I became familiar with "Casting the Runes" because of my interest in old time American radio shows. Abridged versions of the story appeared on popular programs like "Suspense," and "Escape." It's a real treat to hear the unabridged story read by such a marvelous narrator.
Wish the mystery and imagination version of this still existed, Night of the Demon was a good version and probably one of my favourite Horror films. This was great too, really got into it.
Thanks for posting. There are several readings of this M.R. James story out there, but this is the best technically, and well, it's hard to find fault with Michael Hordern!
@paulgoddard HI 👋, from Ohio. I listened to this a while back and forgot to leave a comment 🙃. Excellent tale and narration, I enjoyed every minute. Just an FYI, if you like strange tales, check out a book called The Weird, by husband and wife Vandermeer. Got it back in 2011 with no regrets. I'm not very well informed, but the name Michael Hordern kept ringing a faint bell in the back of my mind. Turns out he was in Theater of Blood, an excellent horror movie starring Vincent Price. If you haven't seen it, I hope you do decide to give it a try. Take care, enjoy your summer ☀️
This was one in a book of English Short Stories, that was a set text for English in my first year of high school, when I was 11. Needless to say, it scared the daylights out of me. So many horror stories today are such a letdown, but M R James never disappoints. It is now midnight and I am just settling down under the covers, lights off......Let’s begin
@@chriscollins3531 11 is the age when children start secondary school in the UK and this despite the educational psychologists suggesting 13 as a better age but the 1944 Education Act enshrined 11 and the 11+ exam differentiating abilities and streaming them into Grammar, Secondary and Technical schools. Private schools though kept to 13 and the entrance exams
M RJames is unsurpassable in the composition of ghost stories!no excessive gore,simply dread,profound terror born in the mind and soul,each soul-stirring story is a scholarly work of art devoid of scurrility:Michael Horderns' voice is an excellent accompaniment!!Thank You!!
Anyone seen the 1968 Omnibus presentation of Whistle and I'll Come, directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Hordern? If not, check it out. It's on You Tube. Without a doubt, the best adaptation of a James story. Even after all these year, it is spine-tingling.
Hordern used to laugh when people pointed out in interviews that he was often cast as professors, wizards, and wise men: 'I am, sadly' he said, 'a bear of very little brain.'
This is unusual for a James story: the protagonist (or one of them) manages to escape his horrible fate. It has a largely urban setting: trams, trains, men distributing flyers, and the centre of London; the women are helpful and intelligent, the men are often married, there's an exciting, almost detective story sense of urgency and the final encounter on the train to Dover is like a Conan Doyle story. All in all, nearly a thriller. I think it could bear another film treatment.
I love all M R James short ghost stories but this one has to be my favourite. I enjoyed the adaption "Night of the Demon" but I thought the ITV modern day remake was disappointing, however, I know someone who did really like it. My all time favourite adaption of this story was by a small theatre company called "Box Tale Soup" and there were only two actors plus a life size puppet of Karswell.
@@baruchben-david4196 I may be in a small minority but I found that to be a great tale and likely my personal favorite from the writing I've partaken by the author
All astute and excellent observations but I think the Tractate Middoth has some of the same elements. I find Runes especially interesting in that the author has his characters collaborating to fight evil, as in Holmes. There is also a female character with a significant intellectual role. James did love his libraries which is the scholar's 2nd home.
Hordern was my first narrator of James' work. And despite hearing many since his voice is my hear canon of the stories. His "Count Magnus" reading is fantastic.
As people have pointed out it's the basis for the film Night of the Demon, but it's also the idea behind Sam Raimi's film Drag me To Hell... "Soon, it will be you who comes begging to me."
SUBERB READING! I never really took notice of Hordern as an actor in the old British movies-sometimes you take solid craftsmanship for granted...Hordern has a new fan and besides seeking out his other radio performances-I will try to revisit his movie/tv appearances as well. Many thanks for the posting!
Thank you for your comment :) I like Michael Hordern as an actor and narrator. He was the main character in an adaptation of "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by the BBC in 1968, directed by Jonathan Miller renamed as "Whistle and I'll Come to You". I have linked the video if you haven't seen it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mYjtxHHjZ00.html
I also was never really enamoured by Hordern as an actor but listening to his storytelling voice alone is a revelation. He is just perfect for these stories.
Carey, so long since I first saw the TV series that I never realised that Michael Hordern did the voice. I looked up episode 1 of the TV series after Michael Bond's passing recently and was really taken with the reading of Paddington's voice. I love the way Hordern gently stresses the "darkest" in "Darkest Peru"! Brilliant. A great legacy to both writer and actor.
MANY THANKS! Caught up with his performance as the "absorbed" prof and the whistle...You wait for the twinge and actor, plot and craftsmanship do not let you down...The unseen and the brief intrusion into our lives can scare the hell out of you instead of nauseating...
Michael Hordern was also the best Gandalf ever, in the 1979 BBC Radio version of 'The Lord of the Rings' with Ian Holm (Bilbo in the Jackson films) as Frodo. best Gandalf; best Frodo, best Samwise and best Smeagol.
