Two Voices

DVR’d and watched the 1979 miniseries Salem’s Lot with the girls over the weekend. They absolutely loved it, fell for the handful of jump-scares, thought the characters entertaining (despite David Soul’s inherit 1970s-ish-ness), remained transfixed for the soap-opera-meets-horror plotline. Me, I though it held up remarkably well, not having seen it in over 35 years. (I blogged about it scaring the absolute bloody hell out of me as a youngling, here.)

Gearing up to watch the final third of it Sunday, I mentioned to my wife in passing, “You know, two actors whose voices I love – I find mesmerizing – are Richard Burton and James Mason.” James Mason plays one of the sinister vampire enablers, “Mr. Straker,” in Salem’s Lot and starred in one of the favorite films of my childhood, Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Following this aimless thought further, I said, “You know, I think once I turn fifty – in fact, the morning of my birthday – I think I’m going to start speaking exactly like James Mason.”

“What – stuffy and pretentious with an English accident?” the lovely Mrs. inquired, pecking away on her iPhone.

Well, maybe. But might I add a small correction: totally awesome with an English accent?!

If I ever get my butt back into the chair at the writer’s desk, the main secondary protagonist and the main secondary antagonist of my next novel will be speaking, in my mind at least, with the rich voices of James Mason and Richard Burton. Their verbal showdowns will be a veritable tennis match of stuffy and pretentious bon mots and ripostes, I tell you! A veritable one!