Writing for Fun
July 2017
Déjà Vu - Jeanette Rothwell
The long driveway stretched before them leading to a large house whose facade was almost obliterated by Ivy making it look dark and unwelcoming. However, Jan and her husband were on a coach trip to view the house which had a lot of history and ornate rooms to see. The official guide met their group at the door and they were led through endless corridors, overly decorated bedrooms, lounges full of antique furniture, porcelain, silver, enormous paintings of ancestors, silk covered couches, woven carpets, crystal chandeliers, all of which had to be explained by the rather enthusiastic guide until their heads were spinning and they all longed for a cup of coffee and a sit down.
The tour finished in the main hall, a vast area with a staircase on either side. The Guide stopped in the middle and began to give them details of the paintings adorning the walls. Jan glanced around the hall and suddenly froze, overcome with a strong feeling of Déjà vu. Looking up one of the staircases to the rather ornate banister, she saw a hairy hand on the railing, slowly descending. The hand belonged to an elderly gentleman, in smart livery, obviously an employee of the House, but it was the hairy hand on the banister that had caught her attention.
She was transported back to a time when she was about 9 year old, sitting in a very run down cinema, by herself, watching a film entitled ‘The Old Dark House’. Her mother had left her there, watched over by the cinema management, while she sloped off to meet her boy-friend who was in the RAF. Her mum and dad were separated and this boy-friend had been around for a while. She and Jan lived with Jan’s Grandmother who heartily disapproved of the boy-friend, hence the deception. The film was designated a horror movie and in one of the scenes there was a hairy hand slowly descending down the banister.
‘Come on, Jan,’ urged her husband ‘We are going to be left behind if we don’t hurry up.’
She gave herself a shake and they both left the house, emerged into the sunshine and on to the coach. On the journey home, Jan told her husband about her Déjà vu experience and he laughed and suggested that they get hold of the film and watch it so that she could dispel her uncomfortable memory of it.
A few days later, after some research on the internet, the DVD of ‘The Old Dark House’ arrived and after dinner, they settled down to watch it. The film starred Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas and Charles Laughton and was based on the novel by J.B. Priestley. The film was made in 1932.
Caught in a violent storm whilst journeying through a remote region of Wales, five travellers take refuge in a sinister mansion inhabited by the grotesque, and quite possibly insane Femm family. The guests try to make the best of it but they hadn’t reckoned on Morgan, (Boris Karloff) the brutish and disfigured manservant, drinking too much and letting loose the fourth member of the family – Saul, the psychotic brother with a history of pyromania. One of the travellers, an attractive woman, changes out of her wet clothes into a rather diaphanous evening gown revealing a great deal of flesh much to Morgan’s delight who lusts after her. In reality such a dress would almost certainly have led to pneumonia in such a house with no electricity, only candles and one fire in the living room.
The hairy hand (the camera zoomed in on it) belonged to the mad brother, Saul, who crept down the stairs having escaped from his locked room while the rest of the cast battled with crashing doors, breaking windows and freezing temperatures. After various fights and broken banisters, the mad brother is knocked out and Morgan carries him tenderly back up to his room. The wild night is over, dawn is breaking and they all go their separate ways, vowing never to return.
Such a film could well have influenced a young girl years ago, but in the cynical eyes of today’s viewers it really was rather funny.
