Don Juan

Since my "Hunk" post proved to be a Don Briscoe FEST, I thought it might be interesting to determine which of his characters rates as favorite among the posters.

Chris Jennings

Tom Jennings

Tim Shaw

Chris Collins

That's a hard one to decide on but if my memory serves me I'd have to say it's a toss up between...........

Tom Jennings

And

Chris Jennings

Maybe it's just me, but I recall Briscoe as being not quite that good when he entered as Tom Jennings. He has always been my nominee for most improved, in a very short time he was putting in excellent performances. I would have have to say that it would be Chris Jennings with Tim Shaw being a close second.

My vote goes to Chris Jennings.

Definitely gotta be Tom Jennings for me.  Loved the look in his eyes when he looked at Julia!

Bette

Oh boy, thats a hard one. .He wasn't great being introd as TOm. . .when he appears fangs and all in Barnabas's basement to take Julia that first time, that's absolutely hysterical!  But their scenes in the woods and mausoleum. . that was pretty steamy stuff.  BUT. . yes BUT. . I think one of the most poignant scenes on DS is when Chris goes to Wyndcliffe to visit Amy. . that was great work between the 2 of them. . .And I always luved how Amy went to her big Bros place in the wee hours of the morning to find Julia already there in her robe, answering the door. . .<<wicked cackle>>

Tom for actual ACTION seen
Chris for poignancy. . .

A split vote from Julia. . .who basically luv's her Donnie B.

Vam, I would say Chris Jennings. I really don't remember him much as Tom, except for those "romantic" episodes with Julia.   Chris had more of a storyline and the werewolf thing was pretty exiting.

Its a hard decision but I liked Tom slightly more than Chris. As others have said the scenes with Julia are great,


                              SPOILER...









(loved when Julia meets him at his coffin and he crosses his eyes right before the big bite). Also the fighting scene with Barnabas was good.

Tom was also a very menacing looking vampire which was in direct contrast to his character prior to being a vampire, he seem to be typical Collinsport town folk, generally a hard worker and a good guy. Not many handyman construction workers work past dark and still have a pleasant friendly attitude, (ie the scene in the basement with Nicholas when the coffin is discovered). Carolyn also  describes Tom as being, "very nice".

My favorite scene with Tom is when Barnabas destroys Tom with the crossed candlesticks. If you watch closely right after Barnabas crosses the candlesticks, Tom appears to slip him the middle digit. Great sentiment from the vampire with an attitude.

B

I wish they had had a split screen and Tom and Chris were on together!!  
i  liked Chris Jennings the best though because he had the most scenes and it was a better role than the others

jennifer

My favorite scene with Tom is when Barnabas destroys Tom with the crossed candlesticks. If you watch closely right after Barnabas crosses the candlesticks, Tom appears to slip him the middle digit. Great sentiment from the vampire with an attitude.

B

Between Ben's "dirty word" and Tom's "middle digit" DS could end up in the X-rated column!

My vote is for Chris.  I enjoyed the werewolf story and how it tied in to the Quentin storyline.

[shadow=red,left,300]TEXT[/shadow]Dark Shadows, the show that got away with almost everything. (ie Louis Edmonds in his boxer shorts with a brandy glass in hand, does anyone remember Louie telling that story?!?!).

B

I liked Briscoe as Chris Jennings best; his role as the tortured werewolf was great, and the scene in which he confessed his "problem" to Barnabas very touching.  Who else to better understand?


SPOILER!!!!




However, I thought Tim Shaw was pretty cool, too, grabbing Petofi's hand and dashing off with it to gain his fortune, bringing home the diamond loving Amanda Harris. Tim started out a schoolteacher under Trask's control and ended up his own man.  He even got the pleasure of walling up Gregory Trask at Judith's behest, remember?  Tim rose above his station and I found that character very interesting.

Love, Robin    

Here there be SPOILERS...

My favorite scene with Tom is when Barnabas destroys Tom with the crossed candlesticks. If you watch closely right after Barnabas crosses the candlesticks, Tom appears to slip him the middle digit. Great sentiment from the vampire with an attitude.

LOL, B!  I had to pull out my tape to catch that, and there it was.  It seemed to have happened while contorting his fingers in reaction to his rather delicate dilemma (cross vs. sunlight, ay yi yi) but hey, you never know!

Did you know that this scene was ripped, er, borrowed from Horror of Dracula?  In the climax scene in HOD, a nimble Peter Cushing as Van Helsing leaps onto a table to rip open the curtains, then jumps onto a table again to cross 2 candlesticks [see photo] and thus drive Dracula into the light where he crumbles to dust.


The way it plays in DS is that Barnabas is gazing out a window at the approaching dawn when Tom grabs him from behind, they struggle, and then Barnabas grabs 2 candlesticks and crosses them to force Tom backwards where he must remain until the sunlight has him screaming in agony before he fades away.

Since it's well-known that Cushing devised that scene in Horror of Dracula, I guess that means that DS actually copied HIS idea.  But there are other DS scenes lifted directly from HOD as well.

jennifer's

I wish they had had a split screen and Tom and Chris were on together!!  

Great idea-- like All My Children does with Adam/Stuart Chandler! Especially when you consider the limitations in pulling that off back then, I think the scene that cuts back and forth between Chris talking to Nicholas about his brother's disappearance and Tom at the window is one of the creepiest on the show.

To answer the question, my favorite Briscoe character would have to be Chris.  He played the guilt and confusion over his affliction to perfection and very differently from David Selby's approach, the latter knowing full well why and how it happened.  And besides, I'm a sucker for a good werewolf story.

But I can certainly understand why some would choose Tom because the scenes with Tom as predator and Julia as prey are quite amazing.  And he plays it kinda kinky, which is fun too.  Perhaps if he'd been allowed to sink his fangs into Betsy Durkin, I might've chosen him as my fave, heheh.


OT -- Darren, if you read this, do you know why Horror of Dracula isn't available on DVD though DVD versions of the later Hammer/Dracula movies are relatively easy to find?

Chris Jennings wins hands down in my book.  Tom's scenes with Julia are a real treat--it's marvelous to see something so theatrical and Gothic on a live-on-tape TV show.  And you can tell that Grayson and Don had good chemistry together.  

But with Chris, Don really got to inhabit the skin of somebody more three dimensional, and I think he improved a lot as an actor working on Chris.  He goes from being somewhat stiff and posture-y to being much more fluid and in-the-moment over the months in which he played Chris.

He did excellent work as Tim Shaw, too, a character much less likeable than Chris (though he had just cause for being cynical and embittered).

Chris Collins only had a few scenes, but Don did a beautiful job with the role.  His scenes with Chris Pennock's Dr. Cyrus Longworth are particularly well-layered and subtle.

Great topic, VAM!

Steve