The Monkey’s Paw
It was a chance meeting, Mister White bumping into his old acquaintance Sergeant Major Morris, recently returned to Britain after two decades stationed in the Indian sub-continent, naturally followed by an invitation to visit, and so through the unceasing rain to the whitewashed house where warm golden light indicating the comfort and welcome of a simple country home creeps from the shutters he arrives and seats himself.
Prompted to tell stories of his travels by Mrs White, disconcertingly and without detail Morris presents a dried monkey’s paw, claiming that it has the ability to grant three wishes to those who make the request of it but advising that there will be consequences; Mrs White sceptically regarding it a grotesque oddity, Mr White says if their visitor wishes rid of the item he will gladly take it, his son Herbert suggesting later that night they proceed modestly so as not to tempt providence, perhaps a sum of no more than £200.
A short story first published in 1902, it is for The Monkey’s Paw that William Wymark Jacobs is best known, adapted for the stage, radio, film and television both under that name and thematically with versions from Richard Matheson’s Button, Button to The X-Files’ Je Souhaite (“I wish”) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Forever, the broad diversity of interpretations expressing the universal application of the cautionary tale of “be careful what you wish for,” the latest director Ben Caplan’s short film.
Shot in the historic Welsh village of Pen-y-Bont, the cast is small, with Ian Gelder, Mary Keegan and George Rainsford as Mister and Mrs White and their son Herbert alongside Peter Sullivan and Tristram Wymark as their invited and unexpected guests, Sergeant Major Morris, eager to be rid of the monkey’s paw or else why would have borne it with him then brought it up in conversation, and the solicitor Mister Shreeves who regretfully informs the White family of the change in their circumstances.
The specifics and premise familiar through a century of cultural exposure, the first theatrical production having been staged barely a year after publication and with five feature film versions produced by 1948 and more since, there is perhaps little remaining to surprise or shock in the grasp of The Monkey’s Paw so Caplan has instead returned to the original text as published in The Lady of the Barge, Jacob’s collection of stories of suspense, horror, crime and romance.
Co-produced with Hammer Films, the British studio most associated with period costume drama and horror, the dilemma and the tragedy are presented faithfully as it might have been envisioned by the author, performed in soft voices and with appropriately staid pacing, perhaps unexceptional but certainly more than adequate in all it sets out to achieve, a finely crafted traditional literary adaptation which feels no need to add unnecessary expansion, deviation or embellishment.
The Monkey’s Paw will be available on the Arrow platform from Friday 2nd February
