DS viewers will recall that the idea of the portrait of Quentin Collins was borrowed from Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The various film versions (including Dan Curtis’ 1977 TV version, which featured John Karlen) have been discussed here in the past, with many positive impressions of the original MGM film from 1945 with Hurd Hatfield and Angela Lansbury. The movie has just been released on DVD and the picture quality is excellent – very sharp and clear, much better than the airings on TCM (at least via my cable service). The DVD is also very affordable where discounted. Angela Lansbury provides running commentary in a conversation with a film critic.

For those who are interested in a much more faithful rendering of Wilde’s morality tale, though, I highly recommend a brand-new graphic illustrated version from Marvel. I’ve never had much interest in graphic novels (except for the Classics Illustrated from childhood) but I’ve made a major exception in this case (and one other, not DS related).

The characters, plot, and themes are all here, unlike the movie version. And the artwork is excellent, providing a visual guide that accorded well with my own visualization of the characters and scenes. (Note that the cover art work, which is adequate, was done by a different artist than that illustrating the actual text.)

Those who have seen the Dan Curtis version of this classic will immediately recognize that the portrait of Dorian as depicted here is a direct homage to the one in the DC TV version.

Maddeningly, this illustrated adaptation doesn’t come up in an amazon search, so I’ll post the exact form of the title listed, which may help: 

Marvel Illustrated: Picture Of Dorian Gray Premiere HC (Marvel Illustrated) (Hardcover)

The title is discounted, and it’s too bad amazon can’t figure out that this should come up under a search for “Picture of Dorian Gray,” but it doesn’t.

In mythology, Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with his statue of a beautiful woman, which comes to life.

The idea has inspired many other works, including "My Fair Lady," a scene in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale," and an episode of the Twilight Zone that I saw recently on the SciFi channel, "A World of His Own" (1960).  In the "Twilight Zone" episode (which is excellent) a playwright, played by Keenan Wynn, has his creation, a lovely young woman, come to life.

In "Dark Shadows," Charles Delaware Tate has similar powers - Olivia Corey began life as a painting (if I remember correctly).  I used to be very impressed by how widely read the DS writers seemed to be.  Stepping back just a little from that view now, I wonder if they simply came up with this concept from seeing the "Twilight Zone" episode.

OK, I won't go that far.  The DS writers do seem to have been well read.  In this case, though, it seems possible that someone on the DS creative team might have had their memory of the Pygmalion story jogged by seeing the "Twilight Zone" episode, and then thought the same thing could work on DS - which it did.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before.

A couple of nights ago, after midnight, I caught the last 15 minutes of a "Twilight Zone" episode airing on the SciFi channel.  I've enjoyed many of the Twilight Zone episodes I've seen, although I haven't seen all that many.  I hadn't heard that the Dark Shadows writers borrowed from the Twilight Zone.

But in this episode, there can be little doubt that the DS writers were inspired not once, but twice, in the course of the Dark Shadows run. 

The episode was called "Queen of the Nile" and starred Ann Blyth.  It was about an actress who looked young, but a reporter interviewing her discovered evidence that she was far, far older than she appeared - generations older.  I was immediately reminded of both the Laura Stockbridge Collins storyline, and the Olivia Corey character.  The Twilight Zone character maintained her youth by means of an Egyptian scarab.  I can't remember anymore what Egyptian object it was that Laura Collins had, but the concept obviously came form the Twilight Zone episode.  Then the fact that the Twilight Zone character was an actress reminded me of Olivia Corey.  I don't remember if Olivia Corey was generations old or if it was rather that she had rather unusual origins, but her character seemed to have been inspired by that of the actress in "Queen of the Nile."  In the Twilight Zone episode, an elderly woman is an attendant to the young, beautiful actress, but she furtively reveals to the reporter that she is not the actress's mother, as she had been introduced - but her daughter.  As I think more about it, I recall something about Olivia Corey claiming to be the granddaughter of an actress of two generations ago, but in reality she wasn't the granddaughter, but the original.

The writer of this Twilight Zone episode, which aired in 1964, was Charles Beaumont, who died in 1967, and thus probably never knew his story was reworked in DS.  Interestingly, Beaumont also wrote the scripts for some of the Roger Corman Poe adaptations ("The Haunted Palace" and "The Masque of the Red Death").

It would be very interesting to find out how Charles Beaumont came up with the idea for his character - whether it was his own original concept, or whether he, too, was inspired from some earlier work.

Also, does anyone know why The Twilight Zone hasn't come out on DVD?

