THE UNMUTUAL PRISONER ARTICLE ARCHIVE
THE PROJECTION ROOM (The Prisoner Compared...)
"THE HOUSE "
"HOUSES
AND VILLAGES: A FURTHER PRISONER COMPARISON"
By Dr Andrew K Shenton
The American
supernatural anthology programme, "Rod Serling’s Night Gallery",
has never been highly acclaimed. Although Skelton and Benson (1) mount a robust
defence of the series, Javna (2) and Gerani and Schulman (3) go so far as to
write that it was panned by the critics, and the view of Brosnan and Nicholls
(4) that Night Gallery came as something of a disappointment after Serling’s
classic "Twilight Zone" is widely held. Nevertheless, the show included
some excellent episodes. One such first season success was "The House",
a twenty-five minute play written by Serling himself and based on a short story
by Andre Maurois. In the drama, a young woman, played by Joanna Pettet, experiences
a recurring dream which features a charming country house. On discovering the
building apparently by accident in real life, she finds it is for sale and immediately
buys it and moves in, despite the fact that she is told that the house is haunted.
When the girl experiences the manifestation for herself, a shocking revelation
emerges…
"The House" was first broadcast in the US on 30th December 1970, some
three years after the initial transmission of the opening episode of "The
Prisoner" in England. The two productions share several important plot
similarities. Perhaps most fundamentally, both deal with a key period in the
life of a displaced person set apart from the rest of society, although the
starting points for the two programmes are quite contrasting. The title sequence
for the British series begins with the hero resigning from his intelligence
post. He is kidnapped and taken to The Village, where he will be incarcerated
for most of the series’ duration. In "The House", however, the
central protagonist, Elaine Latimer, is contemplating leaving the sanatorium
in which she has been recovering from the effects of mental illness. We learn
very little about the circumstances surrounding the protagonists’ arrivals
in these closed communities. In "The Prisoner", whilst it would appear
that the hero’s decision to resign from a major intelligence post has
led to his abduction, the viewer is never told why he left his job. Similarly,
in "The House", the reasons for Elaine’s admission into the
sanatorium are not revealed. Whereas The Prisoner is a reluctant inmate within
the Village, Elaine, in contrast, is not keen to leave the sanatorium and is
apprehensive about life beyond the institution. Both communities may be considered
highly artificial. A press information booklet produced by ITC (5) suggests
that the only fun to be enjoyed in The Village is that which is “manufactured”
(p. 127), whilst Elaine’s doctor tells her, “A sanatorium can be
a pleasant place, but there’s no reality here for you. The reality comes
outside”. Most of the action in "The Prisoner" takes place within
The Village but in "The House" the scenes in the sanatorium are restricted
to the first half of the episode.
Both "The Prisoner" and Elaine Latimer are portrayed as true individuals.
The independence and determination of Number Six have long been celebrated by
fans of "The Prisoner" and, despite the psychological problems that
have clearly dogged her in the recent past, Elaine displays similar characteristics
herself. On leaving the sanatorium, she makes no attempt to contact anyone and
moves into her new house alone. Like The Village in "The Prisoner",
the place in which this house is located is never named. Elaine’s individuality
is recognised by the estate agent, Peugot. Realising that Elaine is different
from other female house buyers, he muses, “You’re a woman who knows
her own mind. If something appeals to you, you follow your instincts. That’s
good. It shows resolve and will”. Even tales that the house is haunted
do not deter Elaine from moving in. Peugot’s attitude to Elaine shifts
somewhat during the course of the programme, however, as he later implies that
it is her susceptibility to suggestion that has led her to believe the house
is haunted.
