☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The
Stalls of Barchester (1971) – L. G. Clark
The first of the BBC’s classic Ghost
Stories for Christmas series, featuring dramatizations of tales by M. R.
James. The best versions of James that I
have seen so far are “Whistle and I’ll Come to You” (1968) and “A Warning to
the Curious” (1972) for TV and, of course, Curse of the Demon (1957), one of my
all time favourite films. The Stalls of
Barchester is in the same tradition, as an archdeacon who may have murdered his
predecessor is mysteriously haunted by a cat and other shadowy figures. This has something to do with the carved
figures in his stall of the church, the wood for which was apparently taken from
a famous hanging tree. The story
involves a framing device (two scholars are reading the archdeacon’s diary)
which allows the “truth” of the story to come out. Not quite as spooky as others but if you
imagine yourself alone in the house at night, it just may give you the
creeps.
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