Discuss - Ep #0993

[Watching Project]

Robservations #993

(This is the first ep that was taped concurrently with the shooting of hoDS - though it is not the first ep we've watched that was taped concurrently with the shooting. For more details, check out:

]1970PT Watching Project Addendum

)

[Lydia]

I don't like Paula Laurence's performance as Hannah Stokes.  I want to like it, but I see it as over the top, spilling right over into camp.  I suppose John Harkins was exaggerated as Horace Gladstone today, but I saw him as creating atmosphere, not camp.  There's sincerity there, whereas Paula Laurence is enjoying herself too much.  Or anyway, that's how I see it.  It's interesting how enormously opinions can vary as to the quality of a performance.

I think it would have been thoughtful of Quentin to give Alexis a room that was a little further away from Angelique's rather than just across the hall, but this Quentin is not known for his thoughtfulness.

I've been puzzling over why there would be a black and white photograph hanging on the wall just outside Angelique's room, when everything in parallel time is supposed to be so colorful.  Of course the same photograph is on that wall in our time (in fact, when we first came to parallel time, I think it was still hanging crookedly in parallel time the way it is in our time), but that doesn't explain anything in the Dark Shadows universe.  But today I finally came up with a satisfactory answer: Angelique wanted a contrast between the hall and her room, to augment the feeling of stepping into a paradise of bright colors when one entered her room.  It's all for effect.

[Janet the Wicked]

Kudos to Mr. Selby for carrying the show while his fellow actors were off shooting HODS. Kudos, I say. Can you imagine working every day, trying to remember script after script, line after line? You gotta give this guy credit. But then, who could expect less from Mr. Selby? He’s never been anything more than a consummate actor. And he’s a nice guy.

All right. Now for the wicked stuff. Gladstone. He looks more like an unpolished stone. I’m sorry. But this guy gives me the creeps. Nothing against the man playing the part, and maybe he is purposely coming across as a major slime ball, but he totally creeps me out. I picture this guy living with his elderly mother, sitting in a ratty old recliner with a bowl of Jello pudding in his lap – one of those ugly-ass Rubbermaid plastic bowls they made in the 70’s. He’s using a serving spoon instead of a dessert spoon and shoveling it in like he’s been in Ethiopia for four years. And is there really any sense in speaking about his spray-on hair? Gad, that man is a slug. Brrr! Gives me the willies, to quote my fave actor in another episode.

Um… I need a Hoffman fix….

[Gothick]

Hey Janet,

Alas! Alack! No more Hoffman for at least a month.  Collinwood just isn't the same without her vinegary smiles and barely smothered smirks.  Talk about a Domestic Goddess!

John Harkins, who played Horace Gladstone, was one of the most chameleon-like character actors I have ever seen.  He also appeared as Lieutenant Costa (I think only for two episodes) during the 1967 Laura Collins storyline, Mr. Strak in the Leviathans story, and perhaps his best-loved (?) role among fans, the infamous Garth Blackwood, Master of Dartmoor.

Lieutenant Costa is I think the most like John Harkins must have been in regular life, and if I had a picture of him to show you, you could see how completely he changed his appearance, bearing, and body language for the extremely sleazy role of Gladstone.  Love your image of Gladstone at home on the ratty armchair scarfing down the Jello in one of this hideous plastic bowls.  Brilliant!

G.

[Gothick]

I did find Paula Laurence as Aunt Hannah growing on me as she got more into the role.  Her line readings initially seem a tip of the wiglet to Agnes Moorehead's Endora.

Paula Laurence was a personal friend of Sam and Grayson.  I don't know whether that had anything to do with the casting.  Sometimes personal friends of cast members wound up on the show because it was the last minute and a role had somehow not been cast.  These stories make one wonder just how casting on the series was supposed to be handled.

It seems too as if many of the regular players worked without contracts, which I would have thought would have been against union rules even back then for AFTRA members.

G.

[Janet the Wicked]

He played Garth Blackwood? Wow. Thanks for the info. I did not know that.

A month is seriously too long to wait to see Grayson Hall again. She is the empress of PT time.

[MagnusTrask]

Sabrina's a transforming monster's main squeeze in two universes.   Bruno's sheet music has an evil post-it attached to it.   Nice to see Q terrorized and nearly driven out of his mansion by a ghost.  And that's all I got.

[Taeylor Collins]

4/15/70

Written By: Joe Caldwell
Directed By: Henry Kaplan

I have to wonder whose coffin Barnabas borrowed??  Did he and Carolyn go to Coffin’s ‘R’ US?  Paul Laurence voice over is a bit over the top for me.

