NODS

[Darren Gross]

You can see the missing footage either at a festival panel that I might do next year or perhaps sometime in the next 10 years or so it will be restored and  released on a DVD.

[LorraineAAB]

Aunt. .are you talking about the departed Mrs. Stoddard mentioned in the first scene but never seen?  Carlotta is not Quentin's aunt, she just the housekeeper, a creepy well dressed and coiffed housekeeper.

I was referring to Carlotta being Gerard's aunt.  Unless thay was just a pretense under which she (and previous incarnations of Angelique's little buddy Sarah) brought in assorted stud-muffins (more or less--- a ghost, even a nympho ghost, shouldn't be fussy) to keep Ange occupied until a (living) dead-ringer for her lost Charles showed up.

P.S., now that I think of it, Angelique exploited an innocent child--- was she a previous incarnation of--- gasp!--- MICHAEL JACKSON?  I mean, bleach his hair, get him a Wonder Bra, and dress him in the Sexy Nightgown of Death--

Shuddering at the creative use this image might be put to by our best PhotoShop mavens...

L.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If all goes smoothly, I'll be there to show something NODS related but no idea if and what at this point.

What clips that I've shown previously are the most popular and would you want to see?

Well, anyone who knows me or pays even the slightest bit of attention to what I post about NoDS should know by now that I would crawl through fire over burning timbers and shards of broken glass just to get a glimpse of any of the recovered footage - especially anything that I haven't already seen. So, given that, perhaps I'm not the best person to ask. However, that certainly won't stop me from suggesting clips that an audience wider than myself might like. 

I'd say that the seance and the extended hanging of Angelique should most definitely be shown. The extended version of the taking of Angelique from the tower, Quentin's more explicit molestation of Tracy in their bedroom, and Tracy's dream sequence could also be important.

As for my own personal wish list, I'd love to see anywhere from anything to everything in the recovered footage featuring Grayson Hall and Kate Jackson - particularly scenes like the one in which Tracy catches Gerard staring at her and Carlotta explains that he's her nephew and his dogs are an important part of estate security, and the picnic. Also on that list would be what many fans refer to as "the piano scene" - the flashback to the music room. (Sound, no sound - who cares?!  )

(I just wish scenes like the one involving Angelique's two portraits, Tracy's encounter with Gerard at the stable, and the discovery of Charles' skeleton and Angelique's coffin (I particularly do not understand about that one - how could DC not have included THAT in the film??!!) weren't seemingly lost forever...)

So, if I throw myself at your feet, beg, and promise to do anything for you (well, almost anything - then again, maybe certain things *might* be negotiable - and actually there are more scenes that I'd personally love to see) do you think anything on my personal wish list might possibly show up in your presentation?? Hmmm. 

I felt the ones at the California one a year or so back didn't seem to illicit much of a response and I wouldn't want a dead program.

What was wrong with those people?! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

P.S., now that I think of it, Angelique exploited an innocent child--- was she a previous incarnation of--- gasp!--- MICHAEL JACKSON?  I mean, bleach his hair, get him a Wonder Bra, and dress him in the Sexy Nightgown of Death--

I know you're joking. But, no matter how any of us might feel towards him, what any of us may personally believe took place, or how today's media just loves to try and convict almost everyone and anyone on its own, he *IS* still innocent until proven guility.

We wouldn't condone that sort of joke if it was made at any of the DS stars' expense. So, it's not really fair to let jokes about non-DS celebrities pass without pointing that out...

[Gothick]

Golly, I'll have to go back and look at Darren's site again.  For some reason or other, I thought that the discovery of Charles' skeleton *was* amongst the recovered footage.

I well remember opening the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland back in '71 and seeing a full-page still of that scene in the magazine. Boy, was I puzzled when I finally got to see the movie and there was no sign of that scene!

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Alas, I don't believe so...

[Midnite]

I recall reading that the discovery of the skeleton and coffin are lost. 

What was wrong with those people?! 

LOL.  Well, I can't speak for others, but I was sitting in stunned silence as the recovered footage ran and joined the audience afterwards in showing how grateful I felt for that amazing opportunity.

The scene at the piano, especially, BLEW ME AWAY!

[Gothick]

Wow.  Here's hoping Darren decides to include the piano scene next year!  I really need to go back and re-read my copy of the NoDS script...

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

G., unless you have the DS Movie Book, I don't think you can read the piano scene. I think it's only in that version of the NoDS script - I don't think it's in the other script version that we have. In fact, I think that script contains an entirely different scene in its place (a flashback involving Gabriel and Charles) that either doesn't appear in the Movie Book version, or it appears in a totally different part of the script.
(I'd check, but I just realized that I don't even know where my copy of that other version is!!    And that's VERY unusual for me because I'm nothing if not meticulous (some might even say obsessive  ) about where I store my DS stuff.)

