Question Regarding HoDS......

[Raineypark]

Can anyone tell me when HoDS was originally released in theaters in the NY Metro area?  Year and, if possible, approximate month or season?  Thanks.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm not sure of the exact week, but I'm pretty sure it opened in NY in late September or perhaps early October 1970. I know it opened in New England on September 23rd, and films generally opened in NY at the same time or a week or so later.

Perhaps Darren might have more specific info. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of hoDS...

[Raineypark]

Thanks, Pepe.....that's all I needed to know. 

[Gerard]

I remember seeing seeing it on Saturday, October 3, here in the midwest.  It was for the matinee, and I got to the theater two hours before the doors even opened, and already there was a line.  It seemed that every kid in my hometown was there and the management opened the second balcony, even though it was closed because it was unstable.  Those were the days when they weren't as strict about worrying if the whole thing collapsed.  It was a double-feature, and the first movie was a western, although I no longer recall its title.  Double-features - remember those?  They went the way of taking chances with unstable structures.

Gerard

[Patti Feinberg]

even though it was closed because it was unstable.  Those were the days when they weren't as strict about worrying if the whole thing collapsed.  Double-features - remember those?  They went the way of taking chances with unstable structures.

READ: Litigious greed welcome to America.
Yes...the local theatre by me had an orchestra pit!!!
(I didn't realize until recently, this theatre must have been what's known as 'seconds'...I musta seen Willie Wonka about 2 trillion time...was it worth $5.00 for my dad to get rid of 3 daughters for a few hours every Saturday...)?
You do the math

Patti

[Brian]

Hey, Gerard, sorry to hear about the balcony.     Glad nothing bad happened. . .considering the movie was HODS and bad things happend to nearly everybody in that one.

When I saw HODS, I believe it was sometime in October, 1970, at the Fairborn (OH) Theater, which is those days was a single house.  Sometime after HODS played, they split it in two and made it a duplex.  (I know it was early 70s because I remember seeing Blazing Saddles when it was a duplex.)  Anyway, it was a single feature with HODS being the primary flick.  I sat in the first row (what we did to our eyes in those days!!)

Later, maybe in December, I saw HODS again at a drive-in as part of a double-bill with the western DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE, starring Frank Sinatra.  Maybe that was the western you saw.  Lois Nettleton was in it, too.  I don't recall much else about it than that.

Brian

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I remember seeing seeing it on Saturday, October 3, here in the midwest.  It was for the matinee, and I got to the theater two hours before the doors even opened, and already there was a line.

I remember having a big fight with my mom over hoDS. I wanted to go see it after school on the Wednesday it opened, but she wouldn't hear of it. Her objection was that the theater it was playing in was located completely on the other side of town from where we lived and she knew she'd have to go out that night to pick me and my friends up after having worked all day (believe it or not, none of my friends' moms drove and their dads were all firemen and policemen who worked at night).

It seemed that every kid in my hometown was there and the management opened the second balcony, even though it was closed because it was unstable.  Those were the days when they weren't as strict about worrying if the whole thing collapsed.

Oh, I could just see that story: Hundreds of Local Kids Killed and Injured As Balcony Collapses During Showing of house of Dark Shadows. The wire services would have surely picked it up and  the story would have generated worse publicity for DS than the film itself ultimately did.


One of my "favorite" hoDS reviews has to be this one in which the reviewer is completely mystified by DS' appeal:

HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS -- Horror movies are measured by their capacity to thrill, chill, and mystify. This feature, based on the gothic TV soap opera, fails; the only mystery is its great popularity with teenagers. They seem to enjoy the wooden performances, hack writing, and stilted direction as camp humor, and to delight in the gory vampire scenes. The original TV cast consists of Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins, the 200-year-old vampire; Grayson Hall as Julia Hoffman, the lady doctor who tries to cure him; and Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans, the governess who is a reincarnation of Barnabas's 18th-century fiancee. Though there is a fair amount of violence and blood, the effect is negligible because the movie is, at best, an easily disposable, plastic copy of the real thing.

