I could never get past the way she denied all accusations made against her. Constantly blinking then turning away from the person she was speaking to and looking vacantly towards the camera really drove me nuts many a time during the 1966 storyline.
Whereas, Jonathan Frid as Barnabas would gaze towards the teleprompter and/ or camera with serious or agonized expressions, as he himself had admitted, to camouflage his need to refresh his memory of the dialogue. Has anyone ever heard whether this was a problem of Ms. Millay's, also?
Anway, it's interesting how these incidental occurrances could give the viewers completely different impressions of the different species of evil the actors conveyed in their characterizations.
"Why (blink) Burke/Vicki (blink, blink) how can you (blink) say (blink) that? (Looks away Burke/Vicki) I thought you (blink, blink, blink) cared for David (blink) as much as I do (blink)."
Actually, when she spoke her dialogue, Ms. Millay, with her unique upper-crust breathy delivery, sounded nearly HYPNOTIZED whenever speaking. Whether intentional or not, this added to the suspense--- IS she a supernatural creature with a true purpose (however disastrous the results), or just a psychotic, obsessed human being, a'la the appalling Andrea Yates?
There had to be a reason why a supernatural critter in human form became an alcoholic and was even institutionalized, which confinement Laura apparently never tried to escape. I have theorized in the past that all memories of her previous lives were erased, though it seems each generation was able to come up with a cover story for her origin.
In the 1967 version, Laura claimed to be the daughter of sea captain, and, indeed, perhaps, when the phoenix was completely "reborn", she was truly reborn as an infant or child, and the captain had adopted and raised her. What's more, it was actually never made clear whether Laura lived the full, continous hundred years before rebirth.
It seems more likely that she had her children in the first third of her 100-year cycle, with intermittent burnings to refresh her life force.
It almost did not matter if she kept marrying into the same family, since a new body without clear memories emerged from the fire. Even if the family still kept old portraits on hand, the resemblence could be explained as resulting from the coincidence of the new bride's being a collateral blood relative (niece, cousin) of the previous Laura. (Hey, look how many times this ruse worked for BARNABAS!) In the Collinses' case, the 1700's portrait of Laura was eventually destroyed, and the revolted Edward may well have destroyed all reminders of HIS Laura, thus depriving future generations of the chance to protect themselves from future intrusions.
Thus, the young Laura, only vaguely aware of her life's mission, in the human course of events, inadvertantly married and mated (or in modern Laura's case, mated and married), her grandson. And soon after her child was born, she became more agitated as their terrible destiny became clearer and clearer to her. The human component warred with the dominating phoenix characteristics. Hence, Laura took up drinking, and became so unstable, Roger, whose relationship with her was already tainted by the possibility that David was Burke's son, had her put away. Laura was still functioning as human, so she probably couldn't escape, maybe didn't WANT to at that point.
Then, she "recovered" and was released, soon after which, she was hit with the preliminary burning, whether spontaneous, or induced, as it was in Egypt, by those
who recognized her secret identity. (Unless you prefer an alternate theory, that a real phoenix, either chance-come or summoned, preyed on her, and took over her appearance and persona, in order to claim her offspring.) In any case, the burning crystallized her mission, details of her past lives came back to her, and she became icy-calm about the whole business (ironic for a creature running on fire.)
I would LIKE to think that, until the last moment, every generation of Laura sincerely believed that taking her children into the fire WOULD transform them into immortal creatures like herself. But, the instant she discovered that it was, either, a great self-delusion designed to maintain her own existence, or a tricked sacrifice perpetuated in order to placate whatever force had created her and kept her alive, she was "reborn", her memory erased, and, eventually, the cycle started all over again.
L.
