Monday, November 3, 2014

Cummins and Goings



With her relative fizzed by a morlock
(Who's the hell-spawn of wizard or warlock)
Peggy's seeking revenge
Round the peaks of Stonehenge
Like that fellow on business from Porlock.

David Cairns

Peggy Cummins is Joanna Harrington, whose uncle is electrocuted while fleeing the demon in Curse/Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur; 1957). From David Cairns: "As poetry-lovers, you must know that Night of the Demon quotes Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Coleridge himself was plagued not by a "frightful fiend" but by a "person on business from Porlock" who interrupted his creative process and caused him to lose the thread of his poem Kubla Khan, which had come to him in a dream but will now be forever unfinished. It may be stretching a point to say that Peggy Cummins' character (above) interrupts the satanic Professor Karlswell's "great work" in a similar way..."

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