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Current Talk '24 I / Re: Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows
« on: September 18, 2021, 03:06:07 PM »
As I was going through things and planning out future things to share, two thoughts struck me: it's unfortunate that some magazines used a quality of paper that doesn't seem to scan particularly clearly, and more often than I would have liked magazines chose to use a still from the NoDS Editor's Portfolio (which MGM provided with stills and background articles) that, if it was me making the choice, would have been the least likely one I would have chosen. Case in points, this:
It's really quite surprising how often that cemetery shot showed up in prerelease publicity in the various entertainment magazines rather than stills that featured actual stars from the film. Yes, as I've said, it's definitely true that the still of Tracy and Quentin entering the vestibule with their luggage was published more than a dozen times - but the cemetery photo had to come in as a close second. And one has to wonder why? Did the magazines think people might say to themselves, "Oh look, it's a photo of people in a cemetery, let me run to see that film!"? I tend to suspect few people would have. But then there is no getting around that MGM did include the photo in the set, so they had to believe it had some sort of selling point. And it's not even like it's the only cemetery still they used to promote the film because one of the Lobby Cards is a cemetery shot:
But anyway, for what it's worth, here's a much better version of what turned out to be one of the magazines favorite NoDS stills:
(Click here for a 672X543 version)
And if you think about it, the ones who really lucked out were the extras in the still because they got their photo in a lot of national magazines.
It's really quite surprising how often that cemetery shot showed up in prerelease publicity in the various entertainment magazines rather than stills that featured actual stars from the film. Yes, as I've said, it's definitely true that the still of Tracy and Quentin entering the vestibule with their luggage was published more than a dozen times - but the cemetery photo had to come in as a close second. And one has to wonder why? Did the magazines think people might say to themselves, "Oh look, it's a photo of people in a cemetery, let me run to see that film!"? I tend to suspect few people would have. But then there is no getting around that MGM did include the photo in the set, so they had to believe it had some sort of selling point. And it's not even like it's the only cemetery still they used to promote the film because one of the Lobby Cards is a cemetery shot:
But anyway, for what it's worth, here's a much better version of what turned out to be one of the magazines favorite NoDS stills:
(Click here for a 672X543 version)
And if you think about it, the ones who really lucked out were the extras in the still because they got their photo in a lot of national magazines.