"THE WOODEN GHOST": A RADIO PLAY

OF LE FANU'S "SCHALKEN THE PAINTER"

by Jim Rockhill

(ISSN 1932-9598)

    'The Wooden Ghost" is a 26-minute radio drama first broadcast on December 3, 1944 as the 53rd of 78 episodes from The Weird Circle (1943-1947).  It is an extremely odd yet not uninteresting reinterpretation of Le Fanu, which bears only the most superficial resemblance to its model in terms of plot, mood, and motivation—basing the nature of its apparition upon Rose Velderkaust’s remark about being frightened by a statue in the church at Rotterdam:

    “Do you know, uncle,” said Rose, “when I saw him standing at the door, I could not get it out of my head that I saw the old, painted, wooden figure that used to frighten me so much in the church of St. Laurence of Rotterdam.”  [“Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter” (Dublin University Magazine, May 1839)]

    Contrary to the tale, whose narrator states “I have no sentimental scenes to describe, no cruelty of guardians, or magnanimity of wards, or agonies of lovers. The record I have to make is one of sordidness, levity, and interest,” this is very much a sentimental tale, from which sordidness has been carefully excised. In this adaptation, the statue of Minheer Vanderhausen has been courting Miss Velderkaust sub rosa ever since first seeing her in church and noting her likeness to the beautiful woman who had done him wrong centuries in the past.  If only this young lady would tell him she loves him, the betrayal of her grandmother several-times-removed would no longer weigh upon his breast, and he could know peace at last. This is not the same peace Vanderhausen seeks from Rose in the original, nor would it share the same spelling.

    Thus far, attempts to locate writing and casting credits for this dramatization have been unsuccessful, mercifully so when one considers that the plot creaks as much as its ghost; the actress playing Rose makes no effort to sound like a naïve young lady of barely 18 years instead of a brash cosmopolitan of at least 30; and the actor playing Gerard Douw makes Laurence Olivier’s performance as the father in the 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer seem dignified and restrained.