Wow, Michael Hadge.  I remember many years ago he was going to attend a Festival, but couldn't make it due to scheduling conflicts.

I do hope somebody plays the clip where he utters his immortal line, "if ya feel it... SIT IT!"  Grand stuff.

I was really puzzled last Summer which I expected to be the biggest Festival in fan history due to the Burton/Depp redaction... instead what was done sounded fairly small and intimate.

The fandom started out in the early 1980s with small get-togethers here and there... for instance in the Magique discotheque, if I'm remembering correctly, around 1982--I was not involved with fandom then, but I've seen great photos from that party.  It seems to be ending (or that is what I surmise is happening) with small regionally focused get togethers.

Given this was a daytime drama of the 1960s which has broken every conceivable record (including managing to stay in print on home video for over 20 years... do you know how many entertainment products can match that record? not many at all)--I think the fandom has had a great run. 

I did love Alexandra's suggestion that at some point those of us who are left have a reunion around the ouija board. lol.

G.

Dracula's Daughter is a beautifully excecuted, classic horror film. There are some touches of humor, particularly when the stalwart hero informs his valet he's off to "run down a vampire" and the gentleman's gentleman responds, "but sir, don't you usually do that with your checkbook?" Around the 1890s/1900s, a "vampire" was a common name for an "adventuress" or "gold-digger" or woman who entertained men (sometimes but not always involving sexual favors) but was really after their cash.

House of Dracula IMO isn't as good as the preceding film, House of Frankenstein, but the scenes with John Carradine are fun to see and effective.  Despite the title, Dracula is only in the movie for the first half or so.

G.

Isn't that shot of that wrecked boat meant to be what is left of the boat the Collins sailed in on?

Forgive me if I am belaboring the obvious.

I seem to recall a derelict 1950s boat having been bought for the movie during the pre-production period.

G.

Antony is luscious.  unfortunately from the trailers and clips it all looks much too violent for my personal taste.

Nice to hear that Antony is getting such good... exposure.

G.

One of the original reviewers in 1964 wrote that the film only really came alive for him when Grayson was onscreen.

It really was her big Hollywood moment.  Thankfully for DS fans, she was less than thrilled with Hollywood (she had lived there back in the 1940s and I think the whole scene left a bad taste in her mouth--read R. J. Jamison's fascinating book, "Grayson Hall:  a hard act to follow" for MORE).

Had Grayson really embraced a Hollywood career, she wouldn't have been available for work on DS and so...

G.

That is wonderful news!  I hope it works out well for you.  These are terrible times.

Best,

Steve

Hi, Doctor and K9, what I recall from my own listening is that a fan (maybe David, b/c I know he was around back then--don't know about the others) was commenting that he saw the movie in a theatre at the time and his friends were saying that the story did not feel like DS to them and they felt it WASN'T DS.  Presumably, they were expecting the second movie to involve Barnabas, or at least material more directly related to what was shown in the original series.  I think once you drop that expectation--that it's going to be somehow a re-telling of a story from the OS--it's actually a much better film--and certainly would have a greater likelihood of being seen as such, if the story it told were all there.  As Darren carefully explains in the tape, the whole climax, and point of the story, is missing from what we have now.

One comment about Darren's summing up of the missing climax:  [spoiler]Darren quotes a line of dialogue where someone, I think the John Karlen character, says after the recovery of the bodies of Charles and Angelique (btw, I had missed that Angelique's remains were left in the same cubbyhole where Charles was walled up alive--egads!)  that it's clear now that Angelique wasn't a Witch.  I still feel from what is seen and shown in the movie that it's ambivalent.  The Chinese would describe Angelique as a "hungry ghost," a spirit who had acquired great power due to having suffered a death through injustice.  At the very least, it's clear that when Angelique was alive, she was a very strong-willed woman who had the ability to make others do her bidding.  Witchcraft or sheer human charisma?  I think it is ambivalent and that blurry area is, to me, one of the most satisfying things about the story.[/spoiler]

btw, I do not know if it was ever announced here, but Wallace did an earlier podcast with KLS about hoDS.  I plan to listen to it at some point soon.

G.

From the blurbs Nicky posted on his site, Vicki is a character in the "Year One" series which is as one would expect, although it sounds as if they're playing fast and loose with the original storyline.

I've totally lost interest in any of these, but for those of you who enjoy them, have fun.

G.