Discuss - Ep #0821

[Watching Project]

Robservations #821

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0821

[MagnusTrask]

Frid VO...  I can see how 1897 starts to lose some DS fans at this point.  I honestly don't know any long stretch of any DS storyline that doesn't have strange contrivances going on at some point, though.  At least when Petofi ushers Aristede into the tiny room where Barnabas's coffin is, with South Seas type torches going in each hand, Barnabas calls Petofi "incompetent" (rather than calling for the Samoan dancers to come out), and actually smiles and relaxes a bit.  There should have been a laugh track reaction.  Was Aristede going to march through the streets of Collinsport and up the hill to the estate with those burning?  Was he going to take a carriage or cab?  ("Hansom", was that what a carriage-cab was called?)  "Better step on it pal, before we all go down in flames!!"  Were the torches magically made to burn forever?  That part's possible at least.

 

Or was it a bit of theater for Barnabas's sake?  Some "show and tell" to drive home his point, visually?  That's silly, too.  My image of Aristede walking for miles with torches in his hands may turn out to be a favorite DS memory someday, yet it never happened... 

 

King Johnny takes Magda captive.  Mr. Howell, stingy as always, takes his hand back, without explanation, which makes it especially strange.  We know why, but I guess I put myself in Johnny's shoes here.  Magda escapes, end.  Given the limited number of sets, guess where they eventually end up...?  Who played A Howell, I wonder, a writer I hope?

[DarkLady]

I do like JF's voiceovers.

I think Petofi is quite the theatrical ham and needed an audience for his spectacular sound and light show. Barnabas makes the perfect captive audience. Plus, I'm sure Aristede was eager to add arson-murder to his catalogue of crimes--if, indeed, it would have been an addition.

My notes have the following on Abraham Howell: For some time it was believed that Jonathan Frid played the ghost of Abraham Howell, who retrieves his lost hand. But the actor is identified on the script as Philip Cusack.

Welcome Henry Baker as the silent but impressively muscular Istvan, a gypsy of color. After DS ended, he was in the movie Seizure, with JF. The movie just came out on DVD. 

[MagnusTrask]

I was thinking that with Istvan as their enforcer, he should be able to get away easily himself.  Then I woke up, and realized a huge black guy in a gold vest and gypsy outfit who can't talk can't declare his independence in 1897 small-town Maine very effectively.  Now comes the first meal he needs, and ...?  Americans have been raised to feel that freedom is all over, and all you need is legs that work, that can take you away.  My own experience should have told me otherwise.  I was dependent on a maniac for 17 years, because of medical problems.   The bars of the jail cell are invisible sometimes.

I think Petofi is quite the theatrical ham and needed an audience for his spectacular sound and light show. Barnabas makes the perfect captive audience.

Chuckle.  I have to wonder what Petofi really gets out of life, and maybe that's it.  He's always performing, always "on".  He'd also have to take refuge in artistic things like music, since they are things you can still enjoy in the culture without liking people very much.  You get to enjoy the refined product of their creativity without having to interact with the creator or performers.   

[DarkLady]

Sounds like you are doing better these days, MT. Amongst your weaponry you seem to have a wonderful sense of humor. 

[MagnusTrask]

Thanks very, very much DL... but things are especially bad.  With me at least, humor is as coping mechanism for the bad stuff, rather than a sign of good spirits.  Well, it could be either, but the black humor in particular comes out when things are spiraling downward.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Revisiting how shadow was used during this storyline, I love the way this scene from this ep was shot:



I mean, how many other shows would have had a scene in which a character's face was almost completely in shadow and another half-hidden in shadow, and with the shadow being on the opposite side, no less. It's amazingly effective. And it's just too bad that the Daytime Emmys didn't exist back then because I have a strong feeling that this storyline would have won a slew of technical awards.

[DarkLady]

Wow, how did they do that??!! That shot is just gorgeous, crisp and clear. Thanks for posting it, MB.

[MagnusTrask]

I always had the idea that television series had a lot of trouble with shooting in shadow back then...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wow, how did they do that??!!

I don't know. But I suspect it would have been fascinating to have been on set when they lit that scene.

I always had the idea that television series had a lot of trouble with shooting in shadow back then...

That could certainly be right - though we do know that DS was often on the cutting edge when it came to developing new techniques. 

[MagnusTrask]

... we do know that DS was often on the cutting edge when it came to developing new techniques. 

I didn't know that, actually.  I'll be interested to find out more about that in the future.

[DarkLady]

Yes, I would too, if any information is out there.