[Darren Gross]

MB

You're enthusiastic suggestions are noted!

The Tracy dream sequence, sadly no longer exists. Add this (along with the lost skeleton scene) to the 'why on earth was this cut?' pile. That section of the film is longer, but it mostly consists of a series of shots holding on Tracy in as she tosses and turns, superimposed with Angelique's eyes. There is then a dissolve to another angle as Tracy rises trancelike from the bed. Between these scenes is where the poolhouse dream would have happened...Thankfully, unlike the skeleton scene, there are many photos and about 15 seconds of footage of it that appears in the end of the theatrical trailer...There's a link I just put on the site www.nightofdarkshadows.com where you can download the trailer and see it...In this trailer, the title graphic is superimposed over it, but you can still make out what is going on. Thankfully, the vault has the negative of the trailer sans text and I'd love to have that as part of a future DVD...Unfortunately we don't have any more but that one shot so it can't be put back in the film.

The piano scene was a rewrite and was revised during production. I'm glad you were impressed. It should look terrific in color and hopefully we'll get a chance to see it that way eventually.

I would like to show the r-rated extended tower flashback (as well as the other 6 r-rated bits- since they have color and sound, they work well within the presentation...same goes for the 2 min trailer which is pretty terrific and always raises goose pimples.) but not the much longer version from the directors cut. Without sound, I felt it didn't play well at the fest and I'd definitely try to drop that from the program.

[Darren Gross]

The skeleton scene is a very odd deletion. It would have run a minute or under and if it was a matter of running time, they could have shaved a few seconds off of some other scenes throughout the picture in order to put it in.

I'm of the mind that it was cut either because the skeleton effect didn't come of well enough in the finished footage or most likely, the purpose of the scene and the dialogue in it caused confusion instead of answering questions....

For example...Quentin has only one line in the scene, "So that's why Laura was laughing at the funeral....they were burying an empty coffin!"

Here's where the confusion starts- 1) he's referring to a scene that happened over an hour and 1/2 earlier in the film 2) it's not made 100% clear in the dialogue what the skeleton signifies 3) the skeleton is Charles' remains after he was sealed in the room by Gabriel...It is lying ON TOP of a cheap pine-wood coffin, which has, lying inside it, the unseen remains of Angelique...hence her attack on Tracy in the basement a scene earlier. Part of the reason for Angelique's and Charles' spirits are not at rest is because 1) they were killed violently and untimely and 2) they were not buried on hallowed ground...it's part of Gabriel's punishment  that they would never have rest.

In order for the scene to be 100% clear it would have needed a rewrite or different staging- perhaps one in which they open the pine box in order to theorize what the imagery signifies....As written in the script, it's still a bit unclear and as such was deemed a distraction and dropped...At least, that's my theory....

A shame since its such a striking image and along with the overhead shot of Angelique hanging, is one of the key images from the film...

It's also the scene I most wanted to find when I started this journey...

[Gothick]

Darren, I'm so sorry about the skeleton discovery sequence--it always seems to be the way with these things...

And MB, thanks for the tip about the Movies book.  I do own that book, but had never bothered to look at the screenplays very closely, since I'd already read the other draft of NoDS, for one.  And looking through hoDS, I'm shocked at the jejune, listless quality of much of the dialogue--the cut scene where Roger, Liz and Barn visit the OH for the first time, for instance.  VERY ho hum.  Makes me wonder just how much time Gordon & Sam had to crank out that script--not much, I gather.

I think I found the "piano scene."  I found a sequence that is a flashback to 1810 (and Lara wears the dress from the photo on the cover of the DS Music book--darn, am I sorry I never purchased that book!), with Parker, Selby, and Diana Millay.  Truly fabulous.  Since all 3 are alive and well, I don't see why we couldn't have a "staging" of that scene with the three reading their dialogue to the recovered footage.

I'll have to continue reading and see whether it was made more clear in this revised script the complicated idea GH explained in her notes about Carlotta not just keep the ghost alive, but actually experiencing Ang's orgasms when she was with Q!  I quite liked that idea... sooo kinky!

G.

[Miss_Winthrop]

Oh, and of course, we'd have to get someone to portray The Divine One (Ms. Hall to you).

The lady who plays the blonde haired forensic scientist(?) on CSI reminds me a little of Grayson. What with the right makeup and hair she would have a fair likeness to Ms. Hall.  The voice might be a problem though.

[Julia99]

You know there are other things they could've cut that some of these seemingly key scenes. . like the whole opening intro goes on waaaay too long for me ..  .the drive up the house. . just cut to it  . ..could've saved like 3 minutes there.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

You can see the missing footage ... sometime in the next 10 years or so it will be restored and  released on a DVD.

Let's try to stay a little more optimistic than that!