Evidence that Chabrol's television work is ripe for (re)discovery. "De Grey," appearing the same year as Rohmer's "The Marquise of O," could be a tip of the hat to Chabrol's old friend, the closest they came to meeting on common ground. James' story, one of his earliest, is an awkward attempt to imitate one of his acknowledged masters, Nathaniel Hawthorne. By removing the story's varnish of borrowed style and making the shrinking-violet heroine more assertive, Chabrol reveals surprising affinities with his own and James' later work. If the superstitious priest anticipates the governess in "The Turn of the Screw," the resolution echoes that of Chabrol's earlier "Le boucher." And he preserves James' final ambiguity: was it really a rivalry with De Grey over an Italian girl that drove Mr. Herbert to the priesthood, or was it his thwarted love for De Grey himself (and if so, did he transfer his fatal attraction to the son)? The two masters would spend their careers parsing such enigmas.
For further investigation: Chabrol's adaptation of one of James' last and densest stories, "The Bench of Desolation."
For further investigation: Chabrol's adaptation of one of James' last and densest stories, "The Bench of Desolation."