the matthew morgan storyline

[michael c]

the topic on george mitchell got me thinking about matthew morgan.
over the weekend i re-watched the episodes where matthew kidnapped vicki and that ultimately lead to his demise.i hadn't seen them in years.

they were a very tense and suspensful group of episodes.i remembered them as only a few episodes but this plot lasted for nearly three weeks.i thought it was more disturbing that this young girl was at the hands of a desperately disturbed man as oppossed to later storylines when the captor is some sort of monster(which can be read as being "cartoonish").by the end of it both characters looked like hell.it was interesting to see the old house before barnabas and julia held court there.very different feel.

i also thought that these were a very transitional group of episodes.the show was just evolving into what it became.
carolyn(who was a b*tch across these eps.)and joe's relationship was in it's death throes.maggie was begining a not-so-subtle flirtation with joe.burke was realizing the extent of his feelings for vicki.josette was making her presence known.and of course this ultimately being a ghost story it was steadily moving away from being a darker version of a standard soap into something else entirely.then there is the first appearance of laura collins(in a hat and gloves no less!).there was something so strange about diana millay's delivery that i can't take my eyes off her when she's onscreen.

there was some nice attention to detail here.the collinwood pantry was well stocked and in the exterior shots of david running up to the old house he held a grocery bag in his hands.which meant that these were shot with this specific storyline in mind.and i love the diner set!later it would have become absolete(it's hard to imagine angelique and nicholas conspiring over grilled-cheese sandwiches)but it was a great set.

because of the strange way the show is marketed(with the pre-barnabas episodes being treated almost like another show)there are lots of fans who never saw this.which is sad because thayer david fans should see this very vivid portrayal of matthew morgan...so different from the urbane professor stokes

anywho...thoughts on these episodes?

[Gothick]

I agree with everything you write here.  I thought this was an excellently played and written story.  I am still missing some of the episodes from this period.  The one I especially want to see is the one where [spoiler]Mrs Johnson learns that Matthew was responsible for Bill's death.  I'm sure Clarice Blackburn's performance was wonderful in this sequence.[/spoiler]

There were a couple of ingenue-kidnapping storylines in later DS.  Probably the most disturbing of the later ones was [spoiler]Maggie Collins' kidnapping by John Yeagar during PT1970.  The way that was portrayed bordered on shocking for 1970 TV, particularly the scene where Yeagar was fondling Maggie's things and licking her pearls, etc.  I had to wonder whether Pennock improvised some of that.  He was really disturbing in that role.[/spoiler]

Gothick

[PennyDreadful]

 The Matthew Morgan/Vicki storyline was very nicely done.  Matthew Morgan was certainly disturbed and Thayer David brought this across beautifully.  I like his performance as much as I liked Mitchell's, but Thayer definitely brought the obsessive, mentally disturbed edge to the character.

  Gothick, I completely agree about Pennock's disturbing (but very good) performance as Yaeger.  He was completely evil to the core.  In playing the role this way, he really captured the essence of "Hyde" - a being completely driven by vice, hatred and perverse desires.
 

[Mark Rainey]

As much as I admire Thayer David (he's probably my favorite actor on the show) -- and despite the fact I can't fault his performance as Matthew Morgan -- I really wish George Mitchell had continued with the role to its conclusion. He offered a unique persona, a more believable backwater-Maine character than just about anyone else on the show. Mitchell could belt out some of his terse lines with an intensity that I actually find unnerving. Had I been in Vicky's place, I imagine Mitchell would have struck me as more menacing than David; colder, more unreasonable, less inclined to show mercy. With Thayer David, you know you're watching one of his virtuoso performances, and there's a certain "security" in the knowledge that he's acting. With Mitchell, you see Matthew Morgan heart and soul, and thus there's an air of unpredictablity about him.

[michael c]

for some reason i'm missing the volume that immediately precedes these episodes...so i can't recall how mrs. johnson reacted when she found out who was responsible for bill malloy's death.

she did have a few priceless scenes here with david however.after she brazenly smokes cigarettes at the breakfast table with david he steals the pack to bring to matthew.later when she accuses him of stealing them he cheekily asks her if she should be smoking while she's working...and then as a final zinger "master" david collins puts her in her place by saying that if he wanted cigaretttes he would just buy them.

another neat scene here was when a confused matthew thinks that victoria is mrs.stoddard and briefly treats her accordingly.