Heather! you're ba-ack!  Trust me, sweetheart, we ALL bow before the Serene Throne of the infinitely darling Mysterious One...

And what a GORGEOUS drawing of Grayson as Pepe!  Congratulations!  You certainly do have talent!

sighing over the beauty of the Divine One,

Steve

For those who are fans of Ben Cross, the English actor who portrayed Barnabas Collins in the 1991 Dark Shadows series, I just learned that he has a role in the new movie The Exorcist: The Beginning (which is due to be released this weekend in the US, I believe).

I have no further info, but wanted to let Ben's fans know.

G.

Hi Jean-Claude!  lovely meeting you and spending time with you at the Festival last weekend.  Sorry to hear about the cold, but hardly surprising given the *glacial* temps in that hotel!  I (thank the Gods) don't have a cold but have felt worn out and run down since coming home.

Oh, I well remember the atmospheric effect achieved for that episode.  One of my favorite moments was when the werewolf (played, incidentally, by brilliant stuntman Alex Stevens--I heard him give a talk about his work on the show at, I believe, the '95 Festival) spends a moment hovering over Tom Jennings' tombstone.  I thought that was a neat salute to one of the most popular storylines of the preceding summer.

Best,  Steve

Just a short note to say that of the programming at the Festival, by far the highlight for me was Darren's presentation of the footage he has recovered from the missing half hour (plus) of Night of Dark Shadows.

I must say, I was shocked to learn that one of the suits at MGM informed Sam Hall and Dan Curtis that he hated Grayson and wanted her entirely removed from the finished movie!  They had 24 hours to edit it down from the completed running time of 2 hours 7 minutes to 90 minutes so MGM could program it with Scream, Blacula, Scream in drive-ins.

Due to equipment issues, the footage did not play all that well in the ballroom, but Darren was kind enough to assure me that what he recovered is in pristine condition and, when the restoration is complete, will look as it would have done on premiere day in 1971!

Among the missings scenes, I enjoyed a tender boudoir moment between Quentin and Tracy, and the gloriously catty scene with Angelique at the piano (probably Diana Millay's best scene in the movie).  There was a great, long scene filmed on that railroad bridge between Quentin and Alex, which did a lot to define the strength and substance of the two men's friendship (I'll just say that I was whispering my own "text" to the dialogue to my neighbor during the screening!), and was beautifully photographed with some great close-ups of these two stunningly handsome actors.

He also found another cat-and-mouse scene between Carlotta and Tracy, and, for us Grayson fans, another scene between her and Quentin as well.

To my eye, however, the seance sequence is the most stunning of all.  It is undoubtedly the centerpiece which is what everything in the movie was leading towards, and the images even without soundtrack do a lot to make sense of what was happening throughout the rest of the movie. Cinematographically and dramaturgically, it may be the best piece of film Dan Curtis ever directed.  I can understand the bitter heartache he felt at being forced to remove it from the release print of the movie.

After the screening, Diana, John, David and Lara came onstage and shared some memories about making Night of Dark Shadows.

G.

Hi Anne, I will be very surprised if the next Festival does not happen somewhere in or around L.A., given that the last 2 have been in New York.

Perhaps they will continue this year's theme and have it near Greystoke Manor, or whatever that house is called that was used for the 1990 "Collinwood."

cheers,

Gothick

I think they're all ghastly.

Despite the wishes of my fellow Grayson fans, I am praying they do not do a Julia bobble-head doll.

If they decide to go ahead with one (and I think they are consider it because they make so much moolah off this kind of thing), I really hope they get an artist who has some modicum of artistic TALENT.

The Clay Doll Julia was witty and charming, so I know it can be done...

G.

Hi Cassandra, it was great meeting you!  You are such a cutie-pie!  Thanks for sharing the great photos!

Trip, Eric Gag me--is that with or without a spoon?  With that moniker and my putz, I just hope he does well with his skill at pitching those balls (excuse the bizarre grin that just twisted across my face).

This year's festival was a great time.  There was a wedding party sharing the hotel with us, which gave an extra bizarre twist to the proceedings--I'll spare you all my catty comments about wedding kulchur.

My personal favorite "event" was Darren's presentation of the NoDS footage.  I guess if no one else runs a thread on this, I will start one.  I just have to say that the seance sequence from NoDS was probably the best thing Dan Curtis ever did in his entire career, so I can understand the anguish he must have felt when the MGM bosses made him remove it.  I'll spare you the thoughts I had upon learning that one MGM boss made a point of saying he hated Grayson Hall and wanted her completely cut from the film. At least she got her revenge when SHE toured to promote it, in full Carlotta drag!  oh to have been a fly upon that wall.

G.