Happy Birthday, gracious lady!  I miss your wit and wisdom and your wonderfully observant eye in chronicling the fortunes of the Collins family.

G.

Nicky darling I almost lol'd at your tactful hint that 180 minutes of Barnabas, Barnabas,, BARNABAS!!! might be "a bit much."  Ya think!

OTOH I watched the clip on Youtube the other day where Julia offers her blood to Old Barn.  Frid was incredible in those two episodes... I guess sometimes, he embraced a challenge.

To whom it may concern, several of the episodes on the first 7 or 8 DVD collections (from the arrival of Barnabas to, what, the end of 1795?) had "minor" bloopers and technical defects edited out.  The one I regret the most is the nasal Brooklyn voice o/c telling old Bathia Mapes "take him to the Old House!" in her dramatic attempted exorcism of Barn.  From what I recall when we discussed this (it's many years back in the Boards and my ability to manhandle the search engine here isn't up to the task of attempting to find those threads), it was the DVD authoring firm that was "routinely" "cleaning up" "materials of such age"--insert the usual cliche from the tech wallahs.

I keep thinking of more fan favorites that need to be on that disc:

Cassandra's first visit to the Old House.  "What was your major... Witchcraft?" *sneer*  "How DARE you."  I just love Cassandra's reaction everytime Barn says:  "ANNNN-geLEEEK."  Grand stuff.

The Julia Slap.  (followed by a montage of all the other times Julia bitchslapped somebody.)

Angelique in 1795 informing Ben that everything that is now Mamselle Josette's will eventually... belong to HER.

Hoffman and Angelique planning their "war of nerves" on Maggie Collins and Hoffman teeth-grittingly informing Ang: "I HATE having to take ORDERS from her!"

Any or all of the Julia/Nicholas scenes.

Naomi and Joshua the morning after Sarah dies.

I could go on... FORCING myself to stop.

G.

Thanks for that, MB.  That's amazing quality on that photo.  This version of BarnaDepp looks more Frid-like than the other glimpses we have seen, but it was the day before shooting began, so presumably Depp was still working on making the role his own.

G.

Cousin--blame DC at least in part for Barbara Steele's performance as Julia.  She actually talked about doing DS in this video interview that was included as an extra (I think on Nightmare Castle) on one of her Italian horror film DVD releases a year or two ago.  She said that Dan kept forcing her to play certain scenes very "straight" and that she was not allowed to make the character as "eccentric" as she would have wished.  It is a brief part of the interview, but it is clear that DS does not at all represent a happy memory for Barbara Steele.

I actually enjoyed her both as Julia and as the Countess... grand stuff!  Although the Countess dresses and talks like the madam of a bordello.  Interesting take on the character! 

G.

Depp in the costume ball still looks really ... Byronic.  Which could be a tacit nod to where it all began, with Dr Polidori's fantasy scenario about Lord "Ruthven" (aka Byron) and swooning over the prospect of having the life sucked out of him by this dark haired vampire beauty (male). 

It's not clear to me from the material that has been released whether Barnabas gets encoffined in the 1770s, or in the more usual 1790s.  The look in that still doesn't really work for the 1770s but could just work for 1795 or thereabouts.  At least that is how I see it.

Of course 18th century men could be notorious dandies complete with face powder, "black patches" (beauty marks), etc.  If Depp does a flashback sequence, his Barnabas in situ might wind up looking like Countess Natalie du Pres as portrayed by our beloved Grayson. lol

cheers, G.

Those are all well taken points.  What's fascinating to me about the tweets during the movie production is references to sequences shot at the Cannery, and even, if I am not mistaken, in the Collinsport harbor.  We never saw anything like that even in the early months of 1966.

Of course, whether those sequences will make it into the finished film... who knows?

G.

Happy Birthday to Penny Dreadful!  My very favorite Vile Vitch!  I was just thinking last night I need to get more of your DVDs!

I don't know Rose Cottage, but whoever and wherever s/he is, Happy Birthday!

G.

I hope KLS's copy-editor learns the correct spelling of Helena's name before the book actually goes to press.

Interesting point, Cousin, about the lighting chosen for that photo.  The 1967 original had very much a nighttime feel to it, didn't it?  And I'm sure that this photo was taken on an indoor stage-set, not in some real mansion.

G.