The HoDS celebration at the Vista

[Gothick]

The Devil's Daughter is such a wonderful film, so stylish and with wonderful witty dialogue.  Abe Vigoda has a great cameo appearance, and then of course there's the mute, tragic chauffeur who communicates such poignant sorrow with nary a word of dialogue.  I was thinking of it yesterday because I just watched "The Initiation of Sarah" from 1978 and that was a much less polished, banal production... Winters seemed strangely off-key and under-rehearsed, disappointingly, in the latter film.

I'm very disappointed if Pierson flatly stated that there are "no plans" to release the films now.  It would have been reassuring if he had told us that "there are no current plans, but we are confident that WB will order the release of the films."  I wonder whether with their DVD-R on demand program in place, they're even less interested than ever in spending money to do decent editions of classic films. e. g. the 50th anniversary of Horror of Dracula came and went without an upgrade DVD release...

G.

[PennyDreadful]

Thank you for posting the video Joe!  I wish I could have made it to the Fest this year.  I look forward to reading the weekend reports!

~Penny Dreadful~

[Philippe Cordier]

First, an important correction. Jim Pierson was talking about something else, not HODS and NODS, when I heard him say that there were no plans for a DVD release. He was talking about the 1991 series with the expanded footage and the 2004 pilot when he said there were no plans for those to be released on DVD. There has been so much information these past few days that I wasn't recalling accurately.

I did return to see the ending of NODS last night but missed about the middle third of the film. As far as I could tell, there were no additional scenes from what I saw, so if there was a restored deleted scene, it must have been from the middle third of the film.

Unfortunately, they did not have the print of "The Devil's Daughter" after all. That was disappointing.

The previous night, they showed "Seizure." I was rather intrigued by the first half hour, but I think it was about 1 a.m. by then and I couldn't manage to stay up another hour and a half. I had heard only negative things about this movie and there was hardly anyone there watching it ... but it seemed similar to the concept of the Ingmar Bergman film "Night of the Wolf". I don't know which film was first., but I can't help but wonder if one film inspired the other. Jonathan Frid was very good from what I saw of the film.

[Gothick]

Thank you, Philippe.  I saw Seizure once, at a DS party.  There was so much cross talk and laughter that I've always meant to see it again.  It struck me as very much a period piece.  Martine Beswick is always fun to see.  Apparently the original title was going to be Queen of Horror and David del Valle waggishly wrote about the stir in town upon seeing a marquee that read "Jonathan Frid--Queen of Horror."  Naughty!

G.

[jennifer]

wow those were great pictures of Mr Frid i am so glad it made the front page
as i think DS get overlooked for the impact it made. here we are all these years
later still talking about it!

[jimbo]

another article

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/21/1738617/60s-tv-vampire-hit-dark-shadows.html

[Midnite]

The Miami Herald seems to have picked up the same article that ran in the LA Daily News, but how odd that they chose a photo of Barnabas as vampire victim to illustrate "the 175-year-old vampire Barnabas."

[CastleBee]

Thanks for posting the video Joe...enjoyed it very much. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

how odd that they chose a photo of Barnabas as vampire victim to illustrate "the 175-year-old vampire Barnabas."

Very odd.  


Oh no, CastleBee - the corgis are gone!  

[Willie Loomis]

okay, so, i was watching the video of Frid giving hand print.    God Bless him.   

but, i realized in the movie that he [spoiler]turns into an old man and i found this interesting and wondered  how well the makeup artists did with him as opposed to how he looks now...granted he was made up to 200 year old man, but still...[/spoiler]

i remember seeing this movie in it's original run and remember sitting in the theatre all day to watch the movie - those days this was allowed -- and got in trouble for coming home so late.    ah, the good old KID days!

and i always for some reason remember Terry Crawford playing with the IV.   

my favorite part was the whole [spoiler]carolyn getting staked scene and the fact that almost everyone turned into a vampire or was slaughtered in the film.  just like the ending of any time period ending it's story on the TV show.[/spoiler]

i found that these actors had a chance to prove that they could really act the story up with out goofing up as on the television show and Frid and Bennet (the two mose goofers) shined  in this movie.

i have it on my computer now from i-tunes and one day hope to take the time to hook up my computer to tv and watch both of them.

as far as the dvds.   hopefully in my lifetime......

[Mysterious Benefactor]

i remember seeing this movie in it's original run and remember sitting in the theatre all day to watch the movie - those days this was allowed -- and got in trouble for coming home so late.    ah, the good old KID days!

I stayed and also watched multiple times. I didn't get in trouble because 1) I'd told my mom that I was going to stay for multiple showings, and 2) the theater was only 5 blocks away from my home, so I walked home with my friends and then my mom drove them home. However, I was so dedicated to watching that I remained glued in my seat the second time around even though I had had a lot of soda and needed to go to the bathroom really badly. I was so proud that I didn't leave my seat until after hoDS was over and the co-feature had begun again. 

[CastleBee]

Oh no, CastleBee - the corgis are gone!  

Yes, and now that you mention it, I miss those little Collinwood Corgis...I believe I will resurrect that photo.  

[Midnite]

Yay, CastleBee!

Some pre-ceremony photos:



Local advertisement of the event and Fest included a half-page pic in the current issue of LA Weekly with the caption, "Your No. 1 fang: Jonathan Frid's Barnabas Collins."  Fans arriving early weren't too pleased to soon learn that they would have to leave the more comfortable patio area to form a queue in the full sun along Hillhurst Avenue in order to recapture those best spots later.  But at least they were allowed to purchase cold drinks from inside so long as they didn't linger, and there was plenty of security on hand to make sure they didn't.  It became a mob scene once they were joined by the busloads of fans from the hotel.  But it was the first appearance of Frid that whipped up the crowd:

He was quickly taken inside the theater's green room.  DS fan Michael Culhane entertained during the interim.


For once the cement wasn't too wet, but it's not like they had to mix a lot of it.

[Midnite]

Below, she's holding the House of Dark Shadows imprinter before it's set in place:

   

Richie Halpern emceed.  The gentleman with Frid is the wonderful Vista manager, who explained what was to happen.  Frid refused his help, but Marcy Robin urged a member of his staff to assist him into that kneeling position, which was not at all easy for him. ...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Fantastic pics!!