hmlet the signalman
...ight both readers and audiences with its myriad meanings and interpretations. In the words of Ernest Johnson, "the dilemma of Hamlet the Prince and Man" is "to disentangle himself from the temptation to wreak justice for the wrong reasons and in evil passion, and to do what he must do at last for the pure sake of justice.… From that dilemma of wrong feelings and right actions, he ultimately emerges, solving the problem by attaining a proper state of mind." Hamlet endures as the object of universal identification because his central moral dilemma transcends the Elizabethan period, making him a man for all ages. In his difficult struggle to somehow act within a corrupt world and yet maintain his moral integrity, Hamlet ultimately reflects the fate of all human beings. FOR Whilst fresh in its day, Dickens’ story and all it’s narrative permutations seem a little tired and predictable now. What’s important as in any ghost story is the careful creation of mood and atmosphere which bring furtive life to the onscreen events. As is the trademark of the BBC the period recreation is beautifully achieved. The dank, gloomy cutting and its cozy signal box poised on the brim of a gaping pitch black tunnel suggest a place so removed from everyday reality and interaction that anything could happen there. Simple motifs like the steady ticking of a clock, a crackling fire and the darkness steadily encroaching outside have rarely been so expertly handled. The exterior shots of the traveller as he wends his lonely way to and from the inn are also delightfully murky and austere. This attention to detail and environment make many scenes of the piece a shivery indulgence for admirers of this genre. As mentioned previously, whilst the narrative offers no innovation it does still succeed in building a palpable sense of the uncanny and foreboding. The philosophical conversations between the signalman and the traveller yield no answer to what the murky gesturing figure may be or what it wants but it exists nonetheless. As in many great ghost stories and adaptations i.e. “The Woman in Black” the protagonists are overwhelmed by their own profound impotence in being unable to grasp or alter the uncanny events that are unfolding inexorably around them. Denholm Elliot’s harried performance as a man on the borderline of the real and the unreal is perfectly pitched whilst the unnamed traveller who vows to keep him company provides a nice rational balance to the signalman’s increasing nervousness, giving the viewer a character that they can comfortably associate with as events slide into the irrational. As in any ghost story worth its salt there are several well executed scare sequences. The beckoning figure in the mouth of the tunnel is deliciously indistinct (“like a smudge” panellist 2 suggested) whilst the traveller's nightmare at the inn introduces a lovely sharp jolt with an image that has little relevance to Dickens original tale but is shudderingly effective and memorable nonetheless. (You’ll know it when you see it) AGAINST I can’t really find any justifiable criticism regarding the piece itself. It sets out to create an atmosphere of encroaching uneasiness and does it with aplomb. To Dickens purists perhaps some of the narrative events could be seen as superfluous but in the end it doesn’t really matter. The source story has been cannibalized for over a century anyhow with all its permutations spun out in film and literature. Still, courtesy of the sleeve notes I was interested to discover that Dickens wrote the story around a year after being involved in a serious train crash himself in which several people had died. My sole major concern has nothing to do with the piece as a whole but I feel duty bound to mention it. The price of the disc is quite simply prohibitive. 16 quid for a 39 minute film! Yes there is a reading of the original story by John Nettleton but it hardly justifies the retail price. The picture quality is murky and naturally pan and scan (anything from that TV era looks shaky-no one’s at fault for this except the original media) and there are no chapter breaks. I realize it’s a short piece but it still could have benefited from two or three of them slotted in somewhere. I posed the question when I reviewed another BFI release of the same archive TV genre “Whistle and i’ll come to you”-why on earth not simply put two or three of these short releases on a single disc? As “The signalman” stands at the moment it costs out at approx 50 pence per minute which can’t be right. Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the English language. Probably...