Darren, I agree with you that the movie is pretty much a scene-by-scene filming of the book.  But the one final problem--for me--with the difference between the two is the book's description of what happens as Marian opened the door to the grand lady's room for the last time.  As I recall, the images and descriptions in the book as to what happens that creates the new grand lady (I use that term so as not to spoil the book or film for others) are skipped over in the film.  And even the screenplay, which I just checked, omits this fantastical chain of events.  I still think this was chucked to avoid cost overruns on special effects, but in the end, there are many wonderful scenes--and some grand camp!!- in the film.

Now, back to my topic, would anyone like to cast the DS actors in a parallel time version of this film?  LOL.

Brian

MB, please move this to another thread as appropriate....but, what if DC had cast some or all of the roles in BURNT OFFERINGS with DS actors--and any number of those actors could have been effective in BO roles.  Here are my thoughts: 

David Selby would have played the Oliver Reed role;
Kathryn Leigh Scott in the Karen Black role;
Thayer David or Louis Edmonds in the Burgess Meredith role;
Joan Bennett in the Eileen Heckert role; and
Grayson Hall in the Bette Davis role.

Comments?

I've seen a lot of MPI bashing on posts over the years--and even bashed MPI myself once for the audio mix on Dan Curtis's Dorian Gray/Turn of the Screw DVDs--but since I joined the DS DVD club a few years back, I have nothing but positive comments for MPI.  As a member, I've received a few freebie goodies, and advance notice and delivery of some specials.  Even when there have been mistakes in ordering or billing (few and far between,  BTW), I've received courteous and prompt customer service, by both email and phone.  So....let's not be too hard on MPI for a few errors once in great while.  After all, without MPI's interest in DS and Dan Curtis, we probably wouldn't even have the DS series on home video and would have to rely on the VHS tapes we recorded from SciFi channel starting nearly 15 years ago.  (Frankly, I love the DVD releases for the clarity of video and audio materials, and the extras.)

Brian

   I don't know if this has been posted here before, so please excuse my ignorance if it has been...but I have just finished reading Donna McKechnie's autobiography: "TIMESTEPS: My Musical Comedy Life", and though she only mentions DS in a few pages, I highly recommend this wonderful book to anyone who has interest in DS, Broadway, Musicals, Dancing...need I say more?  Donna McKechnie is truly a Broadway star, right up there with Gwen Verden and Chita Rivera, and her story if both enlightening and humbling.  Please do yourself a favor and have the pleasure of checking it out.

Brian 

When it turned up in things like DEAD OF NIGHT- A DARKNESS AT BLAISEDON, the DS movies, particularly, and later those video-shot cheapies (Frankenstein, Shadow of Fear, Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest etc.) did most fans think it was fun and a treat, or cheap and tired?

Great question, Darren, and since I haven't sent you a personal note of thanks...here it is:  "thanks" for your work on the complete DS music collection CDs.  (Side note:  do you think Mr. Cobert will ever offer his DS compositions in published form?  I'd love to SEE the music on the printed page, even if in his hand-written manuscripts--and follow along as I listen to the recordings.)

First, I saw Jekyll/Hyde before I ever watched DS, and didn't make the connection until many years later.  But I did see the Blaisedon pilot on ABC, and I thought the music was simlar to DS' music.  Later, after DS was off the air, I watched the late-night ABC Wide World of Entertainment programs, with particular interest in the Dan Curtis shows (i.e., Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, and the repeat of Jekyll/Hyde.  To me it was a treat to hear the music again.  I even taped (on my old Panasonic cassette recorder, with the mic next to the TV speaker) Frankenstein (as I recall) and maybe even Dorian Gray.  Those cassette's are long-gone, of course.

Interestingly, some years later I saw the movie Ladybug, Ladybug (long overdue for a DVD release, BTW) on TV, and I knew immediately the music was by Robert Cobert.  Same with Scalpal, which I watched on a rented VHS tape from Blockbuster some years ago (okay, probably 20+ years ago!).

As for the other late-night shows, I didn't see them when they were aired, so I had no connection to them as DS shows/Cobert music.  Same with Turn of the Screw.  Somehow that escaped me.

Now, one more note--and does anyone else remember this?:  The Julie Andrews Hour featured Rich Little as a regular (I think) and I recall one show where Rich was (maybe) a mad scientist and drank some strange potion....and they had DS music playing as background for the sketch.  I recall/think it was what we now know as the "Barnabas" theme (but it might have been the "Laboratory/Cyrus Longworth music--hey, it's been 35 years, what more can I say.  LOL).

Can I add that Cobert's music opened the door for me to a variety of musical languages, including atonal music and dissonance...most pop music at the time (except for Broadway and film soundtracks) was pretty boring in it's I-IV-V chord progressions, and I found Cobert's music very exciting and different.  AS for modern pop music--I won't even start on rap/hiphop and heavy metal...anyone who calls those styles "music" should study the classics--or at least the film/TV composers of the past 75 years.
 
Brian

having the show aired creates new fans, which is needed to keep the franchise going long term.

I wish I could agree...but since I don't watch most of the other Soapnet soaps (Like Port Charles or Days of our Lives, or even Dynasty, which I DID watch in it's first run), and those shows on Soapnet don't inspire me to watch them, why would I expect DS to attract new viewers, via Soapnet?  Just my opinion again....

I live in an apartment complex (have been here for two years--and previously I lived in another apartment where we had the same cable/DTV systems), and we have cable TV (the cable is underground, and is of the fiber-optic kind), and some residents also have DTV satellite TV.  I see the dishes all around me.  Anyway, I have BrightHouse networks' digital cable TV, with HDTV and high-speed Road Runner internet service (@7MB/second), and the HD DVR from Scientific Atlantic.  It's a very good system.  As for older TV shows, the cable channels delivering the content should be able to convert them to the appropriate format for digital delivery (correct me if I am wrong, but I think the 2009 standards are not just about HD delivery, but are more about going digital!.  If that's not the whole story, then I think the HD delivery, if that's what is required, must be backwards compatible to analog --i.e., non-digital-- receivers).  FYI -  the DS DVDs are digital, so they should play just fine in the future.

On another note, we still have telephone landlines, that are analog, even though we have digital cell phones.  What a strange world:  first there was the telephone (and telegraph), both connected by wire;  then radio, over the airwaves;  then we got television, also over the airwaves;  then cable TV over wires;  and there is Satellite radio and TV, over -- well--  satellite transmissions (without wires).  Now we're back to cable transmssions for digital and HD TV (not to mention cable TV going back into the 60s).  Soon, we'll have HD and digital TV over the airwaves or satellites....what goes around comes around, I guess.  And who'a'ever'thunk we'd be watching a movie or TV shows on a plastic disc?

And wasn't DS originally taped via cameras in the studio that trasnmitted the sound and images over telephone wires to a remote location, like a truck or studio?

All very interesting, isn't it?

And one last question for Darren Gross....re HODS--if and when we see it on DVD will we get the full-screen picture we see on TCM and VHS cropped at 1.85:1 scale, or will there be additional picture information on both sides of the screen, as if the TCM and VHS versions were panned and scanned (with little or no actual P&S action)?

So many  comments, so little time.  LOL

Thanks,

Brian