Just in time for Halloween viewing (and while anxiously awaiting the DVD release of the DS movies), here are some films that have recently been released on DVD.  All of these movies have been mentioned here in the past.  I'm including my own brief mini-review of each.  Extra good news: they're all very reasonably priced (around $9 - $12)!  In order of DVD release, from most recent to least recent:

Count Dracula (1977).
Released September 25.  This is the Louis Jourdan version, which aired on PBS over two nights around Halloween almost 30 years ago.  So many people have been awaiting a video or DVD release in vain ever since.  It's the only really faithful version of Bram Stoker's novel both in terms of story and Stoker's intent - and hence it's arguably the best filmed version, in my opinion.  Not perfect, but overall very good.  The exteriors are great, including the castle, the Whitby steps, and the cemetery.  The interiors are on videotape, which is unfortunate but shouldn't bother any DS enthusiast.  Jourdan wouldn't be my choice for Dracula in terms of physicality, but his low-key portrayal grows in power and evil.

Witchfinder General (1968) - MGM's Midnite Movies.
Released September 11.  This is the director's cut with the original soundtrack restored, and without Vincent Price's opening recitation of Edgar Allan Poe's "Conqueror Worm" poem (which I liked, but this was only added for the American version.)  Also, the poor quality pasted in scenes from the British DVD release are omitted as the director hadn't wanted them in anyway.  A historian who published a recent book about Matthew Hopkins pans the movie for historical inaccuracy.  I agree with him that it's deplorable the way the movie has victims dragged off the street and lynched when in fact they were tried in the judicial system.  Nevertheless, the costumes and settings give a good sense of the times.  Having studied this period (17th century Europe) while doing my genealogy research, I think this film is a vivid depiction of the times and events.

Jess Franco's: Count Dracula (El Conde Dracula) (1973) with Christopher Lee
Released February 2007.
Starts off amazingly well, especially with Lee's earliest scenes being faithful to Stoker's characterization of the count, but the film goes off track straying from the book and from the promise of the earlier scenes.  The film elements are far superior to the earlier VHS release - you'll see things in scenes that you never knew were there before.  The visual improvement makes a far better film overall.  The dubbing is distracting (something I don't remember from the VHS tape) - apparently the Italian print used for the DVD was superior visually, but the English language sound track doesn't quite match.  Also quite unfortunate is that the scene of the mother pleading for the return of her child was cut from the Italian version and thus doesn't appear on the DVD.  Klaus Kinski is effective (though mute) as Renfield.  The Spanish settings, which I once thought unfortunate, do add a rather surreal quality.

The Complete Omen Collection
Released October 2006.  I just discovered this set at my local Wal-Mart.  Five "Omen" movies for about $20, released by 20th Century Fox - not some cheap knock-off!

Frankenstein: The True Story (1973).
Released September 2006.
Christopher Isherwood's tantalizing interpretation of what he saw as the novel's hidden themes in the context of the Shelleys-Byron-Polidori association.  I remember being disappointed when this originally aired as a late-night made-for-TV movie (I had to get special permission to stay up late for two successive nights) because it didn't follow the book, which I had just read.  Especially galling was the "True Story" subtitle - which displeased Isherwood, too, according to his biography.  However, I do appreciate the film as a well-made and well-acted, intelligent interpretation.  Wonderful performances by a host of top-notch actors, including Agnes Moorhead, John Gielgud, and James Mason.

I haven't seen the new movie "The Lake House," which concerns an exchange of letters between a man and a woman living in the same location but separated by time.  Dan Curtis was intrigued by this theme as he talked about it in connection with his Hallmark television production "The Love Letter."  The same general idea had been used earlier on DS, though not as a love story.  I'm forgetting the details, but Barnabas and Julia were living in different times and Barnabas needed to get back to his own time.  I believe he wrote a letter which was placed in the secret compartment of a desk at the Old House, and later found by Amy during the present day.  As I think of it, one could say that the letter exchanged between Barnabas and Julia across the centuries was emblematic of the care they felt for one another.  The plot of "The Love Letter" has been described as : "Soulmates exchange letters across time through an antique desk

Mr. Curtis' production of "The Love Letter" clearly acknowledged its source, a short story titled "The Love Letter" by Jack Finney.

The theme of a love story across time probably is most widely known from the movie "Somewhere In Time," based on a Richard Matheson novel, which seems to have been inspired by various stories by Jack Finney.  A line in the movie refers to a fictional physicist named "Jack Finney," hence Mr. Matheson's homage to Finney.

The screenplay for "The Lake House" was written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning dramatist, so it ought to be of high quality.  Credits for the movie do not acknowledge Finney as the source for the central idea of an exchange of letters across time.

