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Return to Glennascaul
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Wikipedia article
'Return to Glennascaul', also known as 'Orson Welles' Ghost Story', is a 1951 short film starring Orson Welles. It was written and directed by Hilton Edwards, produced by Michel Mac Liammir for Dublin Gate Theatre Productions and distributed by Arthur Mayer.
The plot is derived from the ubiquitous story of the vanishing hitchhiker. It is similar to Lucille Fletcher's original radio play, 'The Hitch-Hiker,' which was first performed in 1941 on 'The Orson Welles Show' starring Welles as the spooked driver.
Plot summary
Welles, playing himself taking a break from the filming of 'Othello', is driving in the Irish countryside one night when he offers a ride to a man with car trouble. The man relates a strange event that happened to him at the same location. Two women flagged down his car one evening, asking for a ride back to their manor. They invited him in for a drink. The daughter, Lucy Campbell, was apparently the long lost love of the mans uncle by the inscription read in the cigarette case she admired. After leaving, he went back for his cigarette case. He found the manor deserted and decayed. In Dublin, a real estate broker told him the mother and daughter had died years ago. Welles, sufficiently spooked, drops the man off at his home and leaves in a hurry when the man asks him in for 'a cup of tea or something stronger' as the ghostly women had earlier invited him into Glennascaul. As Welles drives off he passes two other stranded women who wave for a ride, flesh and blood women who recognize the famous actor behind the wheel.
Awards
The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject.
Releases
This film is only 23 minutes long and is an extra on the recently released reissued DVD of Welles' 'Othello'. It was also released as 'Orson Welles' Ghost Story'.
References
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