Schalcken the Painter

Plot

The painter Godfried Schalcken sees his true love, Rose, the niece of Gerrit Dou, wedded by contract for a large sum to Vanderhausen of Rotterdam, a strange ghostly figure. Rose begs Schalcken to run off with her, but he is cowardly and ambitious and refuses. The marriage proceeds; Rose later escapes, distraught and starving, but is pursued by her ghostly husband and disappears.

Production

The 70-minute television film was directed and adapted by Leslie Megahey, who accepted the opportunity to oversee Omnibus on condition he could make this film. He shot it in the style of a docudrama with minimal dialogue. Megahey cited the Polish director Walerian Borowczyk's 1971 film Blanche as an influence, as both show a young woman's fate decided by rich men without regard for her feelings. Like the earlier Whistle and I'll Come to You, Schalcken the Painter was listed as an episode of Omnibus, airing on 23 December 1979 in the slot traditionally taken by A Ghost Story for Christmas.

Vincent Price was initially considered for the Narrator but his voice was deemed too camp; Peter Cushing turned down the role as too dark. Charles Gray was cast instead. Arthur Lowe was considered for Gerrit Dou but was unavailable, so Maurice Denham took the role. The sets and atmospheric lighting are based on Vermeer's paintings.

Paintings by Schalcken showing young women holding candles in dark rooms are used throughout, but the final image—a young candlelit woman with a man in the shadowy background drawing his sword—was created for the film in Schalcken's style. Megahey later used the same narrative device of combining historical figures with paintings on the 1987 production Cariani and the Courtesans, which Gray also narrated.