Again I love the look of the sets etc. as they are very different from RT making one feel is if they are truly in a different world.  It's good to see the Cyrus storyline go forward as I really enjoy CP in this role.  It was truly a great way to interlock all of the characters by having Sabrina's attack to cause her to insist a seance be held and I have to give kudos to the writers.  LOL  Paula Laurence scream was great.  The fake blood has to be plastic as it's very fake looking.  HEE!  Finally Quentin is a believer???

I also have to give kudos to David for carrying the show. He did a wonderful job although he is annoying Selby daily is one of the highlights for me in this storyline!

Does Bruno know any other freaking song?? UGH!  [spoiler]Mr. Edwards looks like he raided Mr. Furley's (Three's Company) closet!  Quentin must really be scared to let Amy stay at Loomis House.  Hasn't it been quite a while since we have seen the basement??  Perhaps since the first episodes!??  The Damian fade out was nicely done![/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

 It was truly a great way to interlock all of the characters by having Sabrina's attack to cause her to insist a seance be held and I have to give kudos to the writers.  LOL  

Sincere kudos, not?   Anyway, I hadn't looked at it that way.   Maybe all the characters needed to be "connected" more...

[Taeylor Collins]

Sorry that may have been confusing.  The LOL was for Paula L's scream!!   I thought it was a good way to connect the characters.

[loril54]

Can you imagine working every day, trying to remember script after script, line after line? You gotta give this guy credit. But then, who could expect less from Mr. Selby? He's never been anything more than a consummate actor. And He's a nice guy.

Jonathan did the show for many many days, but carrying the show can be a challenge

Alas! Alack! No more Hoffman for at least a month.  Collinwood just isn't the same without her vinegary smiles and barely smothered smirks.  Talk about a Domestic Goddess!

I do miss Grayson, she does give the sparkle to the show.

I also wonder what the back line story between Sabrina and Cyrus is. It would
be nice to know. Always hearing how Angelique affected people, it make me think of
someone who today would have a daily worshipers.

[Midnite]

Gladstone to Cyrus:  "On whom, or what, were you performing the experiment?"
He's unkempt and seedy, but the man knows to use correct grammar.

We learn that despite his hatred of his wife's fascination with the supernatural, Quentin was not only a participant at the original seance, but he became so enraged by what he learned about Bruno and Angelique that he choked her immediately before her stroke.  From this, Alexis concludes that someone else must have murdered her.  Hello, hypoxia from strangulation IS a cause of stroke.

Quentin to Hannah:  "I really don't subscribe nor believe in the occult. All that you have to know is there does seem to be a restless spirit in this house."
Contradictory much?

...Nice to see Q terrorized and nearly driven out of his mansion by a ghost.  And that's all I got.

I enjoyed that too.  Lots of good stuff in your comments, I think.

I have to wonder whose coffin Barnabas borrowed??  Did he and Carolyn go to Coffin’s ‘R’ US?

In #981, after Barnabas told Carolyn they must find a coffin for him that night, they headed to the cemetery together.  And as you mentioned, just where does one get a coffin at a cemetery unless it's used?  I sure as heck hope the writers weren't implying that he could expect to find an empty one in the secret room, because that would be beyond absurd.

Added a spoiler to the end of your comments, T, and if you wish, you could repost the entire last paragraph under #994.  (Except for his face on the sheet music, Bruno didn't appear in this ep.)

[Taeylor Collins]

Thanks Midnite. You're my Julia always fixing me up! ;0)

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks also, Midnite.   And the Q choking of Ang passed me by... is the later [spoiler]framing of Q even necessary?[/spoiler]   How many people actually [spoiler]choke[/spoiler] another human being ever in their lives?   How did Q get everybody to just accept it and forget it, sort of?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

the Q choking of Ang passed me by... is the later[spoiler]framing of Q even necessary?[/spoiler]

It is once the introduction of[spoiler]Cyrus' journal is brought into play. Even though Angelique felt the hatpin, there was no evidence supporting that manner of death until we learn Cyrus wrote about it in his journal. And once that is known, it also becomes apparent that Angelique's death was in no way caused by Quentin choking her.[/spoiler]But further discussion of that in this topic would be getting far too ahead of the story. I mean, the WP hasn't even gotten up to[spoiler]the framing,[/spoiler]much less should we be discussing it in a topic devoted to Ep #993.