Discuss - Ep #0008

[Watching Project]

Robservations #8

[Midnite]

Wow, an entire scene that's present on the MPI tapes and in recordings off the SciFi channel has been eliminated from my DVD.  After Liz tells Vicki she wants her to be happy and leaves the room, and before the credits start, Miss/Mrs. Hopewell is seen dictating a letter to her secretary that's addressed to Vicki in "Collinswood" in which she says she received a visit from Strake, who posed the same questions that Vicki had asked during their phone call.

Anyway, the secretary (whose only role on DS was cut during the DVD transfer!) was played by Gwen Van Dam, who is still working in Hollywood and in local theater.

[Lydia]

Actually, that ending scene is in DVDs that were produced later – see the following discussion:

DS: The Beginning DVD

That particular scene is that reason that I finally finished watching all of the original Dark Shadows today.  Previously I had watched episode 8, but on a DVD that was missing this scene. Now I've got a later one.  With apologies to Emerald Rose:

Miss Hopewell's dictation was a surprise to me.  My first thought was that I didn't know the foundling home could afford a secretary to take dictation, but my second thought was that back in those days managers didn't know how to type.  Even female managers, I guess - or else it would have made Miss Hopewell look like a lesser person if she admitted she could type.

Elizabeth's inner turmoil didn't work very well for me.  There are times on Dark Shadows when I feel a character's pain so clearly that it's as if I myself am hurting, but this isn't one of them - probably because we don't know what the whole story is.

So is the idea that Bill Malloy saw Joe Haskell with Burke and decided to give him an incentive to remain loyal to the Collinses?  The real surprise to me is that the promotion didn't happen before.  I feel sorry for Joe, though.  We are being shown, plain as plain can be, that although Carolyn likes Joe, she's not in love with him.  If she had gone to college, he would have been history by now.

[MagnusTrask]

Miss Hopewell's big grin is a bit creepy.   Later as she was doing that dictation scene, I decided that Elizabeth Wilson is just milking her part.  Where else have I seen her?  everywhere perhaps?   "The Fugitive" pops into my head.

When someone brings flowers to someone in a scene, it seems to write itself.   Oh, flowers for me?/us?  How lovely!   Yellow roses?  She'll love these!  I'll just go and put these in some water!  There's a couple minutes wasted...

[DarkLady]

I find it amazing now that Joe will be earning a whole $25 more per week!   

Does anyone know what a "checker" did/does in the fleet office? I suppose this promotion is Elizabeth's way of keeping Joe on shore and out of danger. Ocean fishing is the most dangerous occupation--mining is no. 2.

[Midnite]

Thanks, Lydia.  I want a replacement.

Miss Hopewell's big grin is a bit creepy.   Later as she was doing that dictation scene, I decided that Elizabeth Wilson is just milking her part.  Where else have I seen her?  everywhere perhaps?   "The Fugitive" pops into my head.

Mike Nichols movies?  As Barnard Hughes' wife in Doc?  Nine to Five?  The Birds?  All in the Family?  Picnic?  (I'm trying!)

She still has the grin:  Primary Stages Toasts Elizabeth Wilson on 90th Birthday, April 2011


This is such a polite bunch, but of course smileys are for everyone to use.  

[MagnusTrask]

As Barnard Hughes' wife in Doc?

I did watch that.  Good show.  Thanks....

[Janet the Wicked]

Miss Hopewell's big grin is a bit creepy.   

Oh, I think she'd make a dandy prison matron. Yikes!

[Janet the Wicked]

I find it amazing now that Joe will be earning a whole $25 more per week!  

Does anyone know what a "checker" did/does in the fleet office?

Yeah, I thought 25 clams was quite a raise myself. That's a hundred a month!

Joe is a checker - a small, round disk that sits atop a board of red and black squares. Crown me.

[DarkLady]

Joe is a checker - a small, round disk that sits atop a board of red and black squares. Crown me.

Done. 

[Midnite]

[Gothick]

I guess Miss Hopewell's storyline is the first of many in DS history to simply drop out of sight.  I thought the scene (which I really hope is on MY DVD!) implied that we would be seeing more of Miss Hopewell, but alas, it was not to be.

G.

[Lydia]

Magnus, Elizabeth Wilson had a wonderfully milkable role in the movie The Addams Family.

[MagnusTrask]

Magnus, Elizabeth Wilson had a wonderfully milkable role in the movie The Addams Family.

Thanks, Lydia, I do like that movie.  I tend to remember people from 60s or 70s roles though.   If I weren't trying to do an Internet commando raid, getting in and out fast to get more recovery time soon, I'd Google.   I will I think.   When you said that I pictured her in the AF series for an instant I thought.   I'll bet she was in the Fugitive.

[Midnite]

EW wasn't in The Fugitive.  Do you remember Edith Bunker's cousin with a philandering husband?