Well, I'm back from vacation, obviously. Thanks for the good wishes, I had a lovely trip. Got lost several times in the wilds of Oregon on a quest to find covered bridges (I wasn't driving and it wasn't my idea). Ate good food, saw friends, bought cool things. In short, I am rested, but alas, still fill of vitriol as ever (but then, you knew that, right?
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Fashion notes first . . .
Nice job on Karlen's makeup. He actually looked gray and miserable and like he hadn't slept properly in days.
Joan Bennett in the sleeveless dress. I can't believe I'm saying this, because Bennett really looked amazing for her age, but sleeveless+Joan=bad idea. The color was good--is there a color she couldn't wear?--but the cut was eh, and again bare arms=bad idea.
OMG, what did they do to Moltke's hair? Paging Sacheem Littlefeather. Dear Lord, bring back the Mary Pickford bow please.
Cassandra's orange dress almost made me change my mind about orange. It's not a bad cut, although I think it might have looked better on Bennett.
Liz's hostess gown was a vast improvement.
The less I say about Moltke's clothes from here on out, the better.
Onto the show.
Well, actually, my vitriol is staying fairly contained for this column. I was pretty impressed all around.
Karlen's scene recounting the dream to Julia. Hall was nicely restrained and it helped so much. And Karlen . . . this is exactly what they should have done instead of torturing us all with stock footage and medical school props. He hit all the right notes for nervous panic and his narrative was creepy. For once I actually could get why everyone was so freaked. Really nice work.
Just a brief question--the root cellar? That's the basement set isn't it? For Collinwood, I mean. Right?
Hypnotizing Willie, okay, so it was a bust. But you would think that Julia would have tried this trick before.
Adam obviously thinks that Carolyn is shiny, just like the jewelry in Willie's magic box. Hehe.
Yay, the cool Sheriff Patterson. I really prefer Vince O'Brien to Dana Elcar. You could almost believe that the character had a brain.
Very much enjoyed Julia and Willie acting like Margaret Wycherly and Virginia Mayo when being interrogated by the cops in "White Heat." Actually, both of these episodes really have a strong resemblance to a forties prison melodrama. In a scary sort of way.
Deeply puzzled as to why Carolyn isn't screaming for help instead of theorizing why Adam left her.
Nice work between Barrett and Rodan, btw. Rodan really does bring a childlike quality to the part. That's got to be hard to do.
I nearly fell off the sofa laughing at Cassandra doing her "nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms," schtick which Vicki actually bought! I could probably sell the twit a bridge in Brooklyn.
It's been nice seeing a return of the strong Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. I noticed that Ron Sproat penned both of these episodes so that's probably why. It's just too bad that Bennett chose this particular time to go off and get her face lift or rest cure or whatever it was.
Luciaphil
