Lost Hearts/The Treasure of Abbot Thomas/The Ash Tree (1973/1974/1975)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Lost Hearts/The Treasure of Abbot Thomas/The Ash Tree (1973/1974/1975) – L. G. Clark

The BBC and director Lawrence Gordon Clark offered Ghost Stories for Christmas during the early 1970’s with a series of dramatizations of short stories by M. R. James.  These three tales all follow the typical formula (also seen in A Warning to the Curious and Whistle and I’ll Come to You) where a naïve outsider stumbles into malevolent horror, sometimes because they make some selfish choices and sometimes (as in Lost Hearts) for no good reason at all -- although the old man who comes to a bad end after dabbling in the occult might be seen to fit the mould, even as the child protagonist is our eyes and ears.  Of the three, I found “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” to be the most satisfying, with a plot focused on solving a mystery with clues extracted from Latin text (um, a la Dan Brown?) to find the treasure – but with an ambiguous ending.  The Ash-Tree has a weird punchline but it is somewhat more inscrutable, perhaps because the narrative isn’t laid out clearly.  Nevertheless, all three offer some creepy moments and are worth a look.  Now, having partaken in a fair few of these TV versions, I am persuaded to read some of the original short stories – perhaps after I have finished my Lovecraft tome.  Now those would make for some real scares at Xmas or any other time!