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Topics - Gothick

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61
News comes of the passing of Director John Llewelyn Moxey, who directed the original film NIGHT STALKER:

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/john-llewellyn-moxey-dead-dies-charlies-angels-night-stalker-1203203445

I best remember JLM as the director of one of my all-time favorite films HORROR HOTEL (aka CITY OF THE DEAD) (1960). He also directed one of my favorite episodes of THE AVENGERS, "Who's Who??," a 1967 episode guest starring Freddie Jones and Patricia Haines.

He was 94.

G.

62
The 1990s series FOREVER KNIGHT involved a centuries-old (but, of course, still quite dishy) vampire being helped by a woman police doctor who was in love with him and searching for a medical cure for his condition. Sound familiar?

Perhaps the best feature of the show was Lacroix, the lead character's vampire sire, played by the fabulous Nigel Bennett--I have an entire CD of Lacroix's darkly acid witticisms compiled years ago by a fan. I also loved Janette, who had been married to the lead vampire back in the Renaissance. She runs a nightclub in the first two seasons and is wonderfully played by Deborah Duchene (who retired from acting soon afterwards).

New DVD set out from budget label Mill Creek. They're not exactly known for quality releases.

https://bloody-disgusting.com/home-video/3558550/mill-creek-bringing-90s-series-forever-knight-dvd-complete-collection-set

I'm a bit surprised that this release is happening since I am not sure the show has been on the air recently. At one time, it was regularly shown on the Sci-Fi network.

G.

63
There's a rather remote DS connection here in that at least two DS actors (Don Briscoe and Christopher Bernau) appeared in the Broadway production of Boys in the Band in 1969 (when the original cast were doing the film version). That play was written by Mart Crowley, who wrote this script for an unsold, unaired pilot starring Bette Davis and Mary Wickes. I think Mary Wickes would have been perfect on DS, perhaps as Mrs Johnson's cousin who comes to help out in the kitchen at Collinwood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad2UCnpakMc&t=8s

G.

64
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / OT: Hail Satan?
« on: April 18, 2019, 08:15:08 PM »
As I read the reviews of this new documentary about the Satanic Temple, a human rights advocacy group masquerading as something out of a classic 1960s Vincent Price horror movie, I keep asking myself: What would Cassandra do? LOL.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/18/hail-satan-documentary-the-satanic-temple

G.

65
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / OT: Easter Bunny Hates You
« on: April 17, 2019, 05:52:57 PM »
Either hilarious or potentially traumatizing... perhaps both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWer4JeA4OQ&t=38s

G.

66
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / Origin of Carlotta Drake?
« on: April 16, 2019, 06:32:43 PM »
In a film group I'm on, a member posted a short review of this 1964 TV film which was recently released to home video:

https://www.kinolorber.com/product/the-ghost-of-sierra-de-cobre-special-edition-dvd

It was a pilot for a series featuring Martin Landau as a psychic investigator, not picked up by the network. An expanded version was released as a feature film.

There's an unfortunately jittery blue-tinged version of the original pilot on view here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfwZmLOLeFw&list=WL&index=108&t=4s

I could only watch up to the introduction of Judith Anderson's housekeeper--she really seems very Carlotta-like, down to the weird eyeshadow.

Presumably her over-the-top entrance means she resembles somebody known to the other character and this is spelled out in the remainder of the story.

G.

67
Fans,

Here's an episode of SOMERSET from '72. At the 3 minute mark, Lara Parker's Prell shampoo commercial runs. Around the 8 minute mark, Chris Pennock has a scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gphGlnjJ3AQ&feature=youtu.be

G.

68
Think you'll never read something about DS that will mention the words "phallic frenzy"? Think again.

http://www.collinsporthistoricalsociety.com/2019/04/the-dark-shadows-daybook-april-10.html

cheers, G.

69
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / British DS pastiche from 2001
« on: April 09, 2019, 06:57:22 AM »
Fans, professional writer Daniel McGachey, who lives in the UK, was discussing with me his love of DS, which he originally learned about thanks to a 1980s TV broadcast of NIGHT OF DS. He was only able to start watching the series when the UK Sci-Fi channel starting showing it in the 1990s, though I think he mentioned getting hold of at least one videotape before that.

Daniel shared this synopsis of a short DS pastiche serial he wrote for a teenage girl's magazine (or possibly, a parody of a teenage girl's magazine), back in 2002. All the characters were named after actors on the show.

I'm pasting in the synopsis below.

Best wishes, Gothick

The Mansion of Strange Shadows - Bunty Annual 2002
Illustrated by Keith Robson

Chapter One - The House Through the Woods
Lara, Kat and Alex are amongst the class who have been taken to view the restoration work being undertaken on Nightshade Mansion. Legends have it that in 1795, mad Lord Jonathan, the 13th Lord of Nightshade Mansion, put a curse on the house and vanished, spiriting away the family treasure as he went.
In the basement, beneath the slabs, the museum team have uncovered a massive metal door with no keyhole but spaces for carved symbols to be placed.
As the girls break off from the school party, they find themselves in a room full of dusty old ornaments, before Kat seems to vanish into thin air.

