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Current Talk '24 I / Re: Happy 50th Anniversary, Night of Dark Shadows
« on: November 12, 2023, 04:34:00 PM »
Revisiting more Gregory/shopping sequence posts:
... The shopping excursion certainly seems like it would have been some of Claire's best stuff in the film had it actually been shot. But alas...
And just so you'll be able to put a face to who might have been Gregory had his scenes actually been shot, here are the two actors of whom it's been reported were considered (Keith Prentice and Michael Stroka) and one that some fans have said they would have liked to have seen in the role (Louis Edmonds):
Louis would have been magnificent as Gregory!!!!
It's a fun scene. It really shows a genuine friendship between Tracy and Claire. And Gregory, well, is like no other character in the DS pantheon. Unfortunately, it doesn't add all that much to the film as a whole. It might have worked better if it had been intercut with bits of Carlotta or Gerard doing something nefarious back at Collinwood. I can see why DC chose not to shoot the scene. Which leads me to wonder if Gregory had even been cast. It wouldn't be like DC to cast an actor then have to pay him for doing nothing
From the way the sequence has been talked about, I doubt things ever got to the point where Gregory was actually cast. It seems like before production began some actors' names were bandied about, but before any might have been cast, DC decided to scrap the whole sequence. As far as even the 129 minute version of the finished film goes, the audience would be left forever wondering who Gregory was when Tracy told Quentin that "Gregory said I could take them back" after Quentin discovered she'd bought him a pair of riding breeches...
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I have a feeling the shopping sequence was dropped primarily for budgetary reasons. Since they apparently decided to shoot the entire film on the Lyndhurst estate, it may have been difficult to find somewhere on site that didn't need a lot of set design/dressing work to make it convincing. Going into Tarrytown or Irvington would have probably added a lot of extra expense they didn't feel was warranted for a sequence that doesn't really advance the plot (even if it does enrich the characterizations).
Another thought regarding the shopping sequence. As much as I'd like to be able to see it on screen, I think it would feel quite out of place in the film that we have. It would be the ONLY interjection of a bit of the outside world, in what is otherwise a very weird, creepy, other-worldly bubble (which is one of the things I really love about the film).