Hitchcock's McGuffin story possibly derived from a story about an imaginary mongoose

[Jonathan Lighter]

Robin is correct. I was confusing the original "Sredni Vashtar" with the TV
version broadcast on NBC's _Great Ghost Stories_ in 1961. (Not all the
stories were about ghosts or mongooses.)

JL
On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 9:41 AM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hitchcock's McGuffin story possibly derived from a story
>              about an imaginary mongoose
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>
> > Surely Hitchock, like most literate Britons, knew the difference between
> a
> > mongoose and a McGuffin. (Mongooses figure prominently in both Kipling
> and
> > Saki.) This, even more than the footnote, suggests that he'd heard the
> > story
>
> If you're thinking of "Sredni Vashtar", the creature in question was
> actually, "a large polecat-ferret, which a friendly butcher-boy had once
> smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters."
>
> The first google hit on <saki mongoose> does, however, mistakenly reference
> this story: "Talking animals are trouble with a capital T.   If you've
> never
> read Saki's mongoose tale "Sredni Vashtar" you might as well read it now.
> ... "  (The bloody animal doesn't talk either, though Conradin talks to it
> obsessively.)
>
> Both Saki and Kipling were, of course, afflicted by aunts, one of whom
> figures in this Saki story.
>
> (If for nothing else, Saki deserves immortality for his final words,
> uttered
> in the dying days of the Great Patriotic War, "Put out that bloody
> cigarette."  He had joined up as Other Ranks, suggesting that the class
> loyalty expressed in his stories was as ambiguously complex as was
> Kipling's.  I always thought of him as a bit like his own Unbearable
> Bassington.)
>
> Despite that above caveat, I think Jon's point substantively stands --
> unlikely that Hitchcock, given his background, would confuse a mongoose
> with
> a M'Guffin.
>
> Robin
>
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