Famously Algernon Blackwood told some of his stories on live television, but no recordings of these programmes survive. Remarkably, however, two films, made for a tin-pot company, still exist of him doing the same thing in a similar set-up, also shot with multiple cameras. This one is a conventional ghost story about an old woman who learns from a vicar that she has spent the night in a haunted house. Considering Blackwood's reputation as a pioneer horror host, his performance is disappointing. He improvises the rambling story and makes no attempt at characterisation. He often looks at the wrong camera and so there is little intimacy with the viewer. The set and camera-work have no atmosphere. Presumably the two films weren't liked or more would have been made. But how extraordinary that there are records of Blackwood performing and that these are now on British TV. They're currently on the Talking Pictures channel.
