FairyTale: A True Story

Two children in 1917 take a photograph, believed by some to be the first scientific evidence of the existence of fairies. Based on a true story.

• Director:Charles Sturridge
• Genre:Drama | Family | Fantasy | Mystery
• Runtime:99 minutes

Cast

Harvey Keitel : Harry Houdini
Jason Salkey : James Collins
Peter O’Toole : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Lara Morgan : Jean Doyle
Adam Franks : Adrian Doyle

Early 20th Century England was a time and place ripe for believing, both in scientific advancements such as electric light and photography, and in anomalous phenomena of all kinds. At the time, many people believed that such phenomena could be investigated dispassionately and tested with the standard scientific (empirical) method.

The film follows several people with their particular beliefs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wants to see more evidence, while his friend Harry Houdini believes that it is all trickery and fraud. In Yorkshire, Polly Wright is in deep mourning for her son Joseph, a gifted artist who died at the age of ten. Her husband Arthur is devoted to her and to twelve-year-old daughter Elsie, and worries about her future; soon, she will have to quit school and go to work in the local factory. Elsie keeps Joseph’s scrapbooks, model furniture, homemade costumes and fantastic fairy-houses. Cousin Frances, recently arrived from abroad, believes her father, missing in action in World War I, will return.

As Polly attends meetings of the Theosophical Society to find out what they have to say about the next life, the little girls play at a nearby brook, where they occasionally see actual fairies. Subsequently, they borrow Arthur’s camera and produce two photographs of themselves which apparently include fairies. These were meant only as gifts to Polly, but she immediately takes them to Theosophist lecturer E.L. Gardner, who has them analyzed by a professional. The photos are pronounced genuine, or at least devoid of tricks. That young children could be capable of photographic fraud is viewed by all the adults as extremely unlikely, and Conan-Doyle himself arrives at the girls’ home with Houdini, Gardner and two new cameras. Abetted by the buffoonish Gardner, Elsie and Frances soon come up with two more photos and Conan-Doyle has the story published in The Strand. By way of apology to the fairies, the girls finish Joseph’s last fairy-house and leave it in the forest as a gift. Read more

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