Ogdred Weary
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I'm pretty indifferent to the trailer, not sure what I make of this being turned into a movie, it always vastly simplifies and often cheapens things.
Nandor Fodor & The Talking Mongoose Movie
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Ogdred Weary
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We're looking forward to it!
There's an attractive air of humorous scepticism which feels right.
In the trailer at last it feels like a pisstake.
escargot
Disciple of Marduk
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Well, yeah.
All I've seen is the trailer, like everyone else, and I haven't read up on the actual events.
However, I'll make the prediction that the plot involves the cast chasing Gef all round the island, with many jolly japes along the way, but never quite catching him up.
After they leave, the elusive mongoose is seen in all his glory sitting upright on a gatepost before the setting sun, giggling.
I'm off to the bookies with that.
catseye
Old lady trouser-smell with yesterday's knickers
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If it is, what's the betting it's really a ferret?After they leave, the elusive mongoose is seen in all his glory sitting upright on a gatepost before the setting sun, giggling.
I'm off to the bookies with that.
Ogdred Weary
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I think Gef was actually described as being weasel or ferret like, despite his name.
escargot
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Nope, I'm going with an actual talking mongoose.
The twist is that he does exist and has been up to mischief, running rings round the experts and making fools of everyone who turned up to look into him.
Ogdred Weary
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Well, yeah.
All I've seen is the trailer, like everyone else, and I haven't read up on the actual events.
However, I'll make the prediction that the plot involves the cast chasing Gef all round the island, with many jolly japes along the way, but never quite catching him up.
After they leave, the elusive mongoose is seen in all his glory sitting upright on a gatepost before the setting sun, giggling.
I'm off to the bookies with that.
GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!
escargot
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sherbetbizarre
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escargot
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He also had human hands.
The man who bought the farm on the Irvings' departure claimed to have shot Gef, which you'd think was unlikely as Gef claimed to be a spirit.
catseye
Old lady trouser-smell with yesterday's knickers
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escargot
Disciple of Marduk
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He produced a photo of what he claimed was a deceased Gef but which was the wrong colour.
staticgirl
Abominable Snowman
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Just watched it. I was surprised to find a lump in my throat near the end. It was quite a humane little film and not really about Gef at all. About people grieving and friendship. Gef was ace though.
lordmongrove
Justified & Ancient
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The review i wrote for FT.
Forteana is a ripe source for film. I recall chatting to Ashley Thorpe, director and writer of the 2017 Borley Rectory film and mentioning that I thought it was amazing that nobody had made a film about Gef the Talking Mongoose, the poster boy for forteana. He told me that he had heard that it was 'on the cards'.
Well I was excited. The Gef saga is one of the greatest cases in the annals of the weird and it would make a terrific film. And at last it rolled round and at last I saw it.
I've seen many things I love cheapened and bastardized on screen in recent years. Doctor Who ,Marvel and DC comics and films, the Witcher books and the works of Tolkien have all been ruined, However Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose was a whole different level, as it was based, allegedly, on real events, not that you would know it form the film itself.
Written and directed by Adam Sigal the film bares only scant relationship with the actual story. If Nandor Fodor were still alive he would sue as the film portrays his as a violent alcoholic. In scene he drunkenly invades Cashen's Gap in the wee small hours threatening to knock a barn down with a sledgehammer.
I knew things were amiss when the writer couldn't even get the Irving family dog's name right. He called her Ralph rather than Mona. But that was not the first strike. Ghost hunter harry Price is turned into an American played by Christopher Lloyd. I've always despised the way Hollywood changes British characters into Americans, even changing historic fats to place themselves from and centre.
Non-existent character sare introduced. In the film the Irvings have a farm worker called Errol (something that they could never have afforded). Another invention is pub landlord Maurice who saw Gef and heard him sing at his wife's funeral. The story of Gef is astounding enough as it stands without such nonsense muddying the waters. Why couldn't Sigal just have told the story as it stands?
As for the Irvings, they are glossed over. Margaret, whom Gef called 'the Voodoo Woman'with her otherworldly aura is just a simpering housewife who bakes cakes. Vorriey is shown to be a ventriloquist but nothing more is made of her character. Foder concluded that Gef was a 'split off part of Jim Irving's personality that had possessed a real mongoose'.But nothing is made of it. For the record I think he was a gestalt thought form created by the family.
Cashen's Gap itself is shown as a cheery place not the the dark, dilapidated, isolated atmospheric house it actually was. It wasn't even filmed in the Isle of Man. The bleak beauty of the island is sorely missing from the film.
And as for Gef himself, when he finally turns up, he is shown to be an African banded mongoose, nothing like Gef who claimed to be from India.
This was the worst kind of missed opportunity. It could have been so great, it could have told the actual story of the Dalby Spook but it is a parade of forgettable rubbish. The question is why? If you can't do it properly why do it at all?
What next, a bio-pic of Ivan.T.Sanderson where in he rums a small DIY shop in Rotherham? A film about Aleister Crowley preforming his Ritual of Abermelin the Mage at the boating lake in Wicksteed Park?
Ihope dear old Gef gets a proper film or TV series one day. In the meantime I also hope the old lad nips over to Hollywood to give Adam Sigal a punch up the hooter.
0/10
Forteana is a ripe source for film. I recall chatting to Ashley Thorpe, director and writer of the 2017 Borley Rectory film and mentioning that I thought it was amazing that nobody had made a film about Gef the Talking Mongoose, the poster boy for forteana. He told me that he had heard that it was 'on the cards'.