Neither "The Prisoner" nor Elaine is universally popular among the
people they encounter. The former is variously labelled “disharmonious”
and “unmutual” in "A Change of Mind", and an elderly patient
in the sanatorium takes a strong dislike to Elaine, admitting to a nurse that
she “never cared for the woman”. Skelton and Benson (6) observe
that the characters in "The House" are generally harsh, and this elderly
woman is particularly unpleasant. Elaine’s doctor is also somewhat less
than sympathetic. He listens to her concerns about leaving the sanatorium but
does not offer to extend her stay until her confidence has risen. On the contrary,
he insists that the confronting of anxieties is part of ordinary life. As in
"The Prisoner", it is difficult to determine which of the protagonists
in Serling’s drama can be trusted. When looking round the house, Elaine
quizzes Peugot about why the previous occupants left. Like many of the Villagers
in "The Prisoner", the estate agent is evasive, and he frequently
responds to her questions with more of his own. Ultimately, he discloses that
they, like the owners before them, believed the building to be haunted, although
Peugot himself does not accept their argument. He later treats with similar
scepticism Elaine’s claim that she, too, has experienced hauntings within
the house.
The conclusions of "The Prisoner" and "The House" would
both appear to reveal that the main character of the drama has actually been
responsible for the events affecting them. In the former, Number One is seen
to be The Prisoner himself, whilst in the latter the ghost haunting the house
is shown to be that of Elaine. If an alternative eye-catching title summarising
the seventeen episodes were to be given to "The Prisoner", then "The
Man Who Tortured Himself" would seem an appropriate possibility and, in
the case of "The House", "The Girl Who Haunted Herself"
would be equally suitable. Nevertheless, the fact that the previous owners of
the buildings also experienced hauntings suggests that the manifestations do
not just affect Elaine.
Even after the revelations surrounding the roles of the central characters in
creating the situations that have been witnessed, further surprises await the
viewer. Indeed, in each production the last moments are critical and provide
a final twist. In "The Prisoner", the opening seconds of the title
sequence recur, thereby suggesting that the hero’s kidnapping will take
place again. In "The House", Elaine is disturbed by a knock at her
front door and reaches the entrance just in time to watch her own car leaving
the house, thus repeating events that have already been seen in the episode.
Nevertheless, the mood of the two conclusions is quite different. When the clap
of thunder that accompanies the title sequence of "The Prisoner" is
heard once more, this may be considered a somewhat ominous precursor of the
events to come, yet in "The House" the sunny, airy wholesomeness that
permeates the whole episode is maintained. Much has been made in recent years
of the downbeat and menacing tone of many of the "Night Gallery" stories.
Phillips and Garcia (7) believe that, whereas "The Twilight Zone"“celebrated
mankind, "Night Gallery" reflected the host’s darker nature”
(p. 314). The atmosphere in "The House" is refreshingly light, however.
As Elaine herself comments, she experiences “no apprehension in the dream,
no sense of fear or tension” and, as she approaches the house in her fantasy,
she feels a sense of “peace, of serenity”.
Both resolutions would appear to indicate that the events we have witnessed
will repeat themselves in some sort of perpetual cycle, yet additional oddities
complicate the pattern. In "The Prisoner", the blurring of the fantasy
world of The Village and the real world of London is suggested by the fact that,
as he returns to his home, The Prisoner’s front door opens automatically
in a manner identical to that of his cottage door in The Village. Distinctions
between the dream world and the real world are also unclear in "The House".
As Skelton and Benson (8) note, the dream sequences are always shot in slow
motion until the final scene when, at the very end, it is Elaine, now apparently
awake, who is seen to move in this fashion, whilst the car moving away from
her house is shown in real time. Certainly the “resolutions” of
"The Prisoner" and "The House" may be considered to provide
more questions than answers. The events are merely presented to the viewer and
there is no explanatory scene to follow in which protagonists discuss the significance
of what has happened and thereby offer possible interpretations to the audience.
Skelton and Benson (9) conclude, “the meaning of The House stays just
beyond the viewer’s reach” (p. 64).
