Octave of Claudius by Barry Pain
A Blind Bargain by Philip J. Riley
I must have been a teenager when I first read Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Shelley's Frankenstein and the like. It's been a long time and the brain cells are a lot foggier but I would say that this Barry Pain novel compares fairly well against such works. I often wonder why one piece of art is long remembered and another forgotten. But anyway...
"Claudius" is Claudius Sandell. The "Octave" is the period given to him (eight days) to live freely before he must turn himself over to the insidious Dr. Lamb.
SPOILERS
In Pain story, Lamb finds Claudius penniless and desperate after Claudius has been cast out by his father and all efforts by Claudius to sell his novel have failed. Lamb takes him in and then capitalizes on his gratitude, honor and honesty by offering him eight days with 8 thousand pounds to spend. In return, he must turn his very life over to Lamb. Despondent, Claudius accepts.
As fate would have it, Claudius meets and falls in love with Angela, has his novel accepted, reconciles with his father and even makes a killing on the stock market.
Bound by his honor, Claudius returns to Lamb after the allotted time. Lamb informs him that he plans to use him for an experiment to 'benefit mankind" (where have we heard that one before?).
In the end, Lamb is murdered by his long-abused wife. Claudius and Angela live happily ever after.
This novel was adapted for the screen by J G Hawks as A Blind Bargain. Although the film is lost, a great book has been put together about the film by Philip J. Riley. What follows is from reading his book:
The screenplay diverges from Pain's novel on several points. Mainly,
- Claudius enters the "blind bargain" because Lamb saves his ill mother from death.
- Angela and Claudius have already met
- Lamb has already performed several human experiments
- It is one of these human guinea pigs that does Lamb in.The film starred the incomparable Lon Chaney as both Dr. Lamb and "the hunchback". This is pure speculation on my part, but I would not be surprised if a majority of Chaney scholars would rather this film turn up instead of "London After Midnight". "A Blind Bargain" was one of Chaney's most acclaimed works before "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Phantom of the Opera".
The Riley book is chuck full of goodies. There are enough surviving stills to recreate the storyline in kind of a "graphic novel" format. There is the screen adaptation by Hawks and an un-credited Goldwyn synopsis of the novel used in the screen treatment.
Some additional tidbits:
- what are possibly photos of Wallace Beery as the uncredited "Ape Man" and that Bessie Love may have appeared in deleted scenes (both would go on to work in the 1925 Lost World)
- a collector in Australia reportedly had/has some small amount of lost footage
- parts of the film were hand colorizedOctave of Claudius and A Blind Bargain: two highly recommended books if you can track them down.
written: 10/21/2001