Well I was excited. The Gef saga is one of the greatest cases in the annals of the weird and it would make a terrific film. And at last it rolled round and at last I saw it.
I've seen many things I love cheapened and bastardized on screen in recent years. Doctor Who ,Marvel and DC comics and films, the Witcher books and the works of Tolkien have all been ruined, However Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose was a whole different level, as it was based, allegedly, on real events, not that you would know it form the film itself.
Written and directed by Adam Sigal the film bares only scant relationship with the actual story. If Nandor Fodor were still alive he would sue as the film portrays his as a violent alcoholic. In scene he drunkenly invades Cashen's Gap in the wee small hours threatening to knock a barn down with a sledgehammer.
I knew things were amiss when the writer couldn't even get the Irving family dog's name right. He called her Ralph rather than Mona. But that was not the first strike. Ghost hunter harry Price is turned into an American played by Christopher Lloyd. I've always despised the way Hollywood changes British characters into Americans, even changing historic fats to place themselves from and centre.
Non-existent character sare introduced. In the film the Irvings have a farm worker called Errol (something that they could never have afforded). Another invention is pub landlord Maurice who saw Gef and heard him sing at his wife's funeral. The story of Gef is astounding enough as it stands without such nonsense muddying the waters. Why couldn't Sigal just have told the story as it stands?
As for the Irvings, they are glossed over. Margaret, whom Gef called 'the Voodoo Woman'with her otherworldly aura is just a simpering housewife who bakes cakes. Vorriey is shown to be a ventriloquist but nothing more is made of her character. Foder concluded that Gef was a 'split off part of Jim Irving's personality that had possessed a real mongoose'.But nothing is made of it. For the record I think he was a gestalt thought form created by the family.
Cashen's Gap itself is shown as a cheery place not the the dark, dilapidated, isolated atmospheric house it actually was. It wasn't even filmed in the Isle of Man. The bleak beauty of the island is sorely missing from the film.
And as for Gef himself, when he finally turns up, he is shown to be an African banded mongoose, nothing like Gef who claimed to be from India.
This was the worst kind of missed opportunity. It could have been so great, it could have told the actual story of the Dalby Spook but it is a parade of forgettable rubbish. The question is why? If you can't do it properly why do it at all?
What next, a bio-pic of Ivan.T.Sanderson where in he rums a small DIY shop in Rotherham? A film about Aleister Crowley preforming his Ritual of Abermelin the Mage at the boating lake in Wicksteed Park?
Ihope dear old Gef gets a proper film or TV series one day. In the meantime I also hope the old lad nips over to Hollywood to give Adam Sigal a punch up the hooter.
0/10
Analogue Boy
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As I said on the proper thread, I rather enjoyed this, especially as it appeared on the 50th anniversary of the FT. For those who were expecting a fully accurate documentary depicting the events in minuscule detail, the casting of Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Paul Kaye should have provided a clue that this was not going to be the definitive exploration of the ‘honest’ events they may have hoped for.
There’s so little Fortean stuff about, so personally I’d say this sort of thing is to be applauded and encouraged.
Let’s be honest, the FT has been milking Gef for column inches as a distraction from the endless retelling of the Tales of Great Uncle Aleister Crowley and we’re really going to be no wiser than when it all started.
Positives. Paul Kaye looning about. Minnie Driver making the best of her role as the Assistant and Simon Pegg possibly trying on an accent for another actor. Technically, it looked good - the lighting was really well done as was the location which gave a sense of time and place. Neil Gaiman’s strange voice over as Gef. Christopher LLoyd as Harry Price - yeah I get that but overseas, he would be a name to ping people’s interest.
I see the problem those close to the subject may have but as a piece of entertainment, taken at face value, I liked it. I liked the fact that what could have been an over-the-top comedy CGI mongoose romp retained a base of somewhat dark glimpses of sinster utterings of what goes on behind the veil and pleas of scratches on the skin as at least some sort of proof.
Get over yourselves and just be glad there’s still someone putting Fortean stuff out there in a mainstream format.
Coming up next* - What’s the deal with all those historic paintings of three men in a tavern and what does it have to do with Last of the Summer Wine?
*See also - ‘Bagpuss. A critical examination of The Soviet Ideal.’
There’s so little Fortean stuff about, so personally I’d say this sort of thing is to be applauded and encouraged.
Let’s be honest, the FT has been milking Gef for column inches as a distraction from the endless retelling of the Tales of Great Uncle Aleister Crowley and we’re really going to be no wiser than when it all started.
Positives. Paul Kaye looning about. Minnie Driver making the best of her role as the Assistant and Simon Pegg possibly trying on an accent for another actor. Technically, it looked good - the lighting was really well done as was the location which gave a sense of time and place. Neil Gaiman’s strange voice over as Gef. Christopher LLoyd as Harry Price - yeah I get that but overseas, he would be a name to ping people’s interest.
I see the problem those close to the subject may have but as a piece of entertainment, taken at face value, I liked it. I liked the fact that what could have been an over-the-top comedy CGI mongoose romp retained a base of somewhat dark glimpses of sinster utterings of what goes on behind the veil and pleas of scratches on the skin as at least some sort of proof.
Get over yourselves and just be glad there’s still someone putting Fortean stuff out there in a mainstream format.
Coming up next* - What’s the deal with all those historic paintings of three men in a tavern and what does it have to do with Last of the Summer Wine?
*See also - ‘Bagpuss. A critical examination of The Soviet Ideal.’