Oh, and for those of you in the NYC area, I just heard on a listserv that The Reckless Moment (James Mason, Joan Bennett and directed by Max Ophuls) is playing at The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York this Sunday.

The Reckless Moment  is possibly of Bennett's best performances, and it's sadly little screened. Never been released on video (although a bootleg floats around eBay now and then). Also a noir, but Bennett doesn't play a tramp in this one. Kind of an interesting look at noir via the American family. They remade this as The Deep End, but I think the original version has more resonance.

I had that taped and didn't know the value of it -- didn't know it was directed by Ophuls.  I started watching it and it didn't seem of much interest so handed it over to my parents.  I think they felt the same and didn't get around to finishing it.  I don't know what happened to the tape.

Maybe the movie got better?  I've just seen a couple of older movies where that was the case -- slow beginning, not much interest, but building to a tense climax.  (One was the Barretts of Wimpole Street, and I'm forgetting what the other one was at the moment.)

It's so quiet on the board -- maybe everyone is doing their taxes.  Speaking of which, I better sign off and do mine!  (Actually, all I really have to do is recopy the forms, thank God -- I was up till 3 a.m. last night going through all the instructions and forms and am having a hard time concentrating today due to lack of sleep -- if my posts seem rather wiggy, that's why ...)

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've never understood this comment about the Leviathan ratings spelling the end of the show.  I mean, we're barely half-way through the run of the series!

I was greatly intrigued with the Leviathan storyline up until the end.  I liked the return of an evil Barnabas (and appreciate Frid's acting transformation here) and though I'm not much of a sci-fi person, I still found the Leviathan idea interesting.  Later on, I felt everything hit rock bottom -- on many levels, including the acting and directing; it seemed like the show completely fell apart.  (Will strive to keep my comments less acerbic this time round, though!)

In reviewing the entire scope of the show, I personally rank the next storyline, 1970 PT, below Leviathan overall, as well as the Adam storyline, and possibly something else I'm forgetting, below Leviathan.  A story I started on Angelique is set during Leviathan, so this storyline, while not one of my favorites by a long shot, still provided the perfect setting and situation for my imagination ...

The show certainly recovered (whether from my perceived low point, or from low ratings ...) ... and among several more storylines to go, we still have the greatest storyline of all to look forward to -- 1840! (A bit of editorializing there, I'll grant.)

 

And it's too bad the writers never fully developed him as an ally to Barnabas & Julia - those three running around together would've been the best!

On the other hand, this creates more ambiguity -- which makes the characterizations and situations more real-life and interesting.

I always kinda thought that there were two Josette's music boxes used throughout the series, just some subtle differences between them.  I wonder if they had two of them made (or purchased two very similar nick-nack, brick-a-brack thingies from a junk shop) just in case one got busted; you can see how they were sometimes a bit clumsy with the props.

Whew!  I was expecting to be written off as crazed and demented ...  thank you, Gerard!   

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.

I was suprised to see Quentin's grammaphone still up there in his room since Judith had mentioned to Quentin that she had all of his belongings moved to the "green" room, wherever that may be.  I would think that his grammophone would be very important to him since he loved to play it all the time.

Not only that, did you notice (or not notice, as the case may be) how blase Quentin's reaction was when Judith told him the news? Judith:  Oh, by the bye, while you were out for a few hours, I decided to close off the section of the house where you live and we've removed (some of) your belongings!  Quentin: Oh, sure, what the hay.

I'd be more than a little perturbed, and rather concerned about retrieving some of my belongings.

Jennifer, I think Angelique or Cassandra went into a bathroom off her and Edward's or whoever's bedroom suite and flushed some poison or something down the toilet once.

Yes, there were two gramaphones.  The designs on them differed.

** BTW, I also think based on episodes in the last three weeks that THERE WERE TWO JOSETTE'S MUSIC BOXES!! **

It's too bad the Reverend Gregory Trask didn't hook up with the real Pansey Faye when he had the chance.  They could've been the Jim and Tammy Baker (and wasn't her maiden name Faye?) of the 1890's.

"Faye" is a woman's name.

One would have thought that "Pansy Faye" is her first and middle name, but then Kitty came along and addressed her as "Miss Faye."  Perhaps that was a faux pas on Lady Hampshire's part, though.

*  *  *  *

Re: Rev. Gregory Trask ... there seems to be a pathological streak in the family.  There are scenes that indicate that Trask really believes he does have a pipeline to the Almighty ...