This is the first of a two-part essay on M. R. James by John Bullard.
Being close to Christmas time, and Keith having established his annual ritual of looking at Victorian Christmas Ghost stories, I thought I’d help him out this year with a look at the second biggest person to uphold the tradition of a good ghost story for Christmas after Dickens, M.R. James, and how the B.B.C. ran several dramatizations of his stories for years for Christmas. We will look at nine of the ten stories that were adapted, starting with the first five.
For those who don’t know, Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was a Medieval scholar and Dean at Cambridge. He would regularly host his friends and students at his home around Christmas break to read them his latest ghost story during their party. His stories were so good that when they were published and became big sellers, they had an immense impact on how ghost stories were written. For regular readers of this blog, H.P. Lovecraft enjoyed them, and brought them to the attention of Robert E. Howard. Apparently, according to letters between Lovecraft and Howard, Lovecraft had James’ address and Howard asked for it so that he could write James (Lovecraft, ca. Oct. 1931). It’s too bad that we don’t know if Howard ever did write James, or if James even replied to Howard’s letter. But enough digression; back to the subject at hand.
Montague Rhodes James
James collected his stories and published them in a series of books. You can read them online for free, and I will post the links to the stories as well as the links to the YouTube addresses to watch the teleplays the B.B.C. did. All but one are online and able to be watched.
The Beginnings
“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come for You, My Lad”(1968 teleplay)
In 1968, the B.B.C. commissioned a film adaptation of James’ great story, “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” which they ran to great acclaim as part of an anthology of films. Here are links to the story and the adaptation on YouTube:
M R James’ Whistle And I’ll Come To You 1968 – YouTube
The great Michael Hordern stars as Professor Parkins, a Philosophy professor sure of his knowledge of the world, who discovers “There are more things in Heaven and Earth …” I will more fully look at it in comparison to the remake done in 2010 later on.
Parkins, discovering something he shouldn’t mess with, from the B.B.C. telefilm.
“The Stalls of Barchester”(1971 teleplay)
A couple of years later, Lawrence Gordon Clark wanted to do an adaptation of James’ “The Stalls of Barchester”, a story about what happens to a new cleric, John Haynes, who decides to remove the beloved old Archdeacon of Barchester Cathedral, Bishop Pulteney, who refused to retire from his position. You can read and watch it here:
A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester (1971) [x264] – YouTube
The teleplay is wonderfully cast. Robert Hardy is great as the impatient Precentor John Haynes, and Harold Bennett has one of the greatest faces and expressions for the poor Archdeacon Pulteney. He’s positively Dickensian in his appearance.
Hardy and Bennett in the stalls. From the B.B.C. production.
The sound design is fairly good for a mono production and adds to the atmosphere, and the stall’s carvings are decent at replicating their descriptions from the story.
Bishop Haynes suddenly notices the carving of Death on his stall.
It was a great success running on the night before Christmas, and the Beeb decided to start the tradition of running a ghost story film for Christmas each year, starting from the following year, 1972 to 1978, and reviving it in 2005 on and off up to this year’s offering to be broadcast in a couple of weeks. Several of the films were adaptations of some of James’ stories, and these are the films and stories we will be looking at from the series:
A Warning to the Curious 1972
Lost Hearts 1973
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas 1974
The Ash Tree 1975
A View From a Hill 2005
Number 13 2006
Whistle and I’ll Come For You 2010
The Tractate Middoth 2013
One other James story was presented in 2019, “Martin’s Close”, but it is not available on YouTube for viewing. They will present “The Mezzotint” for this Christmas in a couple of weeks.
“A Warning to the Curious”
The next story done was “A Warning to the Curious”. The tale can be read here:
A Warning to the Curious (Full Text) · A Thin Ghost (thin-ghost.org)
It is about a young man, Paxton, vacationing on the coast in East Anglia, who learns about the legend of the three crowns of the ancient British Kings that were buried in different spots in Anglia to protect the land from invaders, and how the one remaining lost crown was secreted nearby. Paxton finds out that the crown had allegedly been guarded by a family whose last surviving son had died childless and worried that there would be no one else to keep watch over the crown’s resting spot. Paxton figures out where the crown is and digs it up, only to get a constant threatening companion from that moment on.
And here is the link for the teleplay:
A Warning to the Curious (1972) – A Ghost Story for Christmas – YouTube
The Guardian of the Lost Crown
The film made changes to the story by turning Paxton into a middle-aged clerk that had just been fired by his employers and needed a source of income. Being a hobbyist of archaeology, he knew about the legend, and went to go find the crown. The area the story was filmed in is wonderful, and everyone gives a good performance in the Hammer Film-style of villagers who know more than what they let on about. Again, like the Barchester film, the sounds in the film are very well employed to heighten the suspense. Also, the British character actor, Clive Swift, plays a character named Black in both “The Stalls of Barchester”, and “A Warning to the Curious”. He’s the man who goes through Bishop Haynes’ papers and deduces the story of what happened in the former, and plays a painter on holiday to whom Paxton tells his story and helps Paxton out. Perhaps the filmmakers were thinking on making Swift the unofficial stand-in for James’ story narrators.
“Lost Hearts”
The story:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary/Lost Hearts – Wikisource, the free online library
A young newly orphaned boy is brought to live with his newly discovered cousin, Mr. Abney, a renowned scholar on the ancient pagan religions of the Greeks and Romans. The boy, Stephen, is treated with great kindness by Abney, who is absolutely keen on making sure that Stephen’s upcoming birthday will be his twelfth. Stephen learns from the housekeeper that Mr. Abney is a kind soul who had taken in two young children before, a gypsy girl and a homeless boy. Sadly, both children had left Mr. Abney’s house without a word to anyone. Shortly thereafter, Stephen begins having dreams of seeing two children a boy and girl, and things begin to happen, leading up to the night of the Spring Equinox.
