Too bad we're not in the early part of The Summer of 1970 - segue into - 1840 tonight ... there's a full eclipse of the moon which will happen in just three more hours!

And it's supposed to be blood red!

I'm late posting some thoughts I had about recent episodes -- this is my first day out my sickbed ... (I finally got whatever everyone else on this board seemed to have multiple times during the winter ...  )

I really, really like the way the portrait of Quentin was interwoven into this storyline, and the Quentin and Amanda in the Underworld sequence is one of the most memorable of DS, in my opinion ... probably because I've always loved Greek mythology ...  But I'm also fascinated with the way DS portrayed Death's Waiting Room ... I wonder if the idea of a luxury hotel lobby was original with the DS writers, or if it might have been lifted from some old movie? ...

The series of traps in the underworld was OK considering the budget, but I think it would have been more effective if they had only shown the spider's shadow, as they did at first, instead of going all the way with the "horror" of the hairy thing!

Incidentally, none of the characters ever seems to have realized that it was Barnabas who was responsible for Quentin's loss of memory, not the accident!  Interesting that everyone seemed to remain in the dark about that, and surprising that Julia didn't catch on ...

Something I found confusing was the way the portrait of Olivia Corey was revealed when the second painting was sponged away using solvents, but with the Quentin/New South Wales painting(s), they "lifted off" the New South Wales landscape ... apparently this was painted on a separate canvas that had been stretched over Quentin's portrait's canvas ... thought that might have been explained a little better ...

I've always been fascinated with Quentin's portrait (i.e., since these episodes last ran) and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" themes  ...  and found it interesting that the uncredited DS artist who created the portrait of the aged Quentin basically duplicated the famous Dorian Gray portrait by Ivan Albright that hangs in some museum in Chicago (have any Chicagoans out there ever seen this?).

Too bad DS never saw fit to give the portrait artists credit ... they certainly gave "the bat" enough credit, and I would think that the portraits of Barnabas, Angelique, and Quentin took at least as much time and skill to create ...

Wasn't it funny that the old art professor didn't provide some kind of warning in advance about what the portrait of Quentin Collins showed?  It must have been somewhat of a surprise even to him when he unveiled it ...

The deeper meaning of this sequence of Quentin's portrait, showing the ravages of "sin" (I think that was the word they used) and time made me ponder:  What would a portrait of me look like if it showed all of my transgressions?    (Though I'm sure the halo around my head is only somewhat faded and tarnished  )

By chance I came across a recent interview with Dario Argento. He is very upset with plans to remake "Suspiria."  He is doing everything he can to stop the remake with letters and pleas to the studio and producers, and is calling on the Internet community to bring pressure on them to stop it.

If they do remake it, do you think Jean Simmons would take on the Joan Bennet role???   

The more I've read about the background of this movie, the more respect I've gained for it.  It seems unlikely to me that the vision for the film and all of its elements would coalesce a second time to produce something as unique.  (If anyone saw the remake of "Psycho," you'll know what I mean. ... Fortunately, I only watched a few minutes of it and was spared ... )

Amazing, at the time the original thread on this was started, I had never even heard of "Suspiria" or Dario Argento ...

Who was it who used to regularly post about every mistake on practically every episode? I just realized that's been missing from this forum (his comments were always humorous)! Though I'm not on a crusade to bring back that tally sheet, I noticed three rather glaringy gaffes in fairly quick succession recently, so thought I'd mention them ...

Let's see, first there was that scene in Josette's room at the Great House on the night of her demise, when Barnabas came to her and KLS very deftly fed J. Frid his line -- something like "You mean we could be together that way now, don't you?"  (Mr. Frid had put the line in the past tense  )

Then the next episode, I think it was, opened with a voiceover telling about Josette's demise in front of her portrait at the Old House, and the scene being shown was inside the Old House (we were still in 1796 at that point), where one spotted Julia Hoffman's 1970s wool coat hanging on the coat rack ...

Finally, either in that episode or the next one, after we had returned to 1970 and Julia was telling Carolyn about her experience in 1897 (I didn't recall at all that Carolyn even knew about this ...) and how she was waiting for Barnabas' return, and then Julia overhears the voices of Magda and Pansy (Faye) talking in 1897.  They are discussing how Barnabas disappeared with Josette in the Old House and haven't been seen since.  Pansy insists that Magda should know what's happened because "you were friends with Barnabas, weren't you?"  Magda agrees that she was, but that she hadn't seen Barnabas for "two weeks."  Wait a minute!  Magda was "friends" with the "old," vampire Barnabas ... not the "new" Barnabas who appeared on the scene after Pansy staked "the vampire"!  And that must have been more than two weeks ago! Looks like a writer goofed on that one, and no one caught it ... 

I mentioned this in another thread, but the subject seems important enough (to me, anyway) to warrant a separate thread -- and hopefully the Subject line will be noticed by someone who knows.

I've been carefully examining every episode where Josette's music box is shown in closeup ever since I bought my copy from the DS Festival.

I am sure that there are TWO Josette's music boxes being used!  Has anyone else noticed this?  The one shown in Wednesday's episodes was the more elegant looking one -- somewhat wider, and with the glass wider at the top.  The last closeup of the music box that I remember from maybe a week or so ago seemed like a more slender and possibly taller version, and the glass seemed not to have the outward curvature.

The scene where Lady Hampshire is drawn to Josette's bedroom was vintage DS ... a memorable moment in DS which I had forgotten.  Very effectively done in terms of lighting, sets, costume, direction, and KLS's performance.  I was enthralled when Lady H. poured the two glasses of sherry ...

And thematically, at least as Dan Curtis has stated in interviews, it would seem that this scene embodies the very essence of Dark Shadows ... (the vampire and his reincarnated lost love).

"I guess no one had ever loved me before."

"For us, a new day isn't a new beginning."

Those aren't direct quotes but I think my paraphrases capture the essence of Pansy Faye's scene with Quentin yesterday.

What an interestingly written and performed scene between the drunken Quentin and down-on-her-luck Pansy Faye, visiting Collinwood after an engagement at the Blue Whale.

Nancy Barrett movingly evoked a hurting, depressed spirit behind Pansy Faye's tough exterior, facing the cold truth of her life behind the limelights ... shades of Marilyn Monroe; evocative of a Tennessee Williams character. (Made me realize how much I'd like to see Ms. Barrett perform Tennessee Williams ... I think she could do justice to Blanche DuBois ... though I suppose she's too old for the role now.  I could also see her as the fragile Laura of "The Glass Menagerie," if she had played her at the time she was on DS.)

Might something of Charity Trask been showing through Pansy Faye in this scene, too?

Sadly, how brief this moment of self-realization was, and the hard-as-nails Pansy was back in a flash, her roiling anger palpable as she gleefully pounded the stake into Barnabas' chest.