I, too, have mixed feelings about the scene, mixing drama with comedy, of Roger abandoning his son and family with no feeling of remorse. It was truly moving, especially seeing little David standing with tears in the doorway watching him leave. Added to the emotion was seeing Barnabas' reaction which was filled with equal pain and compassion for that child for whom he had become so attached. It was so well done, and all my friends sitting around me groaned in heartbreak. It was immediately followed by Barnabas with his mind still consumed by his affection for David that he didn't realize he had stepped back into sunlight and began to smoke and then burn while his family and friends standing around him looked with eyes wide and mouths opened. It was funny, downright funny, but tempered by what had just happened. When Willie threw that bucket of water on him from Mrs. Johnson mopping the floor, totally amiss at what has happening around her, it was slapstick-appropriate hillarious. But it was probably too much to quick in combining the action. If Burton would've directed that David be taken to his room, or some other such action to cause a better transition, ti would've been a flawless scene.
Gerard