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Messages - CyrusL
123
« on: October 26, 2006, 05:11:59 PM »
Judith (thinking) I wonder what Marmee would do...?
124
« on: October 26, 2006, 04:54:47 PM »
one more...
While most books on Dark Shadows note many roles changed actors, none have dared to touch on the tragic incident that required the original housefly to be recast. Â
125
« on: October 25, 2006, 08:19:19 PM »
Dr. Woodard: You know Burke, I sure wish I had some Off! from SC Johnson.
Burke: They are one of the proud sponsors of Dark Shadows, aren't they?
126
« on: October 25, 2006, 04:21:28 PM »
I was sitting around kind of pining over not being able to go to Chiller this weekend,   and linked to the following two interesting items from their website...
First, John Karlen's vampyre classic, "Daughters of Darkness" is due for yet another reissue, as usual expanded DVD features and such. It will retain the very amusing Karlen commentary which has several DS references...
http://www.blue-underground.com/movie.php?movie_id=111
I also tripped over to the Zacherley website, where I found a photo of Zach on stage with the great Thayer David, in the play "Labelle". The photo will enlarge when you click on it.
http://www.zacherley.com/pics.htm
Oh well, as Linus always say, "You just wait 'til next year..." I WILL do Chiller again.Â
MichaelÂ
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127
« on: October 24, 2006, 08:45:29 PM »
Likewise, I am on record as saying the importance of David Collins cannot be underestimated in helping Dark Shadows achieve the youth audience which was not part of soaps.
    Generally, I like Amy better, for reasons similar to those stated, such as "those spooky big brown eyes", but I do think we give Kathy a bit of a hard judgement. Again, during the last two years the kind of direction Henry Kaplan gave was more shall we say, high pitched. Since Kathy came in during this period, and being a young actress, she was probably often try to give Kaplan the kind of performances he was asking for. I think this contributes to why Hallie seems more often high strung than Amy.
    However, there's no question the 1970-1840 was awkward. There's no question David and Kathy were too old for that Playroom. In fact, while David and Amy were together, they were at an age where I don't think it was too uncomfortable for two unrelated children of the opposite sex to share say low supervised quarters, but with David and Hallie, well, they were definitely on the cusp of puberty. That could have taken things in a whole other direction. I think the whole awkwardness of their pairing is a lot of what gives people some bad impressions of Kathy. Many of her scenes with other actors and on other story points are muss less strained.
    What makes the story here work for me, and it does, is more to the fact that Gerard/Storm does a great job of a dark spirit, the musical themes, the mysterious staircase through time etc.
    For what its worth, I always thought Kathy did a pretty good job in the Disney films, and other TV guest shots as well.
Michael
128
« on: October 24, 2006, 07:13:21 PM »
Nicholas: Okay Reverend Trask, I'm upping the offer. I'll give you $26000.00 cash, dinner for two at Ruth Criss, and a Get out of Hell free card, but I WANT that widow's peak. So, Deal...or No Deal?
Â
129
« on: October 24, 2006, 05:50:27 PM »
While Diana as Julianka is for me what most people call a "guilty pleasure", I can understand why some people may find her "wooden." Then again, one of the fascinating things about DS is the mix of some over the top acting with some wonderful pensive and subtle performances, and some downright, stiff readings. In the latter category, I usually hear the name Geofrey Scott often mentioned.
On the other hand, I think of number of mentions have been made here over what performers other posters may find attractive, Don Briscoe's name often seems to pop up here. So, I will stand to my statement that I shamelessly declare Diana Davila's appearence as sexy, , in the way say some Halloween costume seems to bring out a more uninhibited sensual side. As far as her acting, I don't have any problem with it. I think one would have had to have seen her in something more demanding like her stage work, or the other films I mentioned to make a real judgement. She got good notices there.
