Curious Warnings - The Great Ghost Stories Of M.R. James (96 page)

I am ill satisfied with what I enclose. It comes late and is short and ill written. There have been a good many events conspiring to keep it back, besides a growing inability. So pray don’t use it unless it has some quality I do not see in it.

I send it because I was enjoined to do something by Mr. Owen Smith.

It was then too late for our Christmas number, or, indeed, for the January number; so it was agreed that it should be held over till one of the closing months of this year.

At the moment of going to press, I see it announced that the original manuscripts of his ghost stories are to appear at Sotheby’s sale on November 9th (written on foolscap paper). The original of “A Vignette,” of course, is not among them. Like the others, it is written on lined foolscap.

Five months after M.R. James’ death, his library was sold through Sotheby’s, the famous auction house in London. The sale included the original holographic manuscripts of fourteen of the author’s stories, including “The Ash-tree,” “Count Magnus,” “A Warning to the Curious” and “Casting the Runes.”

According to a report in the
Daily Telegraph
the following morning, the sale of the manuscripts raised £140, with prices ranging from £5 10
s
for “The Mezzotint” to £15 10
s
for “‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad.’” The total sale of the entire library—which included several rare volumes dating back to the 13th century—amounted to £794. The current whereabouts of several of James’ original ghost story manuscripts, including some of those sold at auction in November 1936, is now a mystery.

A collection of the author’s papers and surviving manuscripts are held at King’s College Library in Cambridge. Much of this material was selected in November 1947 by the distinguished librarian A.N.L. Munby (author of the 1949 ghost story collection
The Alabaster Hand
, which was dedicated—in Latin—to M.R. James). Other material was added from the Sotheby’s auction and as a gift from Jane McBryde, presented by Sir Shane Leslie.

Although he left behind a relatively small body of work, M.R. James’ ghost stories have never been out of print, and many of his best-known tales have been adapted for television, the movies and radio.

The first televised version of James’ work was Laurence Schwab’s “The Lost Will of Dr. Rant” (1951), an adaptation of “The Tractate Middoth” by Doris Halman, which was part of the American NBC series
Lights Out
.

Leslie Nielsen played a Boston librarian who was asked to get an “old and strangely curious book” by the querulous John Eldred (Russell Collins). Helped to recuperate by the owner (Pat Englund) of a failing boarding house after a terrifying encounter with a peculiarly
dusty
old man (Fred Ardath)
amongst the stacks, he eventually discovered the secret of a long-lost inheritance written in Hebrew.

Now thought lost, the BBC’s
Two Ghost Stories by M.R. James
(1954) featured “The Mezzotint” and “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book,” both adapted and directed by Tony Richardson, and performed by Robert Farquharson and George Rose, respectively.

Broadcast in August 1961, Lewis Freedman directed “Room 13,” a version of James’ “Number 13” for the NBC series
Great Ghost Tales
. It starred William Redfield and Diana Van der Vlis.

Between 1966 and 1968, the Associated British Corporation series
Mystery and Imagination
aired four episodes based on the author’s work. The first of these was “The Tractate Middoth” (1966), directed by Kim Mills. Freddie Jones and Megs Jenkins appeared in Robert Tronson’s memorable version of “Lost Hearts” (1966),
while another “Room 13” (1966), directed by Patrick Dromgoole, featured Joss Ackland, David Battley, George Woodbridge and Tessa Wyatt. Finally, Robert Eddison portrayed Karswell in Alan Cooke’s version of “Casting the Runes” (1968), which also featured John Fraser and Gordon Jackson.

Although all these episodes are now considered lost, a short extract from the trailer for “Casting the Runes” was recently rediscovered and issued as a DVD extra.

Perhaps the most famous television adaptation of James’ work is
Whistle and I’ll Come to You
, Jonathan Miller’s somewhat idiosyncratic reinterpretation of “‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,’” first broadcast in June 1968 as part of the BBC’s
Omnibus
series. Michael Hordern starred as a neurotic Professor Parkins, pursued down a wind-swept beach by a billowing white sheet.

Although not credited as such, “The Cemetery”—the first segment of the Rod Serling-scripted pilot movie
Night Gallery
(1969)—was very obviously a direct steal of James’ “The Mezzotint.” Directed by Boris Sagal for NBC, a victim of Roddy McDowall’s murderous black sheep of the family reached out from the grave to take his supernatural revenge through a painting that changed from moment to moment.

For fans of the author’s work, however, the most definitive dramatizations of M.R. James’ fiction continue to be the BBC’s series of annual adaptations produced in the early 1970s under the umbrella title
A Ghost Story for Christmas
. Adapted and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, these hour-long dramas comprised “Stalls of Barchester” (1971), “A Warning to the Curious” (1972), “Lost Hearts” (1973), “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” (1974) and “The Ash-tree” (1975).

Each of these finely crafted shows featured a cast of solid character actors that included Robert Hardy, Clive Swift, Peter Vaughn, Michael Bryant, Edward Petherbridge and Barbara Ewing.

In 1976 Yorkshire Television broadcast a seventeen-minute adaptation of “Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance” for an episode of the schools’
program
Music Scene
, about the use of mood music in film. Scripted, produced and directed by Tony Scull, it was filmed on location in the maze at Roundhay Park, Leeds, which was demolished later that same year.

Even this short film for children was better than the updated adaptation of “Casting the Runes” for a 1979 episode of
ITV Playhouse
, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and featuring Jan Francis, Edward Petherbridge and Iain Cuthbertson as Julian Karswell.

Actor Michael Bryant (who had starred in the 1974 television production of “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”) read “The Mezzotint,” “A School Story” and “The Diary of Mr. Poynter” for the BBC children’s series
Spine Chillers
in 1980.

Also presented as mostly readings, this time for adults, actor Robert Powell narrated partially dramatized versions of “The Mezzotint,” “The Ash-tree,” “Wailing Well,” “‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’” and “The Rose Garden” for the BBC 2 series
Classic Ghost Stories
, broadcast in December 1986.

El Grabado
(2000) was another version of “The Mezzotint,” made in 2000 by director Jorge Repolles for Spanish television. It featured Martín García and Alex Hernández.

Iconic horror actor Christopher Lee portrayed James himself in half-hour re-creations of the original Christmas readings of “The Stalls of Barchester,” “The Ash-tree,” “Number 13” and “A Warning to the Curious” for the BBC Scotland series
M.R. James’ Ghost Stories for Christmas
(2000).

“Unfortunately they were not his best stories, such as ‘Count Magnus,’” explained the actor, “because the best are too long for TV. Nevertheless, the shorter ones are well worth listening to.”