Chapter Two - Cold Comfort
An amnesiac girl finds herself wandering toward the old house through a snowstorm. The house's inhabitants insist she is their cousin, Miss Kathryn, and all seem under the influence of their butler, Mr John. The family are prisoners for, every time the try to leave, there is a loud rumbling and a storm that shakes the house. Could the answer lie in the room full of precious things, amongst the ornaments and crystals and snowglobes?

Chapter Three - The Ghastly Gallery
Still looking for Kat, Alex and Lara split up and Lara finds herself in the family portrait gallery, where certain portraits seem more than lifelike. And when a mysterious artist restores the portrait of a young girl, Lady Denise, she begins to escape from her picture. But, if she escapes, she'll need someone to take her place. And why does the artist want to keep Lara away from the covered portrait of Lord Jonathan Nightshade?

Chapter Four - Out of Time
Alex follows a winding staircase up to the clock tower, where the ancient mechanism has been frozen for centuries. But, when she removes the strange metal symbol that has become trapped in the gears, the clock starts running... backwards. Phantom figures come and go as Alex is taken back, as a ghost, to the very night when Lord Jonathan Nightshade, fleeing a mob accusing him of witchcraft, places his curse on the old mansion, leaving it trapped within his evil shadow. He then disappears into the vault beneath the house, his power becoming complete and trapping Alex in the past.

Chapter Five - The Vault of Shadows
Having both recovered mysterious symbols during their adventures, Kat and Lara slot them into the huge door in the cellar floor, opening two of the locks and weakening Lord Jonathan's power so that Alex is restored to her rightful time. With the third key, they open the vault and descend to face the strange shadows within!

70
I'm not a Buffy fan (sorry) and I only glanced at this video, but it might be of interest to folks here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWNGq70Oyo

It sounds like yet another chapter in what I consider to be the MUTILATION of many classic films and TV shows as they get "upgraded" into some weird concept of "high definition."

Also relevant for those who have followed the saga of the mangling of the 1991 DS series on home video. A friend told me that a few years ago, a properly restored edition was finally issued for 1991 DS but apparently it was a limited pressing.

Best wishes,

Gothick

71
I'm sure this dates to the 1970s but I know nothing about it beyond that. Lovely to see Humbert again.

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

Best, Gothick

72
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / OT: New Nancy Drew series
« on: April 05, 2019, 09:52:43 PM »
Dear fans,

I never watched the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series back in the late Seventies, but I have seen some episodes in recent years on Youtube. I probably posted about spotting an extra wearing an Old Barnabas Halloween mask in a rock concert scene in the episode where Nancy and the Boys wind up investigating skullduggery in Dracula's castle.

I did see Pamela back when THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE came out, and subsequently caught her on DYNASTY. A very talented actress... I thought she was frequently upstaged by her super-teased 70s hairdo on this show:

https://tvline.com/2019/04/05/nancy-drew-pamela-sue-martin-cast-cw-pilot/

G.

73
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / DARK MANSIONS (1986)
« on: March 27, 2019, 12:13:34 AM »
Fans, I posted about this a few years ago. It's a 1986 TV movie produced by Aaron Spelling and clearly intended to be a thinly veiled nighttime series remake of DS. I think Joan Fontaine would have made a wonderful Elizabeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cXNghQR3h8

G.

74
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / 1970s cult TV movies
« on: March 02, 2019, 11:32:44 AM »
Dan Curtis's daughter Cathy is interviewed briefly in this article. NIGHT STALKER and TRILOGY OF TERROR are mentioned.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-st-tv-horror-movies-20190301-story.html

G.

75
Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I / Semi OT: DRAGONWYCK (1946)
« on: February 20, 2019, 01:37:42 AM »
Over the holiday weekend, I finally had time to watch DRAGONWYCK (1946), which I had checked out of the library on DVD. Co-starring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney, this movie was based on a novel by Anya Seton. It was considered to be a kind of follow-up to REBECCA (1940), but the 1946 film was set in the 1840s and included material about the feudalistic patroon landholding system in the Hudson Valley (and made reference to the events that led to the system's ultimate demise).

I was surprised at how much like DS the movie seemed. The titular mansion (which is seen in various shots that are obviously paintings) actually does look somewhat like Lyndhurst, but the resemblances to our show have more to do with mood, dialogue, story elements, and atmosphere. The lead ingenue, played by Gene Tierney, has dialogue in an early scene about wanting to meet "people I've never met, places I've never seen" that seemed to foreshadow a certain young governess's thoughts as she boarded a train to Collinsport, Maine in 1966.

Apparently there were some heavy script cuts both during and immediately after filming. Two of the most interesting characters, a creepily mocking housekeeper (named Magda!) played by Spring Byington, and the disturbed daughter of the Patroon of Dargonwyck, simply disappear about two-thirds of the way through the picture, without any explanation.

If you scroll down here, a film buff mentions the influence of DRAGONWYCK on DS.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/a-few-words-about-%E2%84%A2-dragonwyck.272533/

The movie seems to be shown somewhat regularly on TCM.

G.

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