. It also has a few pulp themed illustrations which add to its beguiling quality of swarthy supernaturalism. Guy Boothby was a best selling and hugely prolific writer in his day. His most infamous creation being the criminal occult mastermind Doctor Nikola who sought to create a potion that would lead not only to immortality but could also reanimate the dead. He was hell bent on ruling the world although I think he never quite considered the massive headache and stress bucket such a goal would become if Successful. Guy Boothby died a young man, only thirty eight when he was carried away by pneumonia, dying at his home. Sad.
              Dust off your smoking jacket, check out your study windows are bolted shut against the howling wind and rain outside, throw another log on the fire, uncork a nice Merlot, put your feet up and prepare to be mummified..so to speak.

The Beetle.

Came across a copy of the book The Beetle by Richard Marsh in a visit to an Oxfam bookstore. It is a book I have been keeping an eye open for since first hearing of it being mentioned during a documentary on the life of the writer Robert Aickman I watched a couple of years back. I think Marsh was a distant past relative of Aickman, which just goes to show the truth of Conan Doyle's statement about how art in the blood can take the most curious forms. The book was published in 1897, the same year as Dracula, and in its day actually sold better than Stoker's classic horror novel. I fear it quite forgotten about these days as I have not seen it mentioned anywhere else. Some things last all the ages while others do not.
           I am enjoying it. It is quite barmy. A swarthy Victorian supernatural melodrama all purple hues and quirkily humorous prose. Oh yes, there is a sense of humor at play among the various beastly and ghastly situations that beset the upright British sensibilities that abound and a cigar and port imbiding old boys club eccentricity about it. Like a tale emerging from the recesses of the comfortable familiarity of an old red leather armchair in a swathe of hand rolled Turkish cigar smoke. A tale almost too terrible to tell, or so it keeps warning us. They should release a talking book version with The League of Gentlemen cast performing it. Respectfully off course. I mean it as a compliment.
              It is quite a weird read. The story involves a group of crusty upper echelon Victorians and their travails surrounding  Egyptian scarab chicanery,where a shape shifting Egyptian Supernatural entity seeks revenge on and upcoming Member Of Parliament, cloaked in the cultural prejudices and misunderstandings of the day. Politicians are upright and virtuous, foreigners are shady and shifty and ladies always stand by their men no matter how trivial they are treated.
              I do love the idea that in Germany this book was called Der Skarabus...
              Now that really sounds like Victorian Melodrama to get ones teeth into. Dracula Be Damned!

Angel Of War.

This one caught me quite off guard. Which is to say I had no time to put a stoney face in place , nor no reason to either I suppose, while sitting drawing, listening to it. I had got to the story Angel Of War and at some point I stopped scribbling, as I sat at my drawing table, and drifted completely into the narrative, the performances. Just incredible. it all come together and I found myself utterly moved and engaged by this story by writer Roy Gil. Almost embarrassed to admit it but at some point a big wet tear fell..Do not really want to admit it but it has never happened to me listening to an audio drama before. Yes,it is one of my favorite art forms but on the very best of days I never felt as lost in the audio realm in quite this way.
             The world of the trenches in WW! has always had quite a haunting effect on me. From novels and poetry and music inspired by this monstrous conflict I have always found it the very cauldron of lost humanity. Just looking at photographs can set me off. I have always felt kinship with the shell shocked. Maybe growing up in Ardoyne during the particular years I did I got to see the best and worst of humanity. Not that I am effecting a comparison with life in trenches and life on Etna Drive, that would be lunacy.
              Its a wonderful production. The writing, the acting, the wall of sounds and music that throw shapes upon the canvas of the listeners imagination.
              The stories in this series assume Dorian Gray was real, that his terrible story was true.
              Stories such as this make me believe in that truth.

Heroic Foreshadowing.

I do not know if I ever mentioned it but way back, yes I know it seems too soon to talk like this but years are years, during the first season of Peter Capaldi's era as The Doctor, there was that season long mystery with regard to the identity of Missy. Just who was she?Actually I thought I had it sussed. Old clever boots me. I thought it would turn out that Missy was Romanna , an evil version of The Doctor's best friend. A damaged and war-traumatised version of Romanna twisted by the terrible events of that horrific conflict. Hurt but redeemable under the influence of of her own best friend to remind her off better times and happier days. Watching Shada and Lalla Ward's star turn brought it back to mind. Perhaps you too can see why when you check out these two pictures.
           I was wrong off course. I frequently am. My theories are nearly always well off. Missy was The Master, in a worthy piece of foreshadowing that like so many Conan Doyle resolutions seems so obvious now. Therein lies the genius I suppose...

A Little Later Than Originally Intended..

It would have been Douglas Adam's final hurrah as writer and producer on Doctor Who before he struck out for fame and fortune in the wider world. possibly pursuing an entirely holistic approach to fame with such properties as Hitch-Hikers,Dirk Gently and a myriad brilliant ideas to difficult to peg down.It is true he experienced a series of mixed fortunes but who does not in pursuit of their dreams. Shada was famously derailed by a strike at the BBC. A situation that seemed so very much a part of daily existence back then with trade union activism so much a part of every working man and woman's life. I doubt there is a Doctor Who fan anywhere in this world of space and time enough who is not familiar with the footage of The Doctor and Romanna on a punt on a river in Oxford. The very picture of two wayward Galifreyan children.Oddly, for a story that was never completed and thus never transmitted, those images have become so iconic and representative of that era. just look at Lalla Ward in this story, the foreshadowing that eventually brought us Missy and hugely influenced, I believe, the very next incarnation of The Doctor.
            Romanna so deserved the medal The Doctor pinned on her pretty frock, with her fine new red berried bonnet and that heroic joyful smile with a cheeky salute. Oh happy days.
            You know, Old Chronotis himself was a real delight. A very worthy foil for The Doctor and Romanna, you could see why he and those two would become chums. If that story had been finished as intended and been transmitted over a six week period all those years ago it would have had so many years to bed down into established continuity. I believe it would not have been the last we saw of Old Chronotis either.The Doctor may even have left a variation on K9 to keep him company in his December years. Maybe all this happened in some parallel plain. Where Tom Baker is still The Doctor...
             And speaking of that. What about that endearing coda of a newly filmed piece at the very tail end of the tale.Tom Baker as he is now as The Doctor as he was when, and Lalla Ward as she is now on the other side of that door. Revisiting a console room I never expected to see again and two old chums at ease with each other. As I said before, Happy Days.