Stuff and Moonshine

I forget how it came up, but I saw a reference to The Undying Monster: A Tale of the Fifth Dimension, by Jessie Douglas Kerruish, apparently adapted into a movie in the late 1940s, and found a copy online.

Comparing the novel with the wikipedia summary of the movie version, it sounds as though the latter simplifies the plot (which in the original involves 1920s archeology, Viking mythology and WWI trauma), and leaves out the occult-detective heroine, Miss Luna Bartendale, who is simultaneously glamorous and down-to-earth (she *really* doesn’t believe in seances, though hypnotizing people to unlock hereditary memories is ok) and lives with her aunt who is a classical pianist.

Pdf version here, for anyone interested. (Note— contains mention of swastikas in a pre-nazi “it’s an ancient mystical symbol” kind of way; also some of the characters being of Scandinavian descent is a major plot point, but as far as I can tell the narrative isn’t claiming racial superiority on those grounds)

ETA — Don’t look up the movie first as even cursory descriptions give a plot spoiler for the book.

ETA 2 — Recalled what directed me to this book: a tumblr about pulp fiction, https://maxwell-grant.tumblr.com/

A couple of weeks ago I watched the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider, and want to write about it. I fully understand if you’re not in the mood right now to watch or read about a show with a cop as one of the main heroes, even if the other one is a Black, female, neurodivergent private investigator. There’s also a pretty sympathetic defense lawyer involved. They’re all up against a monster whose MO involves killing innocent children and then framing innocent adults.

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After years of hearing about Sapphire and Steel, I finally got through the first story of the series, up in 18 parts on Youtube. The show ably works around the even-lower-than-Dr.Who effects budget -- it matters not a whit that our heroes are basically battling spooky music, lighting effects and video overlays (and at one point, a wind machine) -- but I'm not sure the story needed to be six episodes long, and the children, Rob and Helen, are a little too realistic, in that they're scared, not always very bright, and get tricked/possessed by the entities thinly disguised as their parents several times each.

I'm trying to headcannon that Rob falls for it the second time because (a) his resistance is wearing down, and (b) the fact he can actually *see* something that looks like his Dad (as opposed to earlier, when it was only his Mum's voice from behind a barred door) is overriding all other warning signs (deathly cold hands, not recalling his sister's name, generally making illogical statements). As for Helen, given that the actress' line readings and expressions didn't always match the situation, I half-suspected she was either mildly developmentally-disabled, or a willing accomplice to the extradimensional entities.

Of course, it's more likely the scriptwriter originally conceived the character as four or five years old, and the casting director picked a seven- or eight-year-old actress to avoid trouble with the labour laws.

I also think this story was probably an influence on Nu-Who's 'Night Terrors' last season; and a quick search confirmed I'm not the only one to see 'Gabriel and Tanith,' villains from the New Adventures novel Falls the Shadow, as basically an evil version of Sapphire and Steel, though visually they probably also owe something to Enlightenment* and Persuasion in 'Four to Doomsday.'

* And, falling sideways, S&S are sort of like benevolent (but still spooky) versions of the Eternals in 'Enlightenment.'