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Lair of the White Worm: Chapter VI-VII

posted 21 years ago by BoyScoutKevin
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A.: Hypnosis and a dead mongoose.

Q.: What do the book and film "Lair of the White Worm" have in common?

The villains in both use hypnosis to gain control over their victims. The difference is that in the book, it is Mr. Caswell who uses hypnosis, and in the film it is Lady Marsh (i.e Lady March) who uses hypnosis.

Lady Marsh (i.e. Lady March) kills a mongoose in both. In the film, she very well may have broken the back of the poor creature, but, in the book, she breaks its back by shooting it with a revolver, then empties her gun into it. Which would seem to be overkill, in this case.

[–] pietro008 15 years ago

Later in the novel, Lady March tears a (different) mongoose in half. This scene includes one of the major ommissions from the movie: the racist portrayal of a West African servant named Oolanga, brought by Mr. Caswell. In the scene where Lady March murders Oolanga, she first tears the mongoose in half that Adam Salton (the novel's protagonist) brought with him to her rockhewn chamber, where a suspicious, awful smelling well exists.