Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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The Signalman (1976)Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark
Between the years of 1971 and 1978 the BBC ran a very popular TV series called A Ghost Story For Christmas. It was an unusual series in as much that it aired only one episode a year. The ghost story offered in 1976 was The Signalman and I am very glad to say that it is now available on DVD. The Signalman is based on a short story written by Charles Dickens which you can read online by clicking HERE A traveller is out walking when he arrives at a railway embankment. He looks down and sees a signalman who is standing, transfixed, and looking towards the railway tunnel. "Hello, below there," he calls to the signalman and asks if there is path that he might use to come down and speak with him. The signalman points him in the right direction and the traveller makes his way down, only to find that the signalman seems strangely nervous of him. The signalman has mistaken the traveller for someone else, but once he realizes his mistake the two men strike up a friendship and the signalman invites his companion into the signal box and makes him a cup of tea. The signalman is obviously an intelligent man and very competent at his job, but he seems strangely haunted. Although he is reluctant to discuss the nature of his problem the signalman agrees that he will explain everything to the traveller if he returns the following evening. He is most insistent however, that his friend does not call out. The signalman is indeed being haunted, by a spectre that calls out to him and causes the little warning bell in his box to ring. Once the traveller knows the nature of the signalman's problem he is sure that there is a rational explanation. Then the signalman explains that the spectre's appearance always precedes a calamity or disaster on the line. The Signalman is one of my favourite ghost stories.
With a runtime of only 40 minutes it is not a long film, but it is truly
chilling and sometimes the best things really do come in small
packages. Denholm Elliott gives a sterling
performance as the haunted signalman, and Bernard Lloyd is very good as
the traveller, who is sympathetic to his new friend's problem but tries to
keep a rational mind and be the voice of reason. There are other
characters in the film, but they mainly come into play in the flashback
sequences where the signalman narrates the accidents and deaths that have
occurred on the line. Then there is the spectre and it is startling enough
to send a shiver down the spine of even the most hardened of viewers.
Extras:
CAST Denholm Elliott ... The
Signalman Reginald Jessup ... The Engine
Driver
DVD Information:
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John
Nettleton reads Dickens' original story.