@@hannahreynolds7611 Also Estragon in the very first UK production of Waiting for Godot. Wonderful actor. Serkis' body work is amazing but it's Peter for the voice for me. All the way from the lowest growl to dreadful screeches of terror and pain.
The finest readings of M R Names are equally from two - Sir Michael Hordern, as we have here, and then also Sir Christopher Lee. You cannot put them in first and second place in podium fashion. They are both excellent with their own unique deliveries.
@@karehhartig7287 I would also add Robert Powell who made some fine readings of M R James ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eTms6Hf1SEQ.html
Interestingly , when Christopher Lee was young and being interviewed at Eton College, the panel consisted of the very great M.R James - what a priceless encounter for the ages .
I should add, that Hordern played a very good part in the BBC film of the 1960s, “Oh Whistle My Lad”. It is particularly atmospheric and just a little “Spooky”…… And of course, written but M.R James.
Great stuff! I do hope there isn't an attempt to make a new, right-on film version of this classic for the smartphone and TikTok generation. It would lose its splendid sense of dread if 'the casting of runes' became 'the sending of texts' or 'the opening of e-mail attachments', and a grisly fate could be avoided by pressing 'delete message'. I like the pace of this story. The book is certainly of its time and is none the worse for that. The 1957 film 'Night of the Demon' was good too, and stayed relatively faithful to the plot (sort of). In a modern setting, though, things would be rushed to hold the attention of a fidgeting audience expecting instant gratification and incapable of looking up from its phone screens for more than ten seconds whilst searching for an explanation of the plot on Google, or updating Facebook pages with live-streamed 4K video of its bags of crisps and buckets of popcorn. I think what lends this story weight is the timescale. The doomed man has three whole months to squirm on the hook and contemplate his fate, and his persecutor is a properly nasty piece of work, relishing every second of his revenge. Just think... There used to be a time when a villain really was a villain; these days, even the most appalling conduct is excused and everyone is innocent of everything. It'd probably be hard to find a big-name Hollywood actor willing to play such a monster. Bad for his image. He'd want his character to be redeemed. Also, hating anything - even outright evil - isn't permitted these days, so all the bad stuff would have to go. The very IDEA of someone intentionally frightening children might give rise to mental trauma, and parents would be sure to sue... And audience focus groups would demand that the film have a bland, Disney-esque happy ending where the bad guy realises the error of his ways and repents - preferably in a church, preferably in the States. (And did I say 'his'? Oh no! Bad pronoun! That would never be allowed! Whither diversity?🙄) Sigh. I can think of quite a few people I'd like to hand an envelope (which may or may not contain a slip of paper marked with runes) to.
After Alistair Sim, Michael Hordern was the funniest man on the English movie stage. He is almost always an utter delight (the exception is Joseph Andrews, in which nearly everyone is terrible).
I heard him doing the butler Lane in a radio production of 'Importance of Being Earnest' and he has literally six completely impassive lines and every one of them is howlingly funny.
There used to be a video adaptation of this story, either by BBC or ITV. And it used to be on youtube. I think it was from the 70s. Does anyone have it, and it would be nice to have it uploaded before everything Ends.
This is the one that was supposedly about Aleister Crowley isn't it? The one that had that film about the demon and him slipping a written curse to the victim.
Perhaps a touch of Crowley but also a swipe at Montague Summers. He published serious scholarship (1st attempt at a critical edition of Aphra Behn, e.g.) but also a History of Witchcraft that is a bit fanciful. He also translated the Malleus Maleficarum, a classic witch-hunting text, which is as ridiculous as it sounds.
The story was written well before Crowley became prominent, so any resemblance is coincidental. I’ve just heard a theory that Karswell was based on a Cambridge colleague of James, whom he had professional and personal tensions with. Can’t remember the name. That said, the movie Karswell seems based heavily on Crowley.
Michael Hordern had just the perfect voice for these. And he adopted the mood, as all fine actors will...and usually round about two minutes in, I am enthralled and hostage to the story...
M R James was prescient His description of the slide show at the beginning makes one think of 3-D glasses and those ones that make you imagine you are somewhere else
Normally adaptations (which this is not) make stories worse, but I do like the 1979 movie version for what I think is a real improvement of which James himself would have approved: the runes were returned to Karswell just before he boarded a plane, which subsequently crashed, killing everyone on board. You don't use black magic to fight black magic; if you play by the devil's rules, you will always lose. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lV5uH9Hc03s.html
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) was a noted wood-engraver who illustrated numerous books in his time. I don't know for sure if he ever did do an edition of The Ancient Mariner, but it's just the sort of commission he'd have been likely to be offered. As his career developed he progressed to writing, illustrating and publishing some famous works on natural history. They're still much admired today.
The idea behind the story is good but the story itself is very convoluted. It has too many unnecessary details making it hard to keep up with what's happening. But it was the basis for a great movie: Night of the Demon.
