Tuesday, September 13, 2022

The Shadow Library: Attend the Tale

 

Many years ago I saw the version of "Sweeney Todd" with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn when it came on Showtime, where it entered my mind like a blood-soaked fever dream, only furtively recalled now and then. When this theatrical version came out (2007) and was later released as a fairly cheap DVD (with the further allurements of Alan Rickman and Tim Burton) I gave it a shot, but found that, for me, it did not have the appeal of the filmed stage show. 
And speaking of one Johnny Depp film reminds me that I used to have this one too, From Hell (2001). Adapted from Alan Moore's graphic novel, this speculative story of the search for Jack the Ripper had a load of some of the best British actors, from Ian Holm to Robbie Coltrane to Ian Richardson. I don't know, maybe the blood and languers of Grand Guignol are, in the long run, just not for me. I simply put these two movies from my mind once I dispensed with them, though I once thought them worth a look. 
"You are losing my interest," the rustling voice interrupted him again, "and that is very dangerous. In a moment I will have forgotten you quite entirely, and will never be able to remember just what I did with you. What I forget not only ceases to exist, but never really existed in the first place." – King Haggard, The Last Unicorn

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