PRIVATE LIVES : HOME VIDEO : No Blarney--Welles’ ‘Ghost Story’ Exists

‘Orson Welles’ Ghost Story” is a haunting example of how home video has be come the legacy format for rediscovered cinematic treasures.

This 30-minute program from MPI Home Video is the restored version of “Return to Glennascaul,” a lyrical “story that is told in Dublin,” retitled for video to capitalize on Welles’ participation. It was nominated for a 1953 Academy Award for best short subject and disappeared from view after scant distribution.

According to a filmed introduction by director--and Welles biographer--Peter Bogdanovich, this little-known project apparently was a debt of friendship to the short’s creators, Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, founders of Dublin’s Gate Theater, where Welles made his professional stage debut at 16.

Welles narrates and appears as himself in sequences that frame the story. He introduces himself as “your obedient servant” and proceeds to recount a ghost story he was told when he picked up a stranded motorist one night.

MPI acquired the rights to “Return to Glennascaul” from Richard Gordon, best known as the producer of the horror cult classic “Fiend Without a Face” and the Boris Karloff thrillers “Corridors of Blood” and “The Haunted Strangler.” In a telephone interview, Gordon said that he found the film by chance through a friend who was a distributor in Dublin, Ireland. Together with London’s British Film Institute, he restored the film and has shown it at film festivals around the world and in the “odd theatrical booking.”

But if there is a market for a virtually forgotten four-decade-old short subject, it is on videocassette, said Nasar Zegar, MPI’s director of operations

“It is the medium that makes sense for this type of programming,” Zegar says. “We can reach a widespread audience without relying on television or theatrical distribution.”

The release of “Orson Welles’ Ghost Story” follows the highly touted restorations of Welles’ “Othello” and the long-lost unfinished documentary “It’s All True,” both of which are available on videocassette.

“Return to Glennascaul” is notable because it is a completed work, said director Henry Jaglom, one of Welles’ closest friends. “I’m just glad that people will be seeing a little bit more of him and his wonderful, inspired mind,” he said.

“Orson Welles’ Ghost Story” is available at video stores or by calling (800) 323-0442.