It was a double-feature, and the first movie was a western, although I no longer recall its title.  Double-features - remember those?  They went the way of taking chances with unstable structures.

Luckily the co-feature hoDS was paired with in the theater I first saw it in was Roman Polanski's hysterical The Fearless Vampire Killers (or, Pardon me, But Your Teeth are in My Neck). Next to it, hoDS couldn't have helped but look like it was played straight and nowhere near the "camp" the review above accused it of being.

Despite the fact that I was less than enthusiastic with the way hoDS turned out, it was still DS and that Saturday I stayed to see it three times (the days when you could do that for one admission price are long gone as well ) - and my mom still ended up having to pick me up around 9 that night - but at least she didn't have to work the next day.  And two weeks later, hoDS opened in another theater in town that was only four blocks from my house, so needless to say I was there that Saturday too. hoDS didn't have a co-feature in that theater so I got to spend about 5 and a half hours (three more showings) immersed in it with breaks only for coming attractions. And best of all for my mom, she didn't have to pick me up because afterward I just walked home.


Just imagine how many times I might have gone to see hoDS if I'd really liked it.

[Raineypark]

HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS -- Horror movies are measured by their capacity to thrill, chill, and mystify. This feature, based on the gothic TV soap opera, fails; the only mystery is its great popularity with teenagers. They seem to enjoy the wooden performances, hack writing, and stilted direction as camp humor, and to delight in the gory vampire scenes.

Gee.....sounds like the pre-cursor to "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

If only HoDS had been a musical......hmmmmmm 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey gang,

I believe the late (?) critic Cleveland Amory, in a review of ABC-TV's Dark Shadows in TV Guide Magazine, wrote (and, I'm paraphrasing here) that "Dark Shadows is probably the worst show in the history of television but, on Friday, I can't wait for the weekend to be over, so I can see what happens next on the show on the following Monday afternoon."

Bob the Bartender, who, happens to love wooden or florid performances (like Kevin Costner in any of his many, fine films.)

[Gerard]

Later, maybe in December, I saw HODS again at a drive-in as part of a double-bill with the western DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE, starring Frank Sinatra.  Maybe that was the western you saw.  Lois Nettleton was in it, too.  I don't recall much else about it than that.

For goodness' sake, Brian, that was the western which was part of the double-feature!  The only thing I remembered about it was the Frank Sinatra was in it.  Of course, no one paid attention; we just wanted to see HoDS.  As Frank was shootin' up the range, it allowed for a theater full of out-of-control kids to just keep running up and down the aisles, buy popcorn, and throw stuff over the railings of the two balconies, including the massive second one which was ready to come crashing down any minute.

Gerard
P.S.  By the way, that theater has long since been renovated and restored as a performing-arts-center.  Even the orchestra pit has been reopened, and that balcony (along with the side-boxes leading off of it) is once again strong and able to hold the world in its seats.

[Mark Rainey]

I first saw HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS at the local drive-in theater in 1970; my mom took a friend of mine and me to see it, but we didn't stay for the double feature, so I don't recall what it was with. Later, it came with MUNSTER, GO HOME, also at a drive-in.

I believe it was in 73, HOUSE and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS played on a double bill at the movie theater, and I went on a Saturday afternoon. The place was filled to capacity with the junior-high school crowd, and they never shut up through the entire double feature. Partway through NIGHT, the theater manager interrupted the show to put on a reel that some of you might have seen: It was a stern-looking gentleman in a suit and tie--rather like everyone's school principal--who proceeded to say: "Have you ever gone to the movie theater, and instead of the great picture you came to see, all you got was this?" The sound of screaming kids rises like a hurricane, then diminishes. "This is what YOU sound like," the man tells us. He indicates that making noise in the theater is very rude, and if you are caught creating a disturbance, you will be asked to leave. "Furthermore, those asked to leave today will be refused admission to this theater in the future!"

Needless to say, the noise in the theater died for maybe 30 seconds, then was back at twice the previous volume. Fortunately, I had already seen NIGHT at the drive-in when it first came out, so I had a clue what was going on. Good thing, since there wasn't a complete line of audible dialogue through the whole thing.

--Mark