Michael[/color]
130
« on: October 20, 2006, 02:32:56 PM »
Hi Elmont,
   Check your imdb again, Diana was also in a TV production of "Anne Frank" which seems to have gotten good remarks from most people who saw it, although I don't think any copies are floating around.
   Like Jerry Lacey, Diana also appears in the film, "Play it Again , Sam" as the pretentious, gothy girl Woody tries to pick up at the art museum. IMDB also lists a TV movie called "The Two Lives of Sean Doolittle," which also had Grayson Hall and Barnard Hughes in the cast, and was directed by Lela Swift, and written by Sam Hall, but very sadly not available on home video. (PS: Anyone here who has a copy to send me, send me a PM, I would love to have one!)
   Diana has been in at least 5 shows on Broadway between 1967 and 1978, including "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", in which she played a student named Jenny, and her most successful Broadway role may have been in the musical adaption of Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen from Verona", which opened in late 1971, and ran through mid 1973. Diana is on the original cast recording, which last time I checked, was available in CD.  Raul Julia, and Clifton Davis were the other leads, and Jeff Goldblum was also in the cast.
    She is of Cuban descent, and for my money, gave one of the sexiest performances ever on Dark Shadows.
Perhaps Julia99 may know a little of her later work, as there are some nice mentions of Grayson and Diana having a good personal and working relationship in her new biography of Grayson. I would LOVEÂ to see Diana attend a DS festival.
MichaelÂ
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131
« on: October 18, 2006, 08:05:27 PM »
I finds ghosts quite fascinating and I've had too many experiences that are not fully explainable otherwise. Some things I'd like to add is that Newport RI is one of the best ghost towns I've ever been to. Not far from Seaview Terrace is BelcourtCastle (http://www.belcourtcastle.com/) They have evening ghost tours. Although, there's a certain hype, I can say the most certain presence I encountered was not part of the narrated tour but on the steps to the upstairs gallery. Â
    For all of you up in the District/Northern VA area, I highly suggest the Woodlawn Plantation haunted tours coming up next week, (http://www.woodlawn1805.org/calendar04.htm) When Diane and I were dating, we took that tour. I was looking in one of the rooms and saw a woman in 18th century garb looking at the canopy bed as if she had great concern, then the door closed and the door next to it opened. When we didn't go into the room I was peeking into, I asked the guide why, and she swore to me no one was in there and that room wasn't part of the evenings tour. In the next room, one of the other guests was so overwhelmed by a presence, she fainted. I think that house really loaded. If anyone goes, please let us know what you experience.Â
     The other most haunted place I've been to, was here in Richmond on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. When I was going to college in the late '70s, the student media, that is radio, newspapers, etc, was in an old 19th beautiful brownstone with a castle turret on the end. There was a "female" spirit that always manifested late at night, most especially to lone males. No one ever gotten the confirmed. but there were rumors of a muder-suicide, with a wife of the original owner finding her husband there with his lover, and killing both of them, then hanging herself in the stairwell. The University now uses the building for offices, and is really not keen on amateur ghost hunters any more than the local Goths or frat boys hanging out there. My one really bizarre addendum, is that one day when I was last there, I noticed something unusual about the fireplace.I looked into it, and the iron firewall was decorated with relief sculptures of witchcraft scenes. The firewall appeared to have been contemporary of when the house was built, 1870s, and not a later addition. Â
    I always remember what our guide on the Ghost Tour of London said, which was that spirits are most common for situations when people have died under stressful or sudden circumstances. I tend to find this as pretty consistent.
MichaelÂ
133
« on: October 18, 2006, 05:00:53 PM »
I seem to remember Terry Crawford as being listed in the cast of "Panic in Needle Park", Al Pacino's first film, in some DS publications. Two questions, am I correct it was Terry or did I mistake her name for another cast members? If she is in the film, has anyone seen the movie and know where she is in it? The imdb doesn't list her, but then again, its not 100% as we know. Being curious about the film...
   The DVD release was scheduled for this month but has been delayed until April of next year.
MichaelÂ