"The Prisoner" and "The House" benefit considerably from
multiple viewings and thus form durable drama for the modern DVD age. Gregory
(10) writes, “The Prisoner appears to be an ideal ‘video text’,
as repeated viewings reveal more and more depth in each episode… The series
can be watched, discussed, reassessed and ‘deconstructed’ in the
viewer’s ‘own time’” (p. 184). In each production, there
are several features of the drama that keen fans may use as evidence to construct
their own theories. Viewers may, for example, attach particular importance to
the ghostliness that surrounds certain characters in the "Night Gallery"
story. On meeting Elaine for the first time, Peugot seems simply to materialise
and indeed director John Astin (11) himself explains, “I had him sort
of appearing from the shadows of the trees, sort of drifting in… as though
he himself might have been a spirit” (p. 63). In addition to the baffling
closing scene which would seem to imply that Elaine is a transient figure moving
between the real world and the dream world, there is other evidence to suggest
that the girl may not be quite what she seems. In words that offer an early
indication of Elaine’s otherworldiness, the sanatorium patient who so
dislikes Elaine confides to a nurse that she found her “dreamy…
never walked, just sort of wafted along, like a wood sprite”.
Hora (12), Gregory (13) and O’Brien (14) speculate that the events depicted
in "The Prisoner" may be understood simply as a bad dream. McLean
and Stansfield (15) believe that it may be assumed that The Village “is
a projection of the Prisoner’s own mental turmoil” (p. 10) and similar
ideas may be proposed to rationalise the events in "The House", especially
in view of the fact that it has already been established that Elaine has been
suffering from psychological problems. The painting that Serling shows to the
audience in his opening narration may offer an advance clue. It depicts the
face of the girl who comes to form the main character of the drama and this
image is combined with a representation of the house into which she moves. With
hindsight, the juxtaposition of the two may be thought to suggest that the whole
episode takes place in the protagonist’s mind. In addition, Astin (16)
acknowledges that the way in which the first dream sequence is presented, with
the door to the house opening only as Elaine’s car leaves and the scene
dissolving into a close-up of the actress’s eye, implies “that she’s
the one in the house, that this is all playing out in her head”. Astin
continues, “If you’re looking for a clue to explain the story, that’s
the clue!” (p. 64)
Whilst "The Prisoner" has become a huge cult over the last forty years,
"Rod Serling’s Night Gallery" has remained relatively little
known in Britain. McGoohan’s series has been the subject of several DVD
releases, whereas "Night Gallery" is still to appear in this country.
Nevertheless, a Region One DVD boxed set embracing the pilot film, all the first
season episodes (including "The House") and a few instalments from
the programme’s later seasons was released in 2004.
References
(1) Skelton, S. and Benson, J. Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: an after-hours
tour. Syracuse University Press, 1999.
(2) Javna, J. The best science fiction tv. Titan, 1988.
(3) Gerani, G. and Schulman, P. H. Fantastic television. Harmony, 1977.
(4) Brosnan, J. and Nicholls, P. Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. In: Clute,
J. and Nicholls, P. (eds.) The encyclopedia of science fiction. 2nd ed. Orbit,
1993, pp. 1023-24.
(5) Reproduced in: White, M. and Ali, J. The official Prisoner companion. Sidgwick
and Jackson, 1988, pp. 126-30.
(6) Skelton, S. and Benson, J. op. cit.
(7) Phillips, M. and Garcia, F. Science fiction television series: episode guides,
histories, and casts and credits for 62 prime time shows, 1959 through 1989.
McFarland, 1996.
(8) Skelton, S. and Benson, J. op. cit.
(9) Skelton, S. and Benson, J. op. cit.
(10) Gregory, C. Be seeing you... decoding The Prisoner. University of Luton
Press, 1997.
(11) Quoted in: Skelton, S. and Benson, J. op. cit.
(12) Hora, M. The Prisoner of Portmeirion. 2nd ed. Number Six Publications,
1989.
(13) Gregory, C. op. cit.
(14) O’Brien, D. SF: UK - how British science fiction changed the world.
Reynolds and Hearn, 2000.
(15) McLean, N. and Stansfield, D. The Prisoner program guide. Ontario Educational
Communications Authority, 1976.
(16) Quoted in: Skelton, S. and Benson, J. op. cit.
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