The film:
The Kids in the Window, “Lost Hearts”, B.B.C. 1973
The film is fairly straightforward in its narrative. It is sadly most like your standard, overly familiar haunted house story, with more added interactions between the boy and girl and Stephen than are in the story. Also, the filmmakers decided to add to the spooky factor by making the eventful night Halloween instead of the Spring Equinox. I found it to be the least of the adaptations, possibly because of the changes by the filmmakers to try and make it scarier with more ghost time that were pedestrianly staged. It’s still an entertaining film to watch, but you can see that if it was redone with a more deliberate pacing and theatrical staging, it could be truly frightening.
“The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”
The story:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary/The Treasure of Abbot Thomas – Wikisource, the free online library
This story is very interesting. It is pretty much a tale of a treasure hunt with clues and riddles to be solved. An antiquarian, Somerton, while doing some research discovers that an abbot named Thomas at a monastery in Germany was believed to have hidden a large quantity of gold at the abbey. Somerton figures out where the cache is and goes with his manservant to get it. An English priest, Mr. Gregory, later receives a summons to help Somerton out with a problem that has led to Somerton’s ill health. I’ve always been struck by the feeling that James wrote this story to try out his version of Poe’s “the Gold Bug”, or any of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories in how Somerton worked his way through the various clues given to find the treasure. It’s fairly quickly paced and an enjoyable read.
The Film:
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas – YouTube
My conviction that James may have had Poe and Doyle in mind when he wrote this story is brought to full effect with the adaptation done in 1974. The filmmakers change the story considerably. First, we are introduced to a séance being held in the home of a widow where her non-believing son Peter will only participate if he can bring a knowledgeable cleric friend, Somerton, along for the next one. Clearly, Somerton and Peter are modelled on Homes and Watson here. Somerton attends the séance and easily shows the psychic mediums to be fakes. He then enlists Peter in his search for the alleged gold of Abbot Thomas. The bulk of the film is their figuring out the clues and riddles until they discover where the gold is hidden, in the abbey near Peter’s estate, moving the action from Germany to Old Blighty.
Somerton and Peter on the hunt for clues! From the B.B.C. production
Somerton goes to recover the gold without Peter, and Peter then takes on the role of the reverend, Mr. Gregory from the story. The teleplay has been given a different ending from the original story. The actors are good in their roles, and the locations are excellent. This is a very entertaining adaptation.
The Ash-Tree
The Story:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary/The Ash-tree – Wikisource, the free online library
M.R. James writes a story about the effects of the witch-craze that swept England in the 17th Century in this tale. In it, the Deputy-Sheriff of the area, Sir Matthew Fell, who owns a large estate and mansion, is a witness against Mrs. Mothersole, accused of being a witch. His testimony condemns her, and at her execution, she only says “There will be guests at the Hall.” Sir Matthew is soon found dead in his bedroom one morning, possibly a victim of poisoning. His son, Sir Matthew, upon inheriting the Hall is plagued by constantly losing some of his livestock until he figures out to keep the animals indoors overnight. Sir Matthew does not sleep in his father’s room during his life in the hall and dies quietly. Upon his death, his son, Sir Richard, takes possession of the Mansion and begins a building plan to change the mansion into a more Italianate design. He also expands the church to add a new area for his family’s grandiose pew. This will be built on some of the graves in the unconsecrated section of the churchyard. When the graves are moved, the grave of Mrs. Mothersole is found to be empty. Sir Richard then decides to move into the bedroom that his grandfather died in, outside of which an ash tree grows.
The Film:
The Ash Tree (1975) M.R. James Ghost Story – YouTube
The film adaptation is fairly decent, fitting in well with the spate of witchfinder films that had been popular in England at the end of the Sixties and beginning of the Seventies.
The Ash Tree and unlucky bedroom. From the B.B.C. production.
Edward Petherbridge does a fine job at portraying both Sir Matthew in flashbacks, and Sir Richard Fell. Again, the filmmakers decided to change the story by making the inheritors of Fell Hall into being childless men, so it passes from Sir Matthew to a nephew to a nephew. They also added in a more substantial part for Richard’s fiancée than the wife mentioned in the story. Finally, they also changed Mrs. Mothersole’s curse to “Mine shall inherit, and no sweet babes done now mine be”, placing the childless curse on the Fells, and adding in something else…
Witches on the way to being turned into bridges. From the B.B.C. production.
In the next installment, we will examine the remaining stories and films that are available on YouTube:
“A View From a Hill”, “Number 13”, “Oh Whistle and I Will Come for You” (1968 and 2010), and “The Tractate Middoth”.
Sources
Texts
Jones, Darryl (Editor), (2011), M.R. James Collected Ghost Stories, Oxford University Press
Roehm, R. (Editor), (2007) The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard Volume Two: 1930-1932, REHFP
Websites
A Ghost Story for Christmas – Wikipedia
A View from a Hill (Full Text) · A Thin Ghost (thin-ghost.org)
A Warning to the Curious (Full Text) · A Thin Ghost (thin-ghost.org)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary – Wikisource, the free online library
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary – Wikisource, the free online library
Read for free | M. R. James Archive (wordpress.com)
YouTube-various sites linked in text
John Bullard is a retired attorney who lives in Texas, and has updated The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard for The Robert E Howard Foundation Press, which will soon be available for purchase. He became a life-long Howard fan upon reading his first Howard story in an anthology of horror stories in 1974. While working on the Letters, he started seeing the subject matter of this post and has written it up for the education and edification of other Howard-ophiles. John is currently working on several projects for The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press.