Discuss - Ep #0821

[Watching Project]

Robservations #821

[alwaysdavid]

Petofi threatens to burn Collinwood and kill Jamison to break down Barnabas.  Can Aristede be trusted with the two torches not to set the lair afire.  Barnabas finally has a good point that there is no future if Jamison dies and Collinwood is burned.  Stalemate. 

[EmeraldRose]

Major Milestones:
1. First appearance of Istvan, the first African American on DS. (Was he also the only African American on the show?) 
2. Aristede was the one who put the fake hand under the chair at the Old House.
3. Count Petofi let Barnabas out of his coffin so they could talk about the future. He threatened to have Aristede burn down Collinwood with torches, but Barnabas called his bluff and stopped him.
4. The ghost of Alexander Markham got his hand back from King Johnny.
5. King Johnny planned to take Magda back to Boston to stand trial.
6. Magda, hiding in the bushes, escaped from King Johnny and Istvan.

It was pretty neat when Count Petofi made Alexander Markham's ghost leave the lair. I also enjoyed it when Barnabas and Count Petofi were sparring with each other, and Barnabas won! 

Poor Magda! She was falsely accused and couldn't tell King Johnny that it was Count Petofi. It was hard to watch yet another person slap her - and it was another gypsy! Poor Istvan paid a high price as punishment. It's fascinating that the tongue is what makes people be able to talk.

I was glad that Barnabas got to have a rest from being stuck in that coffin. Too bad Count Petofi made him go back.

----- Sally ----

[Midnite]

Istvan, the first African American on DS. (Was he also the only African American on the show?) 

Oh Sally...

I liked her too, Lydia. I may be wrong about this, but I believe the black nurse was the first black person to appear on DS.

[EmeraldRose]

Oops! I really screwed up that time! Sorry, I forgot about that. Well, how about this milestone, then? Am I right? 

Istvan was the first African American male on DS.

----- Sally -----

[Roland]

Poor Istvan didn't even get a listing in the closing credits!

I wonder how the old Count would really feel about the music in 1969.  He doesn't exactly strike me as a natural-born lover of rock'n'roll. 

[MagnusTrask]

A real description of 1969 would make Petofi avoid it like the plague.

Re the torches:  While they often avoid the obvious, blunt options in storylines, and it could have been a relief that someone thought of the direct approach for once, the mental picture of Aristede walking slowly across Collinsport with twin torches, perhaps attracting a parade of kids and tourists like the Pied Arsonist, leaving the city limits, torches still blazing at full strength somehow, then walking up the drive to Collinwood.... eyes darting from side to side as he suddenly suspects that he might be seen... is entertainingly ridiculous.

[Roland]

I sometimes wonder why Barnabas doesn't seem more impressed by what he finds in 1967.  I realize he's an "old-fashioned" kind of guy who doesn't even allow electricity or phones into the Old House, but I can't imagine anyone in his situation not marveling at least to some extent over how far the human race had come technologically since he last saw it.  Telephones, electric lights, cars, planes, modern medicine, short skirts!  None of this seems to make much of an impression on him.   Electric lights, especially, would seem a true boon to someone forced to live his life entirely at night.

Of course, we don't know his reaction to television, since, as far as we can tell, there wasn't a TV set within a hundred miles of Collinwood. 

[Midnite]

Violet Welles wrote some amazing dialogue here:  The Count ponders what pleasures of the senses he will find in the future ("I burn to find out!"), takes shots at his gypsy enemies ("They are like black cats; they bring misfortune"), masterfully commands the spirit he angered to depart, and faces off with Barnabas, who tells him, "You are incompetent!"  And Johnny's lines are at times compelling as he taunts Magda with glimpses of her fate ("Maybe you'll be saying hello to them quicker than you think").

Unfortunately, the ongoing story of Magda's plight is a ripoff of Bajour, the 1964 Broadway musical that starred Herschel Bernardi as King Johnny (and features a young gypsy named Anyanka).  But even if the negative stereotypes of gypsies in the production and on DS (Magda is repeatedly called a thieving and murderous liar in this ep) were overlooked during the 60s, how can we possibly reconcile today that it also features a black man who was punished violently for attempting to flee after he was accused of a crime?

Can Aristede be trusted with the two torches not to set the lair afire.

Between that and the open fire at the gypsy camp, a ladder company should have been on standby!

I think Paul Michael was very good in his role as the proud gypsy leader.

Abraham Howell was played by Philip Cusack, and Istvan by Henry Baker.

And a large shadow at the mill was performed by the boom mic.

[Lydia]

But even if the negative stereotypes of gypsies in the production and on DS (Magda is repeatedly called a thieving and murderous liar in this ep) were overlooked during the 60s, how can we possibly reconcile today that it also features a black man who was punished violently for attempting to flee after he was accused of a crime?

I don't have any problem with this.  King Johnny, a gypsy himself, is the one who is calling Magda names in this episode, and the names she is called in other episodes by non-gypsies are reflections of their own prejudices.  As for Istvan, there may well have been others who were punished violently for various crimes, but if you're going to bring an enforcer along, Istvan has both the resume and the looks.  I was thinking, though, that impressive though Istvan is, King Johnny's entourage really doesn't amount to much – and shouldn't he have been sending a minion along instead of coming to Collinsport himself to fetch Magda?

Boston sounds like such an interesting place – swarming with gypsies – but I've never read about any gypsies being there in the 19th century.  There can't have been very many.  Oh, well, in the Dark Shadows universe there were probably tens of thousands.

Abraham Howell looked younger to me than his 50 or 51 years. I wonder what the cause of his death was.  And why didn't any ghosts ever come to Dr. Lang's house to take their missing parts back?

I loved those flaming torches.

[Midnite]

I don't have any problem with this.  King Johnny, a gypsy himself, is the one who is calling Magda names in this episode, and the names she is called in other episodes by non-gypsies are reflections of their own prejudices.  As for Istvan, there may well have been others who were punished violently for various crimes, but if you're going to bring an enforcer along, Istvan has both the resume and the looks.

Lydia, I was referring to racist stereotypes rather than prejudices.  We've encountered frequent negative gypsy stereotyping on DS, and as I mentioned, the Broadway play (which was in 1964) may be the best example of how it was tolerated (lyric: "Everybody's looking for the big bajour").  OTOH, when the only black man to appear on DS is said to be a criminal-- what was the effect that had on children watching in 1969?

I know this wasn't unusual for other late 60s TV shows (Ironside comes to mind), but in this instance why was that particular backstory even necessary?  As you said, the actor looked like a believable enforcer, and they could have left it at that.

I was thinking, though, that impressive though Istvan is, King Johnny's entourage really doesn't amount to much – and shouldn't he have been sending a minion along instead of coming to Collinsport himself to fetch Magda?

I'm guessing his ego had something to do with showing up himself.  He wanted to be the one to return the hand to his tribe.  His "today I am truly a king" line was kinda sad.

[Lydia]

Oh, OK, I thought I must be misunderstanding you, and I was.

[michaelhacketttodd]

In episode 562, Nicholas Blair is not allowed into Tom Jennings room by a confident, determined black nurse.  In spite of the times, this woman put an evil warlock in his place twice during the scene.  Michael Hackett Todd  

[fanforever]

Yeah, I really wish she was in more episodes instead of the common, uninteresting nurses that usually haunted the halls of the Collinsport Hospital. At least this character had some life!