Fans, a friend sent me the short review pasted in below of the DS TV movie CHILD OF GLASS earlier today.

I had never heard of the film, and I thought what he had to say about it was quite interesting.

If nothing else, worthy of note since Denise Nickerson was involved.

Best,

G.

Review by the Conjure Doll:

A couple of days ago I revisited the Walt Disney made-for-tv movie CHILD OF GLASS, with an eye toward the elements it shares with DARK SHADOWS.  Shot in late 1977 and released in 1978, the film is nominally based on Richard Peck’s book THE GHOST BELONGED TO ME (but the adaptation is an extremely loose one).  The production is by no means a Disney version of DS.  However, I am of the firm opinion that its screenwriter, Jim Lawrence, was aware of DARK SHADOWS, and scavenged bits and pieces of it while crafting his adaptation of Peck’s novel.  In particular, he borrowed liberally from Sam Hall’s presentation of Sarah Collins. [Note by Gothick:  I think the ghost of Sarah character was originally created by Malcolm Marmorstein--I just wrote to the Conjure Doll and explained about this.  Sam did write some or all of the episodes involving Sarah as a little girl in 1795.]

CHILD OF GLASS begins with a family moving into an old plantation house, and the ghost in the production is a young girl who died during the house’s glory days.  She implores the son of the new owners to help her break the curse which binds her to the house, so she can move on.  Obviously, she dresses in period costume, but she also carries a doll, and her appearances are typically marked in the musical score by a signature tune – Frer Jacques (not the same as Sarah’s London Bridge, but certainly quite close).  The film also features a drunken caretaker (in the mold of Matthew Morgan), a party which everyone attends dressed in garb from the time in which the house was first built, and a teenage girl played by DS’s Denise Nickerson (she’s actually the first person to utter a line in the film).  If the connections to DARK SHADOWS in this film are coincidental, they certainly are striking ones.
 

Fans,

This is a pretty cool presentation of the 1968 View Master set.  (I think the set may actually have come out in 1969, but the storyline shown was originally aired in the Fall of '68.)

Too bad the drawings in the "folio" were not included by whoever did this.  After all, the drawings were characterized by "many somber colors."

http://viewmasterworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/dark-shadows-b503.html

G.

Fans, I found two of the Universal "complete legacy" classic monster DVD sets in my local Newbury Comics (a media shop in the Boston area) marked down--they are used, but appear to play fine.  And so, I am watching Frankenstein vs. the Wolfman (from around 1943).  I don't remember ever seeing this one before, apart from a bit when I came into it towards the end of a TV broadcast back around 20 years ago.

Let's just say that the opening sequence, set in the Talbot family mausoleum, proved to have a very familiar look and feel to it.  You might be surprised.  I know I was.

DS definitely stole... er, borrowed... from the best.

For fans of the Universal Sherlock Holmes films (with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce), this one includes a very Inspector Lestrade type role for actor Dennis Hoey.

G.

Fans,

As many of us are aware, before Keith Prentice began on Dark Shadows , he did the play and film Boys in the Band, a glimpse of a group of gay friends spending an evening together in the late Sixties.  In this documentary about the making of the film, Keith is mentioned roughly at the fifteen minute mark.  Not much is said apart from how much everyone liked him, but a surprising fact is revealed.  Keith originally played Harold, the flamboyant zinger-spouting character portrayed in the film by Leonard Frey.

The documentary is here, and it lasts around 25 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzCIsWv0aP4

G.

Fans,

A friend apprised me earlier this evening that episodes of the 1990s series POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY have started airing on Monday evenings on the Comet TV network.  I checked google and I found a site for this network:

http://www.comettv.com/about-comet-tv/

It appears to be like Me TV in that access is often (or perhaps only) through plugging in an electric antenna on your TV.  There's a gizmo on the site to find out if where you live is in range of one of their transmitters (or whatever it should be called).

TV seems to be entering a phase reminiscent of the ham radio craze of the 1930s-1950s (and beyond) with all these little channels that offer programming that has been discarded by more orthodox channels.

POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY had, to me, at least an occasional DS flavor.  The stories revolved around Gothic horror themes but a lot of the writing focused on personal dynamics between the established characters who lived in a huge, gloomy mansion on isolated Angel Island (in the San Francisco Bay) and concerned themselves with occult relics, succubi, ancient curses and similar matters.

I also had a major crush on series regular Martin Cummins.  It also helped that series stars Derek de Lint and Helen Shaver had a chemistry at least occasionally reminiscent of Barnabas and Julia.

The website offers a list of films being screened on the channel.  Their series programming is quite eclectic as well. 

G.

Dear Fans,

Those who enjoy the 1991 DS nighttime series might find this note which I received from a friend of mine who has been revisiting that show.  My friend writes:

Speaking of aspect ratio issues, I have good news regarding DARK SHADOWS (1991).  It was released on DVD at least 3 times here in the U.S. with the aspect ratio butchered.  However, last year a company called TGG Direct quietly issued a box set of the series in its original fullscreen format.  Print transfer quality is excellent, and it’s great to finally see high quality prints of this show in the ratio it was intended to be viewed.  The only drawbacks are that they still failed to include the extended cuts of the first and last episodes which Dan Curtis prepared for MPI’s VHS releases.  And the color timing on the day-for-night sequences is still faulty, causing those scenes to appear far too bright (almost full daylight).  So the only releases that display those accurately are still MPI’s VHS iterations.  TGG Direct’s set appears to have gotten a very limited release, and even though it is only a year old, I believe it is already out of print.  Sealed copies are still available on Amazon, but the manufacturer is no longer offering copies, and the few copies still for sale on Amazon are going for double MSRP.  I broke down and bought one as a birthday gift to myself this year (as prices are sure to go even higher once the remaining copies sell out).  On the other hand, the same prints have recently been issued in the U.K. and Germany, and imported copies of those can be had for under $20.00.

One more tidbit before I run.  I recently dug out my personal VHS captures of the original 1991 NBC airings of the series, and isolated all of the network-specific material (promos, previews, bumpers, etc.) that were left out of the VHS and DVD releases.  I turned them into one continues DS bonus feature, and posted it to YouTube last week.  Here’s a link, if you’d care to see it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr5iiLihmxQ

Since I’m an incurable completist, I’m eventually going to post not just the promos for each episode, but all of the commercials that ran during each broadcast.  (end of his letter)

I don't know if this upgraded release of the series was reported here.  It may well have been, since I don't always pay attention to topics relating to that redaction of DARK SHADOWS.

Best,

G.

A friend of mine sent me this link.  It's a short (under 2 minute) Canadian Film Board Public Service Announcement from 1970.  Fans of DS, Night Gallery, and Hammer Horror films may enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx7JBDAEQZo

G.