So, please consider this post a much needed break for all of us.
I came across this (below) yesterday evening and thought readers of TIC might interested.
In 1972, Rod Serling used Kirk's short story, "Sorworth Place," as a basis of an episode of NIGHT GALLERY.
The production values are terrible (though the Sorworth Place is set in the wilds of Scotland, you can see a California freeway in the background of an early shot) and the names aren't quite right. The characters are also a little too bizarre (but not in the right way--mostly from mediocre acting).
Still, through Serling's interpretation, important elements of Russell Kirk remain in this presentation. Enjoy.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/58781/night-gallery-the-miracle-at-camafeothe-ghost-of-sorworth-place
You need to advance roughly 21 minutes into the show to get to the Kirk story. The first story is pretty creepy as well, but it has nothing to do with Kirk.
Again, enjoy.
Thank you, Brad, I had no idea this was online. If I recall correctly, Dr Kirk said that he was in Baltimore delivering a talk and had returned to his hotel when his literary agent (Kirby Macauley, who kept himself poor by specialising in ghost stories until his only other client took off, Stephen King) rang to say - or had rung Annette in Mecosta to say - that he'd sold the rights to televise 'Sorworth Place' to Rod Serling. Dr Kirk said they later found out that Serling had already shot the episode and had only discovered before going on air that, as Dr Kirk muttered darkly, "this Russell Kirk fellow - who he had supposed had been dead for decades or more - was in fact still alive!" He chuckled merrily, having been assumed by Hollywierd secretaries to have died off with M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood and other Edwardian greats. Had the agent known this, he could have extracted a much larger fee from Serling's producers, but such things happen.
ReplyDeleteGreat Kirk story, Steve. We are reading the ghost stories now. Helen and my girls have always had an even greater appreciation for them than I, if that's possible. I remember the first time he told one to part of our family--Amy was the only daughter with us--and how frightening he could make his voice, and what goblins he could summon in a dark room. Amy was about 12 or 13, and trembling with righteous fear!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this video link. I thought they did a pretty good job with the story for 1970s American television until they changed the ending, which was disappointing and odd, (but typical of scary TV shows and films for that decade); you also realize at that point that the female lead is quite different in character from the text (she does, in fact, have a diabolic imagination on the TV program, but a moral one in Kirk's story), which greatly changed the tenor of Kirk's brilliant tale. Still, it's interesting to see what they did with it. Thanks again.
ReplyDelete