MB, I know you are a fan of Mozilla & Firefox, so I hope you won't mind answering this question because I don't know whom else to ask, and I can't find any nformation on Mozilla.com addressing what I think is a pretty basic question.

I thought it might be time to upgrade my old version of the Firefox browser that I have had since 2004.  (At one point I was glad I hadn't changed because I read that there turned out to be a serious security issue with the newer version of Firefox that wasn't a problem with the older version!)

Anyway, there is NO information on Mozilla.com to tell me:

1.  do I need to remove the old version of Firefox from my computer first?

2.  and, if so, is there any way to copy or transfer my "Favorites" from the old program and install them on the new browser?


Thanks if you are able to either answer these questions or direct me somewhere else where I might find the answers!  I thought Mozilla used to have an FAQ, but I don't see one on their current website.

I was just glancing at Turner Classic Movies' schedule for today, Tuesday, August 30, and noticed at least three movies on today with some "Dark Shadows" connections (well, I may be stretching a bit).  

Note:  I'll give the times as Eastern, since that's TCM's default.  Adjust to your own time zone.

10:30 a.m.  The elegant, classy Jean Simmons (of the 1991 DS revival series) stars in "Young Bess," along with the incomparable Charles Laughton.

2:15 p.m.  Grayson Hall in Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana," with Richard Burton and Deborah Kerr.

4:15 a.m.  "Eye of the Devil" with Deborah Kerr.  The governess of "The Innocents" tangles with a pagan enclave in southern France.


Now, if only we could get TCM to show some Joan Bennett movies - how about "The Reckless Moment," "Scarlet Street," and "Woman in the Window" for starters?  Apparently they showed two Constance Bennett movies earlier today (I mean yesterday, Monday, but I haven't been to bed yet, so it's still today ...  )

I was going through some old theatrical photos today and came across one of Joan Bennett starring in the Broadway touring production of "Bell, Book, and Candle," which deals with witchcraft (lightheartedly, I believe, but I haven't seen it for myself - something along the lines of "Bewitched," perhaps).  Bennett looked quite stunning in the photo.  I forget who had the role originally on Broadway, but Kim Novak got the part in the movie version.

"Presence of Mind" is a recent film that reinterprets Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" (the basis for the movie "The Innocents" and also the governess/children/ghosts storylines on DS, as well as a Dan Curtis TV version).  The film apparently was never released theatrically in the U.S.; it is a Spanish production but is in English (not dubbed).  The cast includes Sadie Frost (British) and Lauren Bacall.  I had never heard of the film before picking up the DVD from the sale rack at Best Buy last December, but never got around to posting about it.  Having watched the movie recently for the third time, I wanted to draw DS board members' attention to it.

First, it's beautifully filmed.  The setting has been changed to an unidentified tropical island - a major reinterpretation, and although I prefer the English manor setting of the original, the location works well.  The hot, slow summer days shimmer with vivid color and heat.  Scenes are composed as artistically as any I've seen; some frames could be reproductions of old master paintings - Vermeer is one artist who comes to mind, whose color, tones, shading, and composition seem to be consciously replicated.  I haven't been able to figure out where the setting is supposed to be.  I'm assuming it was filmed on an island off the coast of Spain (probably in the Canaries).

Sadie Frost is somewhat tentative in the role as governess, although I've appreciated her performance more with repeated viewings.  Her baby-doll voice seems out of place at first, but then, maybe there were women in the Victorian era who had baby-doll voices, I don't know.  And there are aspects of the character where the voice may not be inappropriate.  The time period seems to be roughly the same as the original, and the costumes, especially Frost's as the governess, are gorgeous - far too expensive to realistically be the wardrobe of a governess, though.

This interpretation of the story is highly sexual, but not in an explicit way (other than one brief full-frontal nude scene of Frost, which is beautifully done).  Rather, it is psychosexual.  The mystery is a psychological one, even more so than in the earlier versions, because everyone's psychology, including the housekeeper's (Bacall's), is enigmatic.  There are references to sexual and physical abuse.  It was only on a second viewing that I realized the visual cues that were linking the governess to Miss Jessel, which was quite fascinating.

The visual imagery throughout is highly symbolic, something that has become more clear to me with second and third viewings.  Perhaps the most memorable of these scenes is where the governess explores the dark, nightmarish inner chamber of the master's quarters, which seems to symbolically represent her entering the darkness of her own mind.  The phallic and yonic symbolism of James' story is replicated.

There are no special effects.  This is a slow-paced film that builds to a devastating psychological climax.  It is a non-commercial film in the extreme - definitely not for run of the mill horror fans.

But for anyone interested in another interpretation of James' story, I highly recommend it.

-Vlad