Return to Glennascaul: A Story That is Told in Dublin will be included in the British Film Institute’s upcoming Short Sharp Shocks Vol. 3 Blu-ray in the UK on October 9.
The Oscar-nominated 23-minute short from Gate Theatre co-founder Hilton Edwards and stars Orson Welles as himself. Both men were working on Othello at the time. In the short, Welles is driving through the countryside and offers a ride to a stranded motorist (Michael Laurence). The motorist tells Welles of his recent encounter with a mother and daughter (Shelah Richards and Helena Hughes) and an abandoned old manor.
The BFI kicked off its Short Sharp Shocks in 2020 and the second volume followed in 2021. The shorts are a combination of ghost stories and cult curios.
Return to Glennascaul has been available in the U.S. on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection’s Othello set.
Sometimes billed as Orson Welles’ Ghost Story, Return to Glennascaul was written and directed by Edwards, and produced by partner Micheál Mac Liammóir for Dublin Gate Theatre Productions. It was distributed by Arthur Mayer.
Return to Glennascaul was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short, but lost out to Walt Disney’s Bear Country.
An earlier, standard definition of Return to Glennascaul with an introduction by Peter Bogdanovich can be found online at youtube.com/watch?v=w6r-GGsbm_k
(Thanks to Michael Hinerman for the tip on this BFI release).
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