Schalcken the Painter (1979)

Wissenswertes

Schalcken the Painter is a 1979 British television gothic horror film based on the 1839 story Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter by Sheridan Le Fanu, and stars Jeremy Clyde as Godfried Schalcken and Maurice Denham as Gerrit Dou. It aired on the BBC as an episode of Omnibus on 23 December 1979, following in the tradition of A Ghost Story for Christmas.

Production

A fictional tale woven round the lives of actual historic figures, the television film is a 70-minute-long adaptation of Le Fanu's 1839 gothic tale "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken [sic] the Painter", directed and adapted by Leslie Megahey. When Megahey was offered the opportunity to oversee Omnibus, the BBC’s long-running arts documentary series, he accepted on condition that he could make Schalcken the Painter.

Like the earlier Whistle and I'll Come to You, Schalcken the Painter was listed as an episode of Omnibus. It aired on 23 December 1979, filling the slot traditionally taken in previous years by the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas.

The actor Vincent Price was initially considered for the Narrator but it was decided his voice would be "too camp", and Peter Cushing turned down the role as being too dark. Finally the actor Charles Gray was cast. Arthur Lowe of Dad's Army fame was considered for the role of Gerrit Dou, but he was unavailable and the role went instead to Maurice Denham.

The sets and atmospheric lighting used in the film are based on the backgrounds of the paintings by Vermeer. Paintings by Schalcken showing young women holding candles in dark rooms are used throughout the drama, but the final image, again showing a young candlelit woman, but this time with a man in the shadowy background drawing his sword, was created for the film, based on the style of Schalcken.

Megahey subsequently used the same narrative device of combining historical figures with the paintings of the lead subject on the 1987 production Cariani and the Courtesans, which Gray also narrated.

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