After an, ahem, short break, my series of guest blogs returns. Every Wednesday, I invite a writer to reveal which book, play or movie they wish they’d written. This week, the master of horror that is Johnny Mains offers up a surprising choice…
‘If you die, you’d forget me. I want to be remembered’
It was a rainy day in Kirkcaldy. I was 18 years old and had spent the morning in the indoor market buying ratty paperbacks. Before heading to the supermarket to purchase the obligatory three-litre bottles of cider, I stopped in at one of the town’s many charity shops and decided on buying a few cheap videos for an afternoon session of blood and guts.
But, believe it or not, the shop held no second-hand horror videos and I came away with Zulu and Brief Encounter, choosing the latter due to the fact that it had been written by Noel Coward, a name I recognised from The Italian Job.
Zulu is one of the very first films I can ever remember watching. I can close my eyes and see myself back in the small living room of our farm cottage, aged seven, sitting in front of a roaring fire, glancing at dad, slurping from his cut crystal glass of whiskey and taking a puff from the ever present Regal King Size.
Back at my flat, I decided to save the best for last and, pouring my first glass of cider of the day, shoved on Brief Encounter.
The film, for want of a better word, was devastating. By the time the end credits rolled, I was bawling my eyes out – utterly taken in by the heart-wrenching tale of an ordinary married woman who meets a Doctor.
After their innocent meetings over the course of many weeks, they couple fall madly in love with each other – only for them to part as fast as they got together.
The script has an utterly lyrical feel to it; while clipped and oh-so-very English, it never tries to get one over the viewer. You know what the story is going to be from the very start. Giving you a level of comfort that sucks you in and makes the whole film experience unforgettable.
While the main plot is focused on this pair of people who through circumstance find themselves madly in love, there is a wildy comedic element running through the film. This comes in the shape of the railway tea-shop owner and her ‘is she, isn’t she, well she probably is’ dalliance with the station master. Their playful interaction is an utter joy to watch. She comes across as very prim and proper, despising vulgarity, but when her station manager rescues her from two cheeky army boys, her expressions suggests that there’s going to be wickedness afoot later that evening.
There are problems with the film. You are supposed to believe that two people fall in love in just ten hours spread over the course of three or four weeks. In fact, she falls so violently, when they finally part she runs onto the platform with the intention of throwing herself in front of the express train. But, on the whole, it’s an involving, poignant and beautiful film . Just don’t try and source out the dreadful remake that ‘stars’ Richard Burton and Sophie Loren. Yech!
I watch the original a couple of times a year and still get something new from it each and every time, so yes, if I wish I had written anything, it would have to be the script to Brief Encounter.
Life-long horror fan, Johnny Mains has recently edited Bite Sized Horror, the first in a new series of paperback short story collections from Obverse Books. He also edited Back From the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories and wrote the introduction for the re-issue of the 1959 Pan Book of Horror Stories.
He lives in Norwich with his wife Lou and